CALL CENTRE MANAGEMENT BASICSThe Planning and Management Process of Call

Centers

Intr

od

ucti

on

• 6-hour course - 3 hrs – 2 sessions

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Cou

rse O

utl

ine

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

Call C

en

ter

man

ag

em

en

tWhat 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.

QUIZ

Call C

en

ter

man

ag

em

en

tWhat makes call centers unique ?

• Externally Generated Work

• Random Call Arrival

• Invisible World

• Service Benchmarking

• Main Customer Touchpoint

Call Arrival Exercise

Random Call ArrivalW

hat

makes c

all c

en

ters

un

iqu

e?

GRAPH

Call Arrival Pattern

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7

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

Minutes

Calls

Call Pattern ACall Pattern B

The Effect of Random Call Arrival: Calls Queue!

Wh

at

makes c

all c

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un

iqu

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Random Call ArrivalW

hat

makes c

all c

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un

iqu

e?

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

Call C

en

ter

man

ag

em

en

tWhat makes call centers unique ?

• Externally Generated Work

• Random Call Arrival

• Invisible World

Visible Queue

- Bank, Ticket Office, etc.

Invisible Queue

- Majority of Call Centers (not all)

- Some call centers have the technology to makethe invisible queue visible to the caller

Wh

at

makes c

all c

en

ters

un

iqu

e?

Invisible World

1. Degree of Motivation

2. Availability of Substitutes

3. Competition’s Service Level

4. Level of Expectations

5. Time Available

6. Who’s Paying for the Call

7. Human Behavior

Invisible World: 7 Factors of Caller ToleranceW

hat

makes c

all c

en

ters

un

iqu

e?

Call C

en

ter

man

ag

em

en

tWhat makes call centers unique ?

• Externally Generated Work

• Random Call Arrival

• Invisible World

• Service Benchmarking

• Main Customer Touchpoint

8.Calculate

Costs

1. Choose a

Service Level Objective

The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers

4.Calculate Base Staff

9.Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service

2.Collect Data

5.Calculate Trunk and

related system

resources

7.Organize Schedules (Schedule

Inflex)

3. Forecast Call

Load

6.Calculate for

Shrinkage

Th

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SERVICE LEVEL – THE CORE VALUE

• What is Service Level ?

• What is the difference between SL and Response Time

SER

VIC

E LEV

EL

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

SER

VIC

E LEV

EL

Considerations for the Optimum SL:

1. The Impact on Abandonment (Caller Tolerance)

2. The Impact on Agent Burnout

3. The Impact on Costs

4. The Value of the Call

5. The Desire to DifferentiateSER

VIC

E LEV

EL

SER

VIC

E LEV

EL a

nd

QU

ALIT

Y 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?

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

SER

VIC

E LEV

EL a

nd

QU

ALIT

Y

Th

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nd

Man

ag

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rocess o

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all

Cen

ters

1. Choose a

Service Level Objective

The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers

4.Calculate Base Staff

9.Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service

2.Collect Data

5.Calculate Trunk and

related system

resources

7.Organize Schedules (Schedule

Inflex)

3. Forecast Call

Load

6.Calculate for

Shrinkage

8.Calculate

Costs

FO

REC

AS

TIN

GForecasting

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

FO

REC

AS

TIN

G Data Gathering: CALL WORK LOAD

• Definition of Call Work Load

= Call volume x AHT

VS

Call volume only

Call Volume

0100200300400500600700800900

1000

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Call Volume

Call Volume v’s Call Work LoadC

all V

olu

me v

’s C

all L

oad

Would you need more staff working on Monday or Tuesday based on the example above?

AHT = 200

seconds

AHT = 300

seconds

CALL LOAD

FO

REC

AS

TIN

GFO

REC

AS

TIN

G 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

Interval Call Arrival Patterns

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Calls

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Interval Call Arrival Patterns

Day of Week Factors

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MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT

Day of Week

Cal

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Day of Week Factors

Average Handle Time (AHT):A

HT in

secon

ds

05

1015202530354045505560657075

MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN

Time of Day

Monthly Call Volumes

8090

100110120130140150160170180

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecMonth

Cal

ls in

Th

ou

san

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Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Monthly Volumes

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

How to Break Down a Forecast:

To calculate the day of the week index factor, divide day of week proportion by average day of week proportion.

Avg. IndexExample: Prop Prop FactorMonday 0.210 / 0.143 1.469Tuesday 0.170 / 0.143 1.189Wednesday 0.165 / 0.143 1.154Thursday 0.165 / 0.143 1.154Friday 0.150 / 0.143 1.049Saturday 0.095 / 0.143 0.664Sunday 0.045 / 0.143 0.315

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 1415 16 17 18 19 20 2122 23 24 25 26 27 2829 30 31

FO

REC

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G

Forecasting MeetingsFO

REC

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G

• Assemble the right players

• Assign responsibilities

• Establish recurring meetings

• Assess progress

• Adjust the process

Th

e P

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nd

Man

ag

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en

t P

rocess o

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all

Cen

ters

1. Choose a

Service Level Objective

The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers

4.Calculate Base Staff

9.Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service

2.Collect Data

5.Calculate Trunk and

related system

resources

7.Organize Schedules (Schedule

Inflex)

3. Forecast Call

Load

6.Calculate for

Shrinkage

8.Calculate

Costs

Calculate Base Staff S

taff

Req

uir

ed

How is it done? Erlang C

• Base Staff – the number of agents required to be on the phones for a given period to handle a particularcall load.

Erl

an

g C Erlang C Module

ERLANG C FOR INCOMING CALL CENTERS BY ICMI, INC.

TALK TIME IN SECONDS = 180AFTER CALL WORK IN SECONDS = 30CALLS PER HALF HOUR = 250SERVICE LEVEL OBJECTIVE IN SECONDS = 20

OPERATOROPERATORSS ASAASA SL%SL% OCC%OCC% TKLDTKLD

3030 208.7208.7 23.5%23.5% 97%97% 54.054.0

3131 74.774.7 45.2%45.2% 94%94% 35.435.4

3232 37.637.6 61.3%61.3% 91%91% 30.230.2

3333 21.321.3 73.0%73.0% 88%88% 28.028.0

3434 12.712.7 81.5%81.5% 86%86% 26.826.8

3535 7.87.8 87.5%87.5% 83%83% 26.126.1

3636 4.94.9 91.7%91.7% 81%81% 25.725.7

3737 3.13.1 94.6%94.6% 79%79% 25.425.4

3838 1.91.9 96.5%96.5% 77%77% 25.325.3

3939 1.21.2 97.8%97.8% 75%75% 25.225.2

4040 0.70.7 98.6%98.6% 73%73% 25.125.1

4141 0.50.5 99.2%99.2% 71%71% 25.125.1

Erl

an

g C

ERLANG C FOR INCOMING CALL CENTERS BY ICMI, INC.

TALK TIME IN SECONDS = 180AFTER CALL WORK IN SECONDS = 30CALLS PER HALF HOUR = 250SERVICE LEVEL OBJECTIVE IN SECONDS = 20

Delay Module

||==================== Number of callers waiting longer ==================== Number of callers waiting longer than X seconds ======================>|than X seconds ======================>|

OP:OP:SLSL%% 55 1010 1515 2020 3030 4040 5050 6060 9090 120120 180180 240240

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3030 2424 203203 119119 195195 191191 184184 177177 170170 163163 145145 129129 101101 8080

3131 4545 156156 149149 143143 137137 126126 115115 105105 9797 7474 5757 3434 2020

3232 6161 118118 111111 104104 9797 8585 7474 6565 5656 3838 2525 1111 55

3333 7373 8989 8181 7474 6767 5656 4747 3939 3232 1919 1111 44 11

3434 8282 6565 5858 5252 4646 3737 2929 2323 1818 99 55 11 00

3535 8888 4747 4141 3636 3131 2424 1818 1414 1010 44 22 00 00

3636 9292 3434 2929 2424 2121 1515 1111 88 66 22 11 00 00

3737 9595 2424 2020 1616 1414 99 66 44 33 11 00 00 00

3838 9797 1616 1313 1111 99 66 44 22 22 00 00 00 00

1. Choose a Service Level

Objective9.Repeat for a Higher and Lower Level of Service

8.Calculate

Costs

Th

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CalculateBase Staff

3.ForecastCall Load

4.CalculateBase Staff

5.Calculate

Trunk(and Related

SystemResources)

1. Choose a Service Level

Objective

The Planning and Management Process of Call Centers

4.Calculate Base Staff

9.Repeat for a Higher

and Lower Level of Service

2.Collect Data

5.Calculate Trunk and

related system

resources

7.Organize

Schedules (Schedule

Inflex)

3. Forecast Call Load

6.Calculate

for Shrinkage

8.Calculate Costs

Sh

rin

kag

eCalculating Shrinkage

VACATION LEAVESVACATION LEAVES 15 days 5.77%5.77%

SICK LEAVESSICK LEAVES 6 days 2.30%2.30%

BREAKSBREAKS Two 15-minute breaks per day 6.25%6.25%

COACHINGCOACHING 0.5 hour per week 1.25%1.25%

TRAININGS/MEETINGTRAININGS/MEETING 1 hour per week 2.50%2.50%

NON-SCHEDULED BREAKSNON-SCHEDULED BREAKS 3 minutes per available hour 0.08%0.08%

TOTALTOTAL 18.15%18.15%

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

Sh

rin

kag

e

Schedule Requirement = Base staff Requirement ----------------------------- 1 – Shrinkage Factor

Calculating Schedule Requirement

Sch

ed

ule

In

flex

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

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DemandCurve

Match Shifts with the Demand Curve –

Balancing Sufficiency and Efficiency

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DemandCurve

Envelope Strategy

Outbound; Quality Improvement; E-mail; Special projects

Immutable Laws of Call Center MgtIm

mu

tab

le L

aw

s

1. When Service Level goes up, Occupancy goes down (at a given call load)

2. With more staff, ASA goes down

3. With more staff, trunkload goes down

4. Law of diminishing returns

5. Powerful Pooling Principle

6. Larger answering groups have higher occupancy at a given Service Level

Labor v’s Trunk CostsERLANG C FOR INCOMING CALL CENTERS BY ICMI, INC.

TALK TIME IN SECONDS = 180AFTER CALL WORK IN SECONDS = 30CALLS PER HALF HOUR = 250SERVICE LEVEL OBJECTIVE IN SECONDS = 20

A: Cost per hour for OP: $15.00B: Cost per hour “800” service $ 6.00

Imm

uta

ble

Law

sThe Dynamics of Size

Calls per hour

Handle Time

Call Load (in hours)

Number of Agents

Service Level in 20 secs

Agent Occupancy

200 180secs 10 hours 11 39% 90%

200 180secs 10 hours 12 64% 83%

200 180secs 10 hours 13 80% 77%

           

800 180secs 40 hours 45 80% 89%

800 180secs 40 hours 46 86% 87%

800 180secs 40 hours 47 90% 85%

           

1600 180secs 80 hours 87 80% 92%

1600 180secs 80 hours 88 88% 91%

1600 180secs 80 hours 89 91% 90%

           

Imm

uta

ble

Law

sThe Dynamics of Size

Service Level % 90%    

Answered in: 30 secs  

   

Staffing Req Volume AHT (secs) ASA (secs) Occupancy

119 575 340 7.8 91%

65 300 340 8.2 87%

45 200 340 8.6 84%

18 70 340 11.1 73%

8 25 340 13.4 59%

Real Time ManagementR

eal Tim

e

• is about ensuring that all agents are doing “what theyare 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

- QUIZ -