Resource Planning Will Save You Money
Summary:
The most expensive item in any contact centre is the people. I’m sure you already knew that. Yet when it comes to making the most effective use of this valuable resource we often overlook the impact they have on cost until its too late.
Whether that’s because our centre is performing well and we invoke that old adage "if it aint broke, don’t fix it" or we are small and don’t have the time to gather information and properly plan how we are going to use that resource. Yet in the current climate there is no one who can be complacent about how much anything costs or whether there is any way of reducing that cost.
An average agent costs as much as £16,500, just 30 agents gives a wages budget of just under £500,000. Start adding in management and supervision costs and the budget increases to more than £600,000. Get the figures wrong in your forecast and the consequence can easily amount to both poor service and escalating costs.
The answer to the above problem is deceptively easy. It’s ensuring that agents are at their most productive and efficient - but to make this happen we have to gather information, interpret it and then formulate a plan. That, unfortunately, is the difficult bit. The small centre especially suffers because there's always some other demand on the manager's time. Any call centre that hasn’t had the opportunity to invest in planning will likewise suffer.
So what can be done?
Look at the information you currently get and ask these questions:
- Does it break things down into daily, weekly, monthly chunks?
- One spreadsheet can easily be set up to give this information. Graph the information whenever possible.
- Does it allow you to easily track trends?
- The correct structure in a spreadsheet will facilitate any trend analysis work. Use graphs wherever possible as a picture is much easier to analyse than raw data.
- How do I use this information in my forecast?
- If call volumes are falling, is that being incorporated into the forecast?
- How accurate is the forecast?
- Is it always 1 or 2 percent out or is it greater? What's causing the larger discrepancy?
- Are the daily half-hour forecasts still valid? Do they need to be re done?
- Have we taken into account periodic variations i.e. summer holidays, bill cycles, marketing campaigns etc?
- Use the right tool for the job, e.g. Erlang’s theories might well be a 100 years old but they are still valid and are easily incorporated into any spreadsheet.
- Is it easy to complete? There is nothing worse than having to transcribe data manually. If possible set up automatic data exchanges. Where it's not then make life as easy as possible by cutting and pasting the data in. You can always then transform that data later by setting up links and formula’s.
Now that we have the data, check the following; are our previous assumptions valid?
- Sometimes all that’s required is a small readjustment in shifts to cover the problem areas. Maybe the breaks are scheduled at times where the impact is detrimental to service.
- Are we maximising the use of all our resources?
- A well-placed message about a problem can lessen the need for someone having to contact you.
- Are all the agents multi skilled? In a small centre the bigger the pool of agents available to take the call the better. Think about skill based routing.
- Are we using our definitions correctly?
- Don’t assume that your KPI calculations are correct. Often people use their own variations because that’s what they were told to do. Work practices change and this often has an effect on how KPI measurements are made.
Involve everyone.
- Everyone in the centre has a part to play. However, like any good plan if people don’t understand their part then how can their contribution be maximised?
- Does everyone in the business understand the effect they can have?
- Network with other departments. Make sure they tell you their plans, their problems and dare I say it their mistakes.
- Does everyone understand the changes you have made?
- Don’t assume it won’t affect anyone else. If you do, and it does, then your reputation will suffer.
A sound investment
All of the above costs very little in time and money however their impact can save you far more by ensuring that you make the right resourcing decision. If you haven’t the time or expertise then you should consider investing some money in getting an expert in to help.
Interested in improving your Resource Planning? Contact us today for a confidential discussion about your recruitment requirements.
