5/3/2013

1

� Entire adult career in contact centers

� Past 19 years in WFM positions

� Owner & Workforce Manager at Human Numbers

� Contact Center Pipeline Board Member

� International Institute of Forecasters

� Charter Member with SWPP

� ICMI Certified Associate

5/3/2013

2

� Evolution of the Modern Contact Center

� Workforce Management Principles

� Overlay Social Media Characteristics

� Identify How to Integrate

� Share your experiences

Tweet it! #ACCE13 My Twitter: #extiffany

Evolution of Contact Avenues

Traditional Methods:• The telephone• The postal system• In Person Walk-ups• Fed-ex, UPS, DHL,

owls, other carriers

Advanced Methods:• Fax machine• eMail• Chat• IM• Text• Internet• Social Media• Co-browsing• Smartphones

5/3/2013

3

800 + Million

500 Billion Peer Impressions per year

5/3/2013

4

Forecasting Required Staff History of volume, AHT, shrinkage and trends Service goals Known/ planned changes

Scheduling Create shift templates Gather employee preferences Apply business rules

Intra-Day TrackingReporting

Workforce Management Processes

Tweet it! #ACCE13

Voice and chat Non-deferred Immediate interaction Staffing based on SL/AHT

Email Deferrable Response can be planned Staffing usually based on non-peak hours

Social Media Deferability based on media type Response timing based on media type Staff to immediate, buffer for the rest

Forecasting-Design Considerations

e-Mail 85%Outbound 69%

Postal Mail 62%Fax 61%

Web Chat 37%Facebook 23%

Twitter 15%Other 5%None 1%

Source: SWPP Survey Results

Non-Phone Channels Used

5/3/2013

5

New channels introduce new complexity

Multi-delivery methods

To agent from customer

To agent from WFM

Diverse locations

Multi-skills to learn

Simul-skilled agents

Scheduling-Design Considerations

Multiple channels = multiple entry points

Customers may try to call you and web chat you at the very same time

One of these contacts could be abandoned when the other one gets answered

This influx of volume isn’t a spike, it’s your new way of life.

Contact Rates Go �

5/3/2013

6

Multiple channels = simul-skilled agents

An agent may be able to handle two web chats at the same time.

The higher the volume, the greater the efficiency

Free add-in to help you calculate these metrics at Erlang.co.uk

There’s also an app for that

Agent Utilization May Go �

Erlang works best for regular-sized centers but… Classic Erlang Fail: 4 calls, 23 minute AHT, 80% SL in 30

seconds. Erlang will require 5.3 people…that’s more people than calls!

“Unstable Queue” (Doug Casterton): 1035 calls, 125 second AHT, 93% SL in 60 seconds. But when talk time goes up 10 seconds, SL drops to zero!

For everything else, I want formulas that make more sense Outbound workload = Calls Handle Time Multi-tasked contacts (chat, IM, text) translates into higher

efficiency rates Any work that is measured by hours and days is calculated

using Response Time

Calculating Required Staff

5/3/2013

7

Measured by Service Level/ASA

Measured by Response Time

Social Media

Fax

eMail

Mail

Text

Web Chat

Walk-ups & Escalations

Phone

< 2 hours > 2 hours

You Have to be Ready to Respond

• First Time Events• Repeat Events• Edited Events• Follow up Events

• Time to Create• Time to Repost• Time to Edit• Frequency of Response

• Number of Media per Agent• Occupancy• Brain Space - Intensity• Predictable Peaks

Workload = (Events x Time per Event) / Many to One Expectation

5/3/2013

8

Step 1 Volume / (*Response time / AHT) = Bodies

Step 2 Bodies / Simul-Skill Factor= Required Agents

Step 3 Required Agents / (1 - shrinkage %) = Fully Loaded Total Staff

*Special rule for Response Time: use FTE hours/day, not 24 hours/day. Example, if response time is three days, turn that in to eight hours a day times three (8x3=24).**Simul-skill factor only applies when the opportunity exists

Response Time Metric

Traditional

Established History Usually 24 months Calls/AHT/AUX usage

ACD Reports Robust Direct feed to WFM system Export for historic tracking

and cleaning SL Threshold < 2 hours

Social Media

New History/Non-existent? Usually < one year Growing exponentially Limits on data elements

Handle Time Interactions/ productive hour SL Threshold > 2 hours

Historical Reporting CRM/SCRM 3rd Party tools (Radian6, Cymphony) Free/Freemium tools (Hootsuite,

Tweetdeck, Google Alerts) Manual input – Time Trials

Tweet it! #ACCE13

5/3/2013

9

Expect to spend about four weeks

Start by collecting supplies:1. A calculator2. A stopwatch3. A clipboard4. Something for notes

Time-trial Study

Expect to spend the first week getting prepared

• List the activities you want to measure• Identify when they get worked• Identify who does the work

• Tell the person in advance that you’re going to be observing them

• Formally schedule the timing sessions and include plenty of breaks

Time-trial Study – Week 1

5/3/2013

10

Ready for data collection!1. Discuss your objective with your test subject2. Sit with more than one agent3. Collect a lot of samples; 10x AHT4. Include time logging in to different systems5. Exclude interruptions6. Keep discreet notes7. Review notes every day8. Engage agents to help by keeping tick sheets

Time-trial Study – Weeks 2-3

Now you can analyze the results!� Use the buddy system to calculate data� For complex work types that have no real averages,

count the number of units processed in an hour� Take the results and compare them to what you

were originally using in a “Before and After” view� Share the results with interested parties� Capture the oddball or suspicious notes in a

separate write-up summary; otherwise the excitement of the weird may overshadow the time trial study itself.

Time-trial Study – Wrap-up

Tweet it! #ACCE13

5/3/2013

11

So if you want a sense of where the world’s media habits are headed, it makes sense to watch what kids are doing.

Kaiser Family Foundation –Jan 2010

More than ½ of the world’s population is under 30 … which means they don’t know life before the internet.

Socialnomics

Sharing Experiences and Q&A

5/3/2013

12