Call Center Scheduling Feature Article
February 12, 2014
Why Adherence Matters in Call Center Scheduling
By Susan J. Campbell, TMCnet Contributing Editor
How would your day look if everything you planned to do couldn’t get done? If you had one interruption after another and every time you sat down to make just one thing off your list, your computer shut down or you had to run to put out a fire? If a day like this happens every day, your business is likely to go under. This is why contact center managers need call center scheduling.
Putting together a schedule helps to keep all call center agents on track, focused on what they need to accomplish each and every day. Simply putting it in front of them isn’t enough, however. They still need to understand how important it is to adhere to the schedule and what happens when they fail to do so. As a result, when agent adherence becomes a priority within call center scheduling, the desired outcomes are realized.
Monet Software has a wealth of experience in this space and guides contact center managers in the process of educating agents on the importance of schedule adherence and the impact when it falls short. Within the company’s call center scheduling platform, adherence screens display when agents are available to take calls and when they are away from their stations for lunches or other breaks according to predetermined schedules.
The information captured here allows managers to compare planned activity against real activity to measure how well agents are adhering to the schedule. If adherence is a problem, there are things management can do to get everyone back on track. Monet Software offers insight into how you can better track the impact of non-adherence, including quantifying the cost and service implications when staff is missing. Agents also need to know about your adherence performance goals and why they matter.
Image via Shutterstock.
Regardless of the size of the call center staff, schedule adherence matters. Anywhere time is lost in the process of serving clients and meeting performance expectations, the cost of operation increases. At the same time, the number of customers you’re able to reach effectively decreases. Whether this equates to just a few calls and a few customers or thousands on both sides, the losses can significant impact performance and the bottom line.
Also watch where one-time instances turn into long-term problems. For instance, the agent who comes in late once a week is affecting the performance of the call center for that entire week. If it isn’t addressed, it’s likely the agent may start to come in late two days a week, three days a week and so on. This time spent away from the phones starts to add up and impacts the performance of the center as a whole. If the behavior spills over onto other agents, the outcome could be significant.
At the end of the day, call center scheduling is about more than just keeping the right number of agents scheduled for the right time of day. It’s also about keeping agents on task when they’re on the clock so that your core initiatives can be achieved.
Edited by Stefania Viscusi
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