Call Center Workforce

The first decade has seen steady growth in market demand for analytics solutions
of all descriptions as evidenced by the results of the annual survey of contact center end-users conducted by Saddletree Research in conjunction with the National Association of Call Centers (NACC). An offshoot of the Call Center Lab at The University of Southern Mississippi, the not-for-profit NACC conducts surveys of its members and newsletter subscribers in order to keep a finger on the pulse of the industry...

My colleague, Brent Holland, continues our series on "Generational Hiring for the Optimal Customer Experience".  The second installment considers two important questions:  (1) how to define generational groups and (2) whether contact centers rely on generational groups to guide recruitment.

How does FurstPerson define generational groups for this research?

When we began studying the impact of generational classifications, one of the first things we noticed was that many people disagree on who is a...

Back offices are a critical element of delivering great customer service, but it’s often difficult to gauge the productivity and effectiveness of back office operations.  Customers may not see very far beyond their contact center interactions, but the quality of their experiences is indirectly influenced by the effectiveness of back office employees’ performance.  By attending this webinar you’ll learn how automated workforce optimization solutions can increase the productivity of...

Ovum has outlined five secrets to success that enterprises should follow when implementing e-learning and coaching solutions.

Use data and applications that already exist within the contact center

Enterprises should use the information they already collect on agents’ skills and knowledge to determine the best time to schedule course and tailor the information. There are a number of applications that can be integrated with e-learning andcoaching including PM, WFM, Quality Management (QM) and...

The operational planning process evolved to solve the core inbound contact center business question: given the seasonality of call volumes, the seasonality of agent attrition, the seasonality of agent sick time, vacation requests, and other shrinkage items, the seasonality of handle times, given that all of these items are different by center location and type of staff required, and given learning curves, training times, and other important and complicating characteristics, how does...

Back-office operating areas that process orders, applications, claims, white mail, payments, etc., have historically been left to develop their own staff planning approach. Senior management perception was that little could be done to improve the performance of these people-intensive, but non-strategic operating areas. So, these departments have received limited attention and investment dollars, or have been outsourced.

Call centers used to confront similar challenges before new tools and...

Second in a two-part series

Yesterday we looked at the Payment Card Security Council and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard which were established to protect the credit card user. Today we look  specifically at the standard and the requirements it places on contact centers.

DMG Consulting LLC is a leading provider of market research and consulting services for contact centers. The 2009 – 2010 Quality Management/Liability Recording Product and Market Report is the definitive guide to...

Global organizations often have little to no visibility into the non-phone based activities and processes that take place in their contact centers and broader customer service operations. And often times, it shows. The lack of visibility leads to such questions as:

•How can you know whether your agents and personnel are following the right processes?
•How effective and efficient is workflow across your customer service operation?
•Do employees’ maximize the vast number of applications...

Customers communicate with agents through a variety of communication channels, and many centers have been transformed into multichannel contact centers. Customers have the choice of contacting companies by telephone, email, snail mail, and increasingly, using web-chat. From the company’s perspective, the move to new communication channels has benefits in terms of both differentiated customer service and cost reduction.

Research has shown that, on average, the cost of handling calls is five times...

Agent Call Center Performance Optimization tools are a set of applications that seek to increase agent effectiveness, reduce workforce costs and improve service levels. These tools allow contact center managers to plan schedules, forecast agent requirements, measure agent performance, analyze results and improve outcomes.

Call Recording/Logging and Quality Monitoring (QM) software allows users to record, retrieve, analyze and improve agent/customer interactions.  These recordings are...

Twenty years ago, the contact center industry was greatly improved through the application of a mathematical modeling tool now commonly known as  contact center workforce management. We found that computers and mathematics could do a better job of determining agent schedules than we could do by hand or using a spreadsheet. It had long been thought that this modeling technology has run its course and that we have captured all of those contact center workforce management benefits. But we’re not...