Calculating Resource Requirements and Understanding Staff and Service Tradeoffs
Sharpen your pencils. Dust off the calculator. It’s time for a math lesson. Running a successful call center operation means managing by the numbers. And the most important number of all is the number of bodies in seats each hour to respond to customer contacts. Since over two-thirds of call center operating costs are related to personnel, getting the “just right” number of staff in place is critical in terms of both service and cost. This article outlines the step-by-step process to calculate call center resource requirements and evaluate the most important service and cost tradeoffs.
Calculating Workload
In the previous article on Forecasting Fundamentals, we explained the process of forecasting calls – taking historical data and analyzing trends and seasonal patterns to arrive at monthly estimates, then using day-of-week and time-of-day patterns to break down the numbers into hourly or half-hourly forecasts.
With these call volume forecasts and some assumptions about average handle time (AHT), we’re ready to perform a simple calculation to arrive at staff workload. It’s simply the number of forecast calls for an hour multiplied by the average handle time of a call. The average handle time (AHT) is made up of two components: actual conversation or talk time plus any after call wrap-up time associated with the call. The wrap up time can include almost anything – filling out a form, updating the customer database, etc.
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Sharpen your pencils. Dust off the calculator. It’s time for a math lesson. Running a successful call center operation means managing by the numbers. And the most important number of all is the number of bodies in seats each hour to respond to customer contacts. Since over two-thirds of call center operating costs are related to personnel, getting the “just right” number of staff in place is critical in terms of both service and cost. This article outlines the step-by-step process to calculate call center resource requirements and evaluate the most important service and cost tradeoffs.
Calculating Workload
In the previous article on Forecasting Fundamentals, we explained the process of forecasting calls – taking historical data and analyzing trends and seasonal patterns to arrive at monthly estimates, then using day-of-week and time-of-day patterns to break down the numbers into hourly or half-hourly forecasts.
With these call volume forecasts and some assumptions about average handle time (AHT), we’re ready to perform a simple calculation to arrive at staff workload. It’s simply the number of forecast calls for an hour multiplied by the average handle time of a call. The average handle time (AHT) is made up of two components: actual conversation or talk time plus any after call wrap-up time associated with the call. The wrap up time can include almost anything – filling out a form, updating the customer database, etc.
Read More Article...
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