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Optimized Staff Planning
For efficient digital customer contacts handling in service centers

by Peter Bollenbeck, CEO, InVision Software - March 16, 2009

With the digitalization of everyday life, customer service is also advancing. As well as telephony, customers may also use SMS and the internet to contact company service centers. Currently, it is estimated that at least 30 percent of all communications between organizations and end-consumers are handled digitally, i.e. via e-mail and web interaction - indicating an upward trend.

 

The web 2.0 generation, possibly the most well-funded target group in recent years, expects rapid responses via the internet, e-mail and SMS. Thus, processing these customer contacts, known as back office planning, is increasingly important in the various areas of service centers. This also requires an efficient and demand-oriented scheduling of employees to be deployed for handling digital customer contacts. Thus scheduling must be reconciled with that of call center agents.

 

Integrated front and back office planning

Up until fifteen years ago, the problem of handling different customer contacts was still unknown. In call centers, there was a clear separation between telephony and document handling, i.e. between front and back office activities. For both areas, employees were deployed separately. In the context of increasing digitalization and the corresponding changes in customer behavior, this distinct separation became unsustainable. The problem was managed by front office employees handling written customer requests in less busy periods. These requests were initially given to employees as printouts. However, it was almost impossible to control handling times and service level adherence.

 

For this purpose, customer requests were converted into electronic formats and routing systems were developed to deliver the electronic document to the agent for resolution. These systems enable an automated quantification, as well as a categorization of subject requests. While this makes specific request handling more efficient for employees that are trained in specialized subjects, it also sets the course for integrated front and back office employee scheduling.

 

Integral Workforce Management starts with forecasting

Enterprise workforce management (WFM) systems support a demand-oriented scheduling of employees, based on a prognosis of the volume of work to be expected. The demand prognoses are developed based on historical data from the electronic document processing and routing systems (CTI and ACD systems). The use of specialized optimization algorithms, complex multi-activity planning, which previously could only be set up with immense manual effort, may now be calculated within a short period of time. This way, diverse front and back office activities may be planned equally from the outset.

 

In staff scheduling, however, a differentiation between back office processes and telephony has to take place. Telephone calls must be answered immediately, whereas documents may be processed later if required. With regard to service level adherence, one of the most important factors for call centers is the realization of short queuing times for telephone customers. Therefore, calls are always handled with absolute priority.

 

Prioritizing according to service level - backlog control

Using the automated planning tool of InVision Enterprise WFM, priorities, i.e. a weighting of certain activities, can be assigned. For example, telephone calls are given a priority of 130; documents with a high service level, such as orders via the internet which must be processed within 24 hours, have a priority of 100; while documents with a low service level, that require a response within one week, are given a priority of 50. Note that with low service level documents, the processing period is not specifically defined outside of seven days, thus there is a danger of work accumulating and further planning becoming increasingly complex. Thus, the crux of efficient employee scheduling to handle documents with a low service level is that the low priority workload must be continuously included in forecast and planning processes until it is finally handled.

 

A potential solution to this problem is to consider the backlog status. Here, documents for processing are sorted into virtual folders according to subjects and tasks, and handled by the respective employees. At the end of the day, the status of the backlog folders is recorded and integrated into the forecast for the next day, with a corresponding prognosis of the incoming documents that are expected and a forecasted number of the employees required. Moreover, when a default value defined within the system is exceeded, an alert is triggered and thus the achievement of the critical backlog status is displayed. Without adjusting the staff scheduling, the available documents may no longer be processed within the given service level.

 

The adjustment is done by the planner via simulation. Thus, either activities may be assigned a new weighting, or other priorities may be assigned. The planner may also change the number of employees. The intention is to simulate the status to be achieved by means of continuous adjusting, in order to remain below the critical backlog status. This way, the planner may identify possible capacity bottlenecks at the forecast stage and adjust the staff scheduling accordingly.

 

Service centers must upgrade

Practical experience indicates that many, if not the majority of service centers, have not yet adjusted their workforce management processes adequately to the changes brought about by the digitalization of customer communication. Telephony is still the preferred method, requiring most of the effort. This, however, does not always correspond to today´s customer requirements. An upgrade for the efficient handling of all customer contacts, particularly with regard to web interaction such as chat and e-mail, is required. Demand-oriented workforce management, using the InVision Enterprise WFM, is one way to achieve this aim.

 

 

Peter Bollenbeck (*1973) is one of the three founders of InVision Software and as CEO, he is responsible for strategy, corporate finance, sales and professional services. InVision Software is an international supplier of enterprise-wide workforce management (WFM) solutions enabling companies to optimize their staff planning and scheduling processes. Founded in 1995 and based in Germany, InVision currently employs more than 230 WFM specialists and has offices across North America, Europe and South Africa.

Further information at: www.invisionwfm.com

Contact the author: pr@invisionwfm.com or phone +49 2102 7280

 

 
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