CALL CENTRE MANAGEMENT BASICS The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers

1. CALL CENTRE MANAGEMENT BASICS The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers

2. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR MOBILE PHONE NOW Introduction • 6-hour course • - 3 hrs – 2 sessions

3. Key Topics: • Call Center Management • The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers • How incoming call centers behave • Service Level • Service Level and Quality • Forecasting • Scheduling • Immutable Laws of Call Center Management • Real time Management Course Outline

4. What is Call Center Management? • Is defined as the art of having the right number of skilled people and supporting resources in place at the right times to handle an accurately forecasted workload, at service level and with quality. Call Center management

5. QUIZ

6. What makes call centers unique ? • Externally Generated Work • Random Call Arrival • Invisible World • Service Benchmarking • Main Customer Touchpoint Call Center management

7. Random Call Arrival Call Arrival Exercise What makes call centers unique?

8. The Effect of Random Call Arrival: Calls Queue! GRAPH What makes call centers unique?

9. Random Call Arrival • Occupancy VS Agent Productivity • Occupancy = time on calls • ---------------------------------- x 100 • time on calls + time on avail • Agent Productivity = time on calls + time on avail • ------------------------------------- x 100 • staffed time • or staffed time – AUXes • ----------------------------- x 100 • staffed time What makes call centers unique?

10. What makes call centers unique ? • Externally Generated Work • Random Call Arrival • Invisible World Call Center management

11. Visible Queue - Bank, Ticket Office, etc. Invisible Queue - Majority of Call Centers (not all) Invisible World What makes call centers unique? • Some call centers have the technology to make • the invisible queue visible to the caller

12. Invisible World: 7 Factors of Caller Tolerance • Degree of Motivation • Availability of Substitutes • Competition’s Service Level • Level of Expectations • Time Available • Who’s Paying for the Call • Human Behavior What makes call centers unique?

13. What makes call centers unique ? • Externally Generated Work • Random Call Arrival • Invisible World • Service Benchmarking • Main Customer Touchpoint Call Center management

14. 1. Choose a Service Level Objective 9. Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service 2. Collect Data 3. Forecast Call Load The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers 7. Organize Schedules (Schedule Inflex) 4. Calculate Base Staff 5. Calculate Trunk and related system resources 6. Calculate for Shrinkage The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers 8. Calculate Costs

15. SERVICE LEVEL – THE CORE VALUE • What is Service Level ? • What is the difference between SL and Response Time SERVICE LEVEL

16. SERVICE LEVEL – 2 Formulas • 1. SL = NCH in X secs + NCA in X secs • ------------------------------------ X 100 • NCO • 2. SL = NCH in X secs • ----------------- X 100 • NCO SERVICE LEVEL

17. Considerations for the Optimum SL: • The Impact on Abandonment (Caller Tolerance) • The Impact on Agent Burnout • The Impact on Costs • The Value of the Call • 5. The Desire to Differentiate SERVICELEVEL

18. Service Level And Quality • Quality is the consistent delivery of service that meets or exceeds customer’s expectations. • Does Quality and the achievement of Service Level contradict one another? Do we really sacrifice quality for AHT? SERVICE LEVEL and QUALITY

19. When Quality is Lacking: • Escalation of calls and complaints to higher management • Repeated calls from customers • Callbacks to customers for missing or unclear information • Unnecessary service calls • Diversion of agents to activities that should be unnecessary • Agents taking the blame for errors made by others SERVICE LEVEL and QUALITY

20. 1. Choose a Service Level Objective 9. Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service 2. Collect Data 3. Forecast Call Load The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers 7. Organize Schedules (Schedule Inflex) 4. Calculate Base Staff 5. Calculate Trunk and related system resources 6. Calculate for Shrinkage The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers 8. Calculate Costs

21. Forecasting Data Gathering Sources • Historical ACD data (including call volume, handle times, arrival patterns) • Business Drivers • - Internal: • * Marketing activities • * Mergers and Acquisitions • * Network capacity/deployment • * Product launch/ product defects • - External: • * Weather disasters/ flooding/fire • * Market fluctuations • * World and local news events • * Industry rumors FORECASTING

22. Data Gathering: CALL WORK LOAD FORECASTING • Definition of Call Work Load • = Call volume x AHT • VS • Call volume only

23. Call Volume v’s Call Work Load CALL LOAD AHT = 200 seconds Call Volume v’s Call Load AHT = 300 seconds Would you need more staff working on Monday or Tuesday based on the example above?

24. ACD Data: Check for volume, AHT, patterns • Volume: Trunk capacity Data Aberrations • Handle Time: Time of day Day of week Events • Arrival Patterns: Holiday factors Events Monday effect FORECASTING FORECASTING

25. Interval Call Arrival Patterns

26. Day of Week Factors

27. Average Handle Time (AHT): AHT in seconds Time of Day

28. Monthly Volumes

29. To determine operations days, count the days the call center will be open Example – January S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 To calculate the day of the week index factor, divide day of week proportion by average day of week proportion. Avg. Index Example: Prop Prop Factor Monday 0.210 / 0.143 1.469 Tuesday 0.170 / 0.143 1.189 Wednesday 0.165 / 0.143 1.154 Thursday 0.165 / 0.143 1.154 Friday 0.150 / 0.143 1.049 Saturday 0.095 / 0.143 0.664 Sunday 0.045 / 0.143 0.315 How to Break Down a Forecast: 720,000 Current year’s calls (1) X 1.12 To add 12% (2) 806,400 Estimated calls in forecast year (3) X 0.071 January proportion (4) 57,254 January calls (5) / 31 Operations days in January 1,847 Average calls per day (6) X 1.469 Monday Index Factor (7) 2,713 Mondays calls (8) X 0.055 10:00 to 10:30 proportion (9) 149 Forecasted calls 10:00 to 10:30 FORECASTING

30. Forecasting Meetings • Assemble the right players • Assign responsibilities • Establish recurring meetings • Assess progress • Adjust the process FORECASTING

31. 1. Choose a Service Level Objective 9. Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service 2. Collect Data 3. Forecast Call Load The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers 7. Organize Schedules (Schedule Inflex) 4. Calculate Base Staff 5. Calculate Trunk and related system resources 6. Calculate for Shrinkage The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers 8. Calculate Costs

32. Calculate Base Staff • Base Staff – the number of agents required to • be on the phones for a given period to handle a particular • call load. Staff Required • How is it done? Erlang C

33. Erlang C Module Erlang C ERLANG C FOR INCOMING CALL CENTERS BY ICMI, INC. TALK TIME IN SECONDS = 180 AFTER CALL WORK IN SECONDS = 30 CALLS PER HALF HOUR = 250 SERVICE LEVEL OBJECTIVE IN SECONDS = 20

34. Delay Module Erlang C ERLANG C FOR INCOMING CALL CENTERS BY ICMI, INC. TALK TIME IN SECONDS = 180 AFTER CALL WORK IN SECONDS = 30 CALLS PER HALF HOUR = 250 SERVICE LEVEL OBJECTIVE IN SECONDS = 20

35. 1. Choose a Service Level Objective 9. Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service 2. Collect Data 3. Forecast Call Load The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers 7. Organize Schedules (Schedule Inflex) 4. Calculate Base Staff 5. Calculate Trunk and related system resources 6. Calculate for Shrinkage 1. Choose a Service Level Objective 9. Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service 2. Calculate Base Staff The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers 8. Calculate Costs 8. Calculate Costs 3. Forecast Call Load 4. Calculate Base Staff 5. Calculate Trunk (and Related System Resources)

36. Calculating Shrinkage Shrinkage Assumptions: 52 weeks a year; 260 days; 2080 hours; 124,800 minutes. Based on 8-hour days.

37. Calculating Schedule Requirement Shrinkage • Schedule Requirement = Base staff Requirement • ----------------------------- • 1 – Shrinkage Factor

38. Organize Schedules • Schedules are fundamentally inefficient. • The more flexible your workforce is, • the more efficient your schedule can be. • Factors in managing schedules. • Shrinkage • Coverage • Length of shifts • Days off • Break Definitions • Start and stop times • Other work rules Schedule Inflex

39. Match Shifts with the Demand Curve – Balancing Sufficiency and Efficiency Schedule Inflex

40. Envelope Strategy Schedule Inflex Outbound; Quality Improvement; E-mail; Special projects

41. Immutable Laws of Call Center Mgt • When Service Level goes up, • Occupancy goes down (at a given call load) • 2. With more staff, ASA goes down • With more staff, trunkload goes down • Law of diminishing returns • Powerful Pooling Principle • Larger answering groups have higher occupancy • at a given Service Level Immutable Laws

42. Labor v’s Trunk Costs ERLANG C FOR INCOMING CALL CENTERS BY ICMI, INC. TALK TIME IN SECONDS = 180 AFTER CALL WORK IN SECONDS = 30 CALLS PER HALF HOUR = 250 SERVICE LEVEL OBJECTIVE IN SECONDS = 20 A: Cost per hour for OP: $15.00 B: Cost per hour “800” service $ 6.00

43. The Dynamics of Size Immutable Laws

44. The Dynamics of Size Immutable Laws

45. Real Time Management Real Time • is about ensuring that all agents are doing “what they • are supposed to be doing” in order to: • - give us the best chance to meet the service level • objectives (Power of One principle) • - maintain phone occupancy at acceptable levels to • prevent agent burn-out • - lost hours on a $ perspective

46. - QUIZ -