Mastering Workforce Management In Call Centers: A Comprehensive Guide

For call centers to succeed, a system must prioritize efficiency and demand. By assigning call center agents correctly, both operational efficiency and demand can be met. The challenge is identifying how to appropriately assign agents to meet operational demand. 

The ability to anticipate the best time to make calls, wait for calls to come in, and answer calls is a large part of determining the ideal arrangement for these outcomes. Customer satisfaction increases when the call center recognizes and acts according to these peak call times. While identifying these key timeframes is critical, they are not the only factor influencing successful work outcomes. 

Awareness of employee break times, their skills, and the channels utilized for support also determine the best times for steady workflow at call centers. Keeping both call center agents and clients happy is a delicate balance that requires insights into the management layout of the center. For more information on mastering workforce management call centers, read our comprehensive guide. 

Understand the workforce management call center process. 

In call centers, workforce management refers to appropriately assigning call center agents to meet operational efficiency and demand. A series of steps must be completed to achieve these objectives. By implementing a workforce management call center strategy and following the steps discussed below, you can maximize the success of your workforce management and reach your call center’s company-wide goals with greater efficiency, customer satisfaction, and daily productivity.  

Before learning the steps to master call center workforce management, it is important to understand why these frameworks can be so beneficial for call centers. By adopting an effective workforce management call center strategy, your call center can:

• Maximize its ROI
• Increase employee satisfaction
• Optimize customer satisfaction
• Reach your KPIs 

Learning how to match demand levels with agent coverage sets your agency up for reaching call volume goals. Here are the exact steps you need to take to carry out your own workforce management call center strategy: 

Follow the steps to applying an effective management strategy. 

The basic steps to applying an effective workforce management call center strategy are discussed as follows. They can be broken down into four key steps of: forecasting, staff scheduling, assigning agents, and overseeing these implementations. In addition to the steps below, be sure to consider ways to optimize your resource allocations, as these improvements can assist with decreasing wait time and customer churn waits.  

Forecast demand levels.

To organize your team to meet operational efficiency and demand, start by forecasting tickets and calls. Forecasting is an industry term for calculating the anticipated number of tickets and calls for your call center over a period of time. Depending on your goals, you may choose to forecast calls over days, weeks, or months. 

For an accurate estimation, you’ll need to use a data-based approach. Consider relying on historical data, recent trends, and other patterns that may add to the accuracy of your prediction. Forecasting is a tedious process and takes a lot of time to complete, as every customer interaction must be logged with the center, and all touchpoints must be gathered and archived. It’s vital to remember not to rely on data alone. 

If you know of an upcoming event, including weather issues, or believe that potential equipment failures may influence your anticipated total, don’t leave these points out in the first stage of your workforce management call center strategy. You want to incorporate as much information as possible to improve your predicted total’s accuracy. Once you’ve completed forecasting your future demand total, you can better coordinate your staff to meet these call goals. 

Complete staff scheduling.

The next step in your workforce management call center strategy is to complete employee scheduling with the demand levels in mind. An effective way to start scheduling staff is based on the shifts or the hours that will require the highest or lowest coverage. If you’re utilizing multiple channels, this is the time to allocate additional staff to accommodate any channels with higher demands. 

Consider whether your demand levels can be met more effectively without including hybrid or remote work. Although these workplace shifts can be effective in many work settings, call centers may be less successful going this route. A team of in-person staff is more likely to meet demand levels, as managers have a much clearer idea of how to improve scheduling and prevent over and understaffing. They can physically see what’s happening on the floor and check in with employees directly. 

Assign agents accordingly. 

After scheduling your staff to meet demand levels, it’s time to assign your call center agents accordingly. This is the point in your workforce management call center strategy to factor in employee soft skills, avoid employee burnout, and reach productivity milestones. 

• Consider how time, employee expertise, and experience may influence how you assign your agents. 

• Implementing techniques like shift bidding may also prevent employee burnout and help your center stay on top of its goals.

• Software tools can also help managers adjust their schedules for better outcomes, whether call center agents are working in person or at home.  

Oversee your plan and make adjustments as needed. 

As you begin implementing your workforce management call center strategy, monitor the day-to-day progress and note any changes that may be needed as you go. For example, check in to see how employees are working toward meeting service level goals, as well as areas where under or overstaffing may be taking place. Supervise employee and customer interactions to ensure that your expectations for customer satisfaction are also being met. 

Master the art of proper management in your call center.

By implementing an effective, data-driven workforce management call center strategy, your call center can reach its goals faster without overworking employees. Moreover, you’ll learn to accurately predict call center volume and how to match this volume with the correct amount of agent coverage. If you want to streamline operations and reach your demand levels, refer to this guide and start mastering the art of proper workforce management in call centers.