Workforce management (WFM) software is becoming more and more popular with companies that rely on efficient call center support. Call centers are the “front door” to your operation. Scheduling the right combination of people to match the peaks and valleys of customer calls is all about knowing how and when to schedule your greeters and helpers.

Schedulers are faced with balancing call handlers with times of high- and low-tempo activity, and even the most intuitive and experienced managers can see their schedule plans go awry. People call in sick, or you experience turnover because not enough attention is paid to employee scheduling preferences.

Maybe a particular shift has a higher call-waiting ratio with a lower efficiency rate. The press of just keeping things going prevents managers from attending to the problems that are both the cause of and are caused by inefficient scheduling.

WFM takes the pressure off

WFM software gets to the heart of the scheduling challenge because it factors in the quantitative judgments based on, among other things, past call center tempo and analyzing data that goes back several years. The resulting scheduling solution quickly becomes indispensable, if only because it preserves the sanity of the person responsible for the work schedule.

What if…?

Another great feature of WFM software is its ability to forecast scenarios and suggest solutions based on normal, worst- and best-case conditions.  For example, what if you were able to shave a full 30 seconds off the average customer call? How would that affect staffing demands?

Monitoring performance

And while you’re forecasting the what-ifs, with WFM software you can track the performance of your call center staff, and, as the saying goes, “keep honest people honest.” Whatever your measurable performance standards are, the standards can be tracked and outcomes can be reported and analyzed as yet another ingredient of your effective call center operation and maintain your competitive edge.

ROI – How it pays for itself

In French “ROI” means “king.” In business ROI – return on investment – reigns as the prime mover in adding a cost of doing business. WFM software begins paying for itself immediately, because:

• It ensures your people are on the job just when they are needed. They know their performance is being monitored, not by a nosy, intrusive boss, but by a relentless system that does not play favorites.
• You reduce payroll costs. More efficient scheduling = less unforeseen overtime.
• Your management costs go down because the system WFM software does the “grunt work” in calculating the factors that go into the decisions on scheduling, training and keeping the call center agile and responsive.
• As work scheduling and performance monitoring becomes more efficient and fair, employee confidence and loyalty increase in inverse proportion to your previous turnover.

There’s more…

WFM software has other nifty features that include so-called “interday management,” which provides a real-time analysis of call center activity. Dial it up and see how the best-laid call-center scheduling plans are actually working out as the business day proceeds.

Getting the most out of WFM software

Contact us and see how our WFM product can make your call center scheduling and monitoring the mission-critical focus of your management analysis and training tools.