Scheduling is one of the most challenging functions in a contact center. Not only can it be technically challenging (depending on the type of workforce management technology you have), but there are a lot of opinions as to what makes schedules “correct”.  The key is to get input from employees and customers and strike the balance appropriate for your business... 

Forecasting is where it all starts. Everything that happens in a contact center related to service levels, occupancy, ASA, and abandon rates can be traced back to how accurate or actionable a forecast was. There are a lot of views on how to best measure forecasting accuracy. 

A major trend in business is moving away from the traditional hierarchy-based structure. This is is what we’re all familiar with where you have a front-line employee report to a supervisor, who reports to a manager, and so-on up to CEO. These “command and control” configurations ensure compliance and make it easier to centralize, but often diminishes innovation and creativity...

Last time in my first article we talked about reframing the conversation with your peer group around the boardroom table. By providing analysis and intelligence. By talking about what’s useful for growth and revenues, rather than answering your very own "Jeremy Paxman’s” quick fire questions about costs and problems.

When I started in Workforce Management (WFM) in the late 90’s, I was equipped with excel and an erlang calculator. I felt pretty cool. I could determine the headcount requirement for every interval. I just needed to gather the handle time, volume and service level target. I worked for a small company that had no funding for a Workforce Management tool. Measurements in contact centers were still pretty basic at that point, and many of the leaders had been promoted from off the phones, so there wasn’t a lot of expertise in contact center best practices.