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When to use Virtual Hold Technology in Call Centre Operations

When to use Virtual Hold Technology in Call Centre Operations. Dave Worthington, Chris Kirkbride Department of Management Science, Lancaster University, UK. d.worthington@lancaster.ac.uk c.kirkbride@lancaster.ac.uk (T hanks to Zubin Sethuraman, MSc student, Lancaster University). Outline.

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When to use Virtual Hold Technology in Call Centre Operations

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  1. When to use Virtual Hold Technology in Call Centre Operations Dave Worthington, Chris Kirkbride Department of Management Science, Lancaster University, UK. d.worthington@lancaster.ac.uk c.kirkbride@lancaster.ac.uk (Thanks to Zubin Sethuraman, MSc student, Lancaster University).

  2. Outline • Energy provider call centre context • Previous work on balking queues • Do our models fit? • Model predictions • Implications for call centre management.

  3. US Energy Provider:Daily call volumes to call centre (Winter)

  4. Hourly: call volumes & ASAs (mins)

  5. Hourly: ASAs (mins) & abandonment %s

  6. The problem posed • Virtual hold technology (VHT) gives callers opportunity to be called back without losing their place in the queue (accept /stay in queue/ balk) • When should they use VHT? • Should they use it differently for different queues?

  7. Reminder

  8. Time-dependent queues with balking Balking can be used to represent balking and reneging We investigate M(ln(t))/G/S and assume geometric balking, i.e.

  9. Results: Easy-to-use approximation Queue length behaviour of M(ln(t))/G/S can be approximated (well) by a Normal distribution with:

  10. Self Validation Property Approximation works well when Prob (n<S) is small, which we can check using standard Normal tables, e.g. Prob(n<S) < 0.05 if mean is >=1.645 SDs above S, i.e.:

  11. Results: Easy-to-use approximation Anticipated Queueing Time (AQT): • Abandonment behaviour:

  12. ‘Sub-optimal’ behaviour is frequent Impatience is a virtue!

  13. CARE: non-balking % V queue length/server 100% b*(off) =0.8205 b*(on) = 0.8578 Non-balking % 50% Queue length/server 6.0 0.0

  14. ACQU’: non-balking % V queue length/server 100% b*(off) =0.6773 b*(on) = 0.7361 Non-balking % 50% 0.0 Queue length/server 2.5

  15. PAYG: non-balking % V queue length/server 100% b*(off) =0.7807 b*(on) = 0.8091 Non-balking % 20% 0.0 Queue length/server 6.0

  16. Performance prediction tool: … based on: ASA

  17. ASA analysis: CARE calls

  18. ASA analysis: CARE calls

  19. ASA analysis: CARE calls

  20. ASA analysis: PAYG calls

  21. ASA analysis: ACQUISITION calls

  22. ASA analysis: What if …….. 1?

  23. ASA analysis: What if …….. 2?

  24. ASA analysis: What if …….. 3?

  25. Management implications • VHT is not necessary for Acquisition calls • For other call types VHT reduces abandonments and therefore increases ASAs! • So do current results suggest that VHT is a bad idea? • Depends how many customers accept VHT • Maybe depends on call centre agent allocation software • And …………………?

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