QueueTips
QueueTips is an interactive question-and-answer forum where contact center professionals can view and post answers to
various contact center problems, issues, or concerns. Below are the current open questions for the month.
New QueueTips Questions
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by Kristy Powers
I am preparing to write a technology manipulation policy and am reaching out to our community to see if anyone has written a solid one already that I may review for best practices. I have written these before, but I've never seen anyone elses.
At my new company, I have inherited a team of agents that know every "trick" in the book. Though I don't want to be too specific in the document, I want to make sure I am inclusive enough to take "honor" out of the equation. (That is before I term them for integrity issues and hire a new team!)
Thanks so much!
Kristy
Phone Manipulation
ACD Tricks
Technology manipulation
Cheating
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by rizwan
How do we evaluate the employee who has been through any training for its effectiveness and its impact on the performance/attitude of the employee? Are there any criteria or metrics that can determine if the employee has actually implemented what he learned from the training?
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by Debbie Williams
We are trying to determine if it is possilbe to measure FCR during the quality review process. We are measuring customer contacts for pre and post sales inquiries, as well as contacts for store support and customer support where often the Assocaites only take information and are not the ones who resolve the issue.
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by Sarah
What are some ideas of how to best handle an employee who has challenged a call monitoring score? Do you have a formal process that you go through?
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by Carlo Beckman
When measuring my contact ratio, I'm using everything that comes in: calls, voicemail, email, and portal submissions. When doing metrics, should I report on what the customer reported the problem was or should I report what my agent thought it to be?
Another way to ask this question is when tracking metrics on resolution, diagnosis, etc, should I only base it on cases resolved? If I do that, it will surely decrease my number, since my incoming is greater than my closed cases.
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by Mr. White
I manage tier one support for a small national RV resort and hotel broadband internet service provider. Our typical end user is between the ages of 50 and 75. We have a rotating base of approximately 6000 unique end users monthly. What is a good expectation for a ratio of calls per subscriber? 3% is our current goal but I believe that is not typical of other ISP's. Does any one have a better, more realistic idea? If so please state your monthly customer base and your current goal for this metric.
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by John Haynes
What Workforce Optimization and reporting tools are out there to help manage off phone, back office type work?
I am looking for a solution in which I can get forecasting, scheduling and reporting capabilities for my off phone data entry work.
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by Michiel Lely
We're doing the day-to-day forecast in WFM tool, but I build an Excel model for mid term and long term forecast.
The granularity of the long term is weekly and I have based that on a workload calculation not Erlang because there isnt much use in Erlang for that granularity.
My question is how should I account for SL (variation) in the long term forecast. The FTE requirement should go up when SL does, but a WL calculation does not allow for that.
Any suggestions?
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
(0 Responses)
published on 2/8/2010
submitted by Julie Legeros
I would lke to know the number of businesses in the US whose contact centers / call centers (customer service or sales or technical support, etc.) process 1 million calls per month. Is this number available somewhere?
Responses
No responses have been submitted yet.
New QueueTips Responses
(1 Response)
published on 7/28/2008
submitted by
What is the best way to create your volume forecast from FTE (full-time equivalent)? Do you include all days in the week/month/year or only business days if you are open 6 days or 7 days?
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
It's not the best idea to make a forecast out of FTE. You should get your historical volume stats for every day (and every hour if you are running non-business operations), get the averages, add or subtract the incrementals based on marketing and sales initiatives, then calculate base staff using Erlang C for every period, add 5-25% of schedule adherence increment (because the larger your callcenter is, the more agents call in sick or report absenteeism due to other reasons). Now compile the schedules according to the staffing requirements for every day (or hour, or half an hour), roster the schedules accordingly - include lunch breaks, trainings, and other non-work time according to your policies and here you go. You get a working staffing model according to a forecast.
(1 Response)
published on 3/23/2007
submitted by Hutovi Kits
How do I forecast calls using only Excel? I have been searching, but there is not much information. -- Hutovi Kits, Transworks
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
Actually there are plenty of Excel forecasting models, but they usually cost money.
I like Excel very much and I have been using it for a while already. I would suggest creating your own. It will take you a lot of time and nerves on the first run, but when you make it work - it will be a nice forecasting model which will not be worse and sometimes even best than some of existing forecasting software different from Excel.
Thanks.
(1 Response)
published on 3/9/2007
submitted by Martin Law
I am the call traffic coordinator in a large call centre (800 FTE). One issue we constantly have is staff birthdays taking staff off the phone during busy periods. Our culture has in the past called for off phone celebrations and so changing this has proved difficult.
What happens in other call centres in this situation?
Thanks -- Martin Law
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
We simply forbid abandoning scheduled time for whatever reasons. We only allowed parties in the call-center during the non-scheduled periods or time off. This was difficult for the employee satisfaction, but the business dictates other rules.
(2 Responses)
published on 1/1/2004
submitted by
Is there another formula besides Erlang to calculate the full time employee count? Thanks.
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
If your callcenter is small, you do not always need Erlang to calculate your staff. The problem with this formula is that it is basing no the Poisson probability formula which implements sudden arrivals of the calls and helps you calculate the staff you need basing on the fact that you do not know exactly when the call arrives. If your SLA can afford long hold times, or if your agents occupancy is low or if they are cross-skilled to handle other types of requests (e-mail) with lower priority - you can simply use (AHT * N_of_calls)/Time period in hours or minutes
However, this will be less accurate.
2/1/2004
<anonymous>
There are methods to estimate staffing other than Erlang. One such method is based on the rule of thumb that says that a call center's capacity increases by the square root of the increased headcount. -- Joe Barkai, Diagnostic Strategies
(1 Response)
published on 9/28/2005
submitted by Juan David Adarve
When you are measuring adherence, sometimes you need to make certain changes to the schedule of an agent. For example, stay 1 hour more, go 30 minutes before, etc. What is the recommendation about how to handle these situations? For certain intervals of time I have seen less people connected than scheduled, but all the agents have perfect adherence. -- Juan David Adarve, Multienlace
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
You should adhere your agents based on the forecasted and real-time incoming volume. If the real-time stats clearly show that your forecast's increment is highly positive (higher than 0), then you should have your agents stay longer. The higher the increment, the more agents you will need and for a longer time. If the increment is below 0 (you are getting less calls than forecasted), let your agents leave earlier.
The bottom line of my advice is that you should closer monitor the forecasted vs real-time incoming volume and adhere according to the dynamically changing demand.
(1 Response)
published on 11/3/2006
submitted by Mohamed Haqqi
I’m measuring adherence to schedule per minutes (Late on breaks, Late to work, Leave early, Aux) but I’ve difficulty in measuring the AUXILARY and breaks. From the BCMS Reports there’s something called “Auxiliary/Other time” which means any internal calls and actual aux per agent.
I can't refuse the internal calls because I’m a fast food call center and the agents are facing complaints from customers who need to talk with any supervisor. This is may also be because the agent needs to get some information from the team leader or the supervisor. So I can’t deactivate it. And seriously I don’t know how I can measure it efficiently but I need to measure it because there are some agents who press “AUX “for unknown reasons that mean they are cheating their work. Same as breaks, I can not count the exact minutes of lateness of coming back from breaks because “Auxiliary/other times “mean a lot and different things." So I hope to get your suggestion about both.
-- Mohamed Haqqi, COOKDOOR, Egypt
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
Mohamed,
A while ago I was working in a callcenter for an internet providing company. We used an internally working ICQ server which did not have any access to the outter world - only internal contacts and interactions. VOIP was only used for interactions with the customers.
In your case I would take a closer look at some open source communication systems that can be customized to fit what you need. Take a closer look at mIRC chatting tool, or alike. They are mainly all free and customizable.
Hope this helps.
Dmitry.
(1 Response)
published on 10/6/2008
submitted by Samantha
My team is 12 reponsible; our service level is 70/60; our occupancy target is 45%, but we can not achieve the target. How we achieve the target for occupancy? -- Samantha, Vodafone
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
Samantha,
I would start with all the basic workforce calculations like calls arriving patterns and Erlang-C staff calculations. If you are sure that your team is not overstaffed, then I would take a look at the occupancy measuring tool. What do you use to calculate agent occupancy?
(1 Response)
published on 11/17/2008
submitted by Ebrahim El Qassas
What is the accurate way to calculate AUX/break time?
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Debbie Williams
in our environement we use Aux codes, one being Break Aux. The Associate is required to use the AUX code at the begining of their break and return back to a productive aux code when they return from their break.
(8 Responses)
published on 1/26/2009
submitted by Marsha Bennett
We have an issue with the not applicable elements of the call being monitored adversely impacting the overall score for the agent. Example: short/easier calls have less opportunites so errors have a heavier impact.
We have proposed starting the assessment with a score of 100% and reducing as elements are missed. That way all calls are weighted the same.
I'm looking for other's approaches to calulating scores.
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Mary Pleiss
We recently started scoring in this way (starting at 100% and deducting) with an increased emphasis on ownership, FCR and professionalism as well as complete and accurate information. I am anxious to see how this impacts our Quality scores.
(new)
2/8/2010
Jan Mahurin
Where do you obtain the assessment sheets you are speaking of? Are there different ones to choose from?
1/11/2010
Norm
The comments are accurate, but what is missing is process. Every agent of ours gets QA'd every week. Anyone below 94% gets a follow up QA the next scheduled day. Additionally, we hold weekly calibration sessions with all QA personnel to ensure uniform scoring. 100% of calls are recorded, so we can quickly listen to additional calls if we feel we had an anomoly.
3/9/2009
Caren Bowling
Short calls do not offer the range to really judge an associates skills. In addition, various portions of a call should carry a heavier weight, i.e. security questions to ensure our customers account privacy is maintained.
The 100% percent is still used, but the weight is heavier on specific areas of the call.
2/23/2009
M.B.
I would agree with the responses. Your assessment should be set up to evaluate every contact the same, regardless of the length of call. We use the key customer service points that always occur and technical accuracy points that always apply for our line of work. There are a few possible N/A items in the assessment, but starting from zero negates the effect of shorter\easier.
2/9/2009
Allison
We assign point values to each critical element of the call. If an element is not applicable, the points available for that element are deducted from the total availalble points for the call. The points "'earned"' on the call are divided by the total available points to get a score percentage. Naturally, you will have more than one quality monitor during the period measured, so you will have to accumulate the total points earned and points available and calculate one consolidated calculation for each individual and the department as a whole.
2/9/2009
Steve Crowder
We assign a point value to each element on the observation form. Each failed item deducts points from the total available. If an item is scored as NA the points associated with that item are removed from the "Points Available" and entered as a zero value elsewhere. This allows each form to be tailored to a specific situation and still get an accurate picture of agent performance in the real world.
2/9/2009
Jane Finn
Allison's method of calculation makes the score more reflective of the complexity of the call and the effort required to achieve service excellence. I would like to suggest that you reconsider your philosophy of starting with 100% and then deducting for errors. This sends the message to staff that quality monitoring is a punitive 'gotcha' exercise. Starting with 0 and having quality evaluators listen for the demonstration of the correct skills, knowledge and behavior more positively positions QA monitoring as a developmental/learning experience.
(8 Responses)
published on 4/6/2009
submitted by Jennifer Simmons
I am looking for best practices on how to reduce after-call work (acw) or wrap. Does anyone have any out of the box ideas?
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Adam Azad
We have a set time for wrap-up before another call is presented - Our agents do not have the ability to manage their own ACW times or Phone availability. We have tried this in the past to allow them to manage their own, but it results in a loss of efficiency.
One of the strategies we have implemented that has drastically helped our ACW is to actually have our incidents customized on a per client, per service through the use of custom templates. So the agents just have to fill in the blanks and then add a short note at the end - This has helped increase the efficiency of our agents, and reduced the amount of typing and ACW time.
It also helps to have your agents fully understand the call workflow. If they are on the phone, and on their favorite social networking site, then this means they are not going to be adding their troubleshooting efforts as they go along. Having a motivated team of agents, and a proactive team of supervisors will help with this. Motivation through incentives is always a good way to go too.
5/18/2009
Honest Analyst
All components of AHT are best managed through a good quality process. Listen to the agents with high ACW and compare them to agents that low ACW. Your answers will come to you.
AHT is not managed by AHT but thru good quality.
5/18/2009
Ian Collins
I use a number of tactics to reduce AHT. I always position to the agent that he or she has full control over two things: Hold Time and ACW. The easiest way to obtain buy-in on the importance of ACW is to calculate and tell the agent the true cost. For example: "If every agent in the compnay reduced their ACW by 2 seconds, the company will save $x million."
I target agents that appear to have non-productive time in ACW first, followed by those who may have difficulty navigating tools. Spend 80% of your time on the 20% highest ACW agents.
Finally, if the agent reduces his or her ACW, but Talk Time increases, I address the Talk Time through the quality process.
5/18/2009
Susan Ketler
Our call centres have had successful in managing ACW for those significantly outside of the mean ACW for their work unit. When we manage the extremes, the rest seemed to fall into place.
5/18/2009
Rebeca Culverhouse
Multi-tasking is the key to reducing ACW time. I tell my agents that they need to try to finish out a file while the customer is on the line. I've also told them that to be effective and still give the customer the feel of good customer service, they need to "talk the process through" with the customer. As long as they are touching base with the caller and explaining how they are helping them complete their claim, the customer will be satisfied, knowing that they are being helped and their call is being addressed to the best of the agent's ability to move the claim forward. By the time the customer is off the phone, the remaining tasks should use minimal ACW.
5/4/2009
ryan
Doing more on the call: This has always been my tactic, but I always run into the problem of people who cannot multi-task (i.e., they can't talk and type and flip through multiple screens on the PC to record the details). How do you improve this skill?
4/20/2009
Rosalind Lee
If you are using a CRM system like we are, it is very useful to train staff to multi-task during the call. If the staff is able to input pertinent details on the fly, it will shortern the ACW. It is also useful to review the calls and standardize the way scripts are phrased and recorded.This also reduces variations. We also find it useful to benchmark the best ACW times in the center and use them as a target to be achieved.
4/20/2009
Steve
I think you need to understand exactly what the agents are doing after a call has ended. If they have to fill out tickets or push data to another group or just document the interaction, then you have an opportunity to take a look at the call process and see what stops them doing this "during" the call. If they are building the ticket as they go along, then there is less to do after it ends.
Typically, I run at 1-2 minutes ACW and push as much as possible into the call. It might increase talk time slightly, but the best time to document is on the fly with the customer on the line.
Don't forget to look across the agent pool to see if you have a few agents who are pushing up the ACW time.
You could also have the ACD system place the agetns automatically back in available, however this should not be a first option -- rather something to consider once you are in control.
Regards,
Steve
(1 Response)
published on 7/27/2009
submitted by Ashwani Rana
How do we forecast our call volume if we have historical call trends from last month? Is there a formula for calculating this?
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
Brad Clevelend is an author of an award-winning book called "Call-center Management on Fast Forward. Start with reading the basics about forecasting (you can get the book at https://portal.icmi.com/Purchase/ProductDetail.aspx?Product_code=fd6e7881-6d5a-dd11-82c4-001e0bc9702a)
Afterwards, take a look at some forecasting software, or create some of your own models in Excel. It took me a long time to work out an original model in excel some time ago, but when everything was done, the only thing I would have needed to do to make a forecast is to paste in the historical volumes and increment increase/decrease rate blended with marketing and production initiatives.
(3 Responses)
published on 7/27/2009
submitted by SRM
Upper management is considering allowing me to hire one full-time employee in our call center of 18. Besides service level and abandonment rate, what other metrics can I use to show that adding one employee will improve our stats?
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
James Michael Vergara Jr.
Occupancy is something that has to be considered in a well-organized contact center. It will measure how strong the availability of agents to react to the forecasted calls given by vendor. Too much and Too less occupancy has its diverse effects on the employees and OPS.
8/10/2009
Chris M
A useful metric is Agent Occupancy -- the measure of actual time an agent is busy on customer contacts compared with available or idle time. This is calculated by dividing workload hours by staff hours. Occupancy is an important measure of how well the call center has scheduled its staff and how efficiently it is using its resources. If occupancy is too low, agents are sitting around idle with not enough to do. If occupancy is too high, agents may be overworked and calls will be waiting in the queue for too long waiting to be directed to the next available agent.
8/10/2009
James Michael Vergara
I agree with Mike in using occupancy as a measure to support an FTE requisition for your center. This should always be tied to the effects on service levels on an interval basis so that you can holistically connect it to the other KPIs you have, such as quality metrics, FCR and customer sat. Then present a sound risk/benefit analysis. Also, a very good article to use in explaining this is the "Power of One in a Call Center Team", which shows the effect of both scenarios of plus/minus one FTE per interval. It's a short, good read to also make the agents understand and be accountable to the importance of having the right number of people at the right time doing the right things.
(3 Responses)
published on 1/25/2010
submitted by Keri vB
How do call centers obtain feedback from customers? What types of information do you need and use? What forum do you use to prompt feedback from your customers -- phone survey, BRC, mailed surveys... what works?) We are a call center with an extensive training program for our end-users regarding our products in the medical field. We have approximately 300 agents on the phone and use the NICE system to monitor quality calls. We would like to grow and strengthen by ensuring we meet the needs of our callers (outside customers). Thanks in advance for your advice.
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
<anonymous>
We use a combination of phone, paper-based and mailed surveys. We try to match the survey type to the channel the customer used. For example, if the member called in, they recieve a phone survey. We are also leveraging social media to gain customer insights.
(new)
2/8/2010
Sarah
We are currently making outbound phone calls to customers who we recently spoke with. This is very time consuming and has proven difficult as we are always trying to convince people we are not telemarketers.
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
Post-call agent based or IVR-based surveys are the best options. E-mail won't work because the customer will most likely forget about his experience on his/her last interaction with your agent. Let alone sending paper mail.
In the end of the call agents can initiate the caller to go through a survey. Once the call is complete and, the agent can kindly ask "Mr. X, we would like to kindly ask you to take part in our customer satisfaction survey, would you like to take part in the survey right now?" In case the customer agrees to take part, the agent transfers him to an IVR based extention, or transfers him to another agent responsible for surveying.
It is important to have different people in service delivery and surveying. You can have different agents do cross-work. When A provides service delivery, B surveys and vice versa.
Nowadays large callcenters usually outsource their surveyers which is proved by recent reports for 2008 and 2009.
(1 Response)
published on 1/25/2010
submitted by Henrik Rafn
In a IVR based customer survey, we want to ask the right question about FCR (e.g., "Did we solve your problem in this call?"). How do we best phrase the question to measure FCR?
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
How many times did you have to contact us to resolve this issue?
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 3+
(1 Response)
published on 1/25/2010
submitted by Mike Lee
Does anyone track what percent of their abandoned calls call back? I'm more curious about this for an inbound sales call center.
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Dmitry
Although this is a good practice, I have never been faced with this from the managerial point.
However, when I was on a long-term business-trip to a European country, I was calling for a taxi. Sometimes my calls were abandoned, however, everytime this happened they ALWAYS called me back.
(1 Response)
published on 1/25/2010
submitted by Manon Migner
We are in the process of implementing a "Work from home" program in a unionized environement. The program has been positioned as a privilege for the employees. I would like to know whether the company should pay the employee for his time on the day of the telephone line and computer installations? Manon Bourgoin
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Eric Holen
We require our agents to be at home on the day that the vendors arrive to install the telephone line and high-speed Internet connection. We do pay them for the day even if most of it is spent waiting for the installations. Teh employee does not have a choice about "working from home" that day, so it is a work day.
(1 Response)
published on 1/25/2010
submitted by Trey Calvert
Does anyone know of any call centers that currently utilize NICE and IEX in tandem? Since IEX purchased NICE, does anyone know of a call center that currently uses both, and if so, are they integrated?
Responses
(new)
2/8/2010
Franki Ferrell
My organization uses both IEX and NICE. Currently they are not integrated.
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