Workforce Optimization for the Small Contact Center

According to conventional wisdom, the return on investment (ROI) on workforce optimization software makes it unaffordable for call centers of less than 60 seats. The ROI on workforce optimization software, they say, just isn't there for the small contact center.

"In most cases, contact centers with less than 60 agents can schedule service reps using spreadsheets and monitor customer service by having a manager walk the floor," said Lindsey Higgs, an analyst at AMR Research in Boston. "However, once the agent workforce grows beyond 60, these manual processes fall apart, forcing users to turn to technology for help."

But based on the evidence of two small contact centers, one in California and the other in England, this viewpoint may need to be revised.

"Prior to adopting workforce management software, our admin staff had to manually keep track of agent activity, campaign planning and calls volume trends," said Maureen Stanton, managing director, On Net Communications, a 20 agent call center in Northeast England.

"In terms of administration, we have reduced hours spent on campaigns by 75 percent. The software has also helped to eliminate the human error and inaccuracies we suffered before."

Similarly, Orange County Credit Union in California has found it possible to costeffectively utilize workforce management in its 25-agent contact center. In this article, we highlight the problems and solutions harnessed by both companies.

Juggling Act

Managers in small contact centers tend to spend an inordinate amount of time juggling agents' schedules and trying to monitor their performance. But as On Net and scores of other small contact centers have discovered, manual processes can become unwieldy and inefficient with as few as a handful of agents. I know of a couple of five-agent centers that have deployed workforce management technology and made it viable.

On Net Communications, for example, is a busy outsourcer located within the tranquil setting of Weardale in the northeast of England. Launched in January of 2004, it carries out work for various organizations but specializes in the local government and education sectors. This expanding company utilizes the most advanced multimedia technology and offers a full range of customer contact management services. The workload is currently split 60 percent outbound and 40 percent inbound. Over time, however, the ratio is shifting in favor of inbound call center operations.

The company's initial challenge was staying profitable while eliminating manual planning, estimating, scheduling and budgeting. By implementing workforce management technology, the company was able to accurately forecast agent shifts, schedules and their associated costs.

This increased profitability by 20 percent within a few months. In addition, by eliminating manual tracking via spreadsheets, the cost of campaign planning has dropped by 75 percent.

Until a few months ago, On Net Communications utilized Excel spreadsheets to manage its internal operations. This involved repeated data entry and absorbed staff time. Further, human error became a fact of life due to the amount of manual keying and rekeying of information, schedules and campaign information.

"Administrative staff had to manually keep track of agent activity, campaign planning and calls volume trends," said Stanton. "This was time consuming and inefficient - amounting to 20 or more hours every week."

In addition, planning and managing multiple campaigns at once was a real problem. As a result, planning was done on a somewhat haphazard basis. It was purely driven by estimates, and the company had no real-time adherence facility at all. Further, manual reporting meant long hours and late nights for team leaders.

As a new call center, the company is a firm believer in using technology to solve its operational issues. On Net's technology platform consists of the following elements.

* Adaptive Messaging, which manages all inbound and outbound contacts utilizing progressive and predictive dialers, contact blending, screen-popping and automatic response handling.

* Call View, which produces automated and manual reports for any aspect of a campaign; historical and real-time reports can be compiled in graphical, statistical and tabular formats and exported into any medium, for example, e-mail, spreadsheet or Web browser.

* Intertel Axxess, a resilient call handling platform, VoIP with an Intertel programming studio which allows the company to configure the telephony on a system wide basis down to the individual key sets.

* Skill Map, which acts an interface with Intertel giving dynamic call routing to agent skill levels.

* SQL Server 2000, a relational database management system that stores, manipulates and outputs data in various formats.

* Monet, a workforce optimization system by Left Bank Solutions of Los Angeles, Calif., that manages campaign forecasts including costs, staffing schedules and agent real-time adherence.

At On Net, workforce optimization immediately offered managers the ability to plan 24-hour shift patterns in order to give the proper life-work balance to employees. In addition, it has enabled the company to reduce costs by more efficiently managing staffing schedules which in turn has made it easy to predict campaign costs.

"Workforce management reduced our center costs in a matter of days and you can simply use the system to produce center budgets by running a costing of all forecasted agent shifts and agent schedules," said Stanton. "This has increased our profitability by 20 percent since the turn of the year. The great thing about Monet is that it is an affordable way for us to offer services that rival those of the largest contact centers.

California Calling

Orange County's Credit Union (OCCU) is a not-for-profit community-chartered credit union exceeding $763 million in assets, and more than 81,000 members. The credit union is ranked in the top two percent of credit unions nationwide and is the county's second largest. As well as visiting a branch, members can contact the credit union's call center for balance enquiries, open new accounts, apply for loans, transfer funds and more.

OCCU's inbound call center handles thirty to thirty-five thousand calls per month with the equivalent of 25 full-time employees (FTE). This is comprised of a 50/50 mix of full timers and part timers. With traffic volumes so high, however, call center management struggled to cope with agent scheduling.

"We were making decisions on staffing levels and agent schedules with our blindfolds on," said Randy Stolp, assistant vice president of telephone services at OCCU. "When we understaffed, we failed to meet our service level agreements, and when we overstaffed, we reduced our profitability."

To solve such issues, OCCU has been working hard to redesign its call center operations. Its technology platform consists of:

* Avaya for all PBX and phone-related systems;

* Windows 2000;

* XP Systems for branch transactions;

* CentreVu Supervisor for call center reporting;

* T1 lines for data and VoIP for voice;

* Monet Workforce Management.

"Workforce optimization helps us decide if we have set the right goals and if we need to make staffing adjustments," said Stolp.

For example, workforce management enables call center managers at OCCU to determine the exact cost of existing schedules as well as planned schedule changes. Stolp explains that he can use the software to determine the consequences of various scenarios and forecasts.

"I can use Monet to jockey factors such as improved service levels and reduced customer wait time against the cost to provide it," said Stolp. "This will enable us to find the right balance of efficiency and profitability without having to hire people on the hope that it will work out to be cost effective. It tells me in real time what every change in schedule will cost."

One of the early benefits brought about a change at OCCU. A forecast showed that experienced agents worked the early shift while peak traffic came later in the day. To fill the gap, the credit union employed less-experienced part timers. Result: call times were much longer at night i.e. the part-timers were not dealing with customer calls as efficiently as their full-time counterparts.

Having a Choice

Further, experienced agents were shown preference for any openings in the early shift. Thus the company was continually losing veteran performers from the late shift. Through the software's forecasting capability, management realized that it had to change this practice and keep its more experienced agents working later hours.

"Workforce management showed us that handle times at night went up dramatically as the part timers would have to put people on hold to work out what to do," said Stolp. "Essentially we realized we were cutting our own throats by putting new people on at night."

Keeping It Affordable

Top of the line workforce optimization centers generally cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. That's why, until recently, they have been found mainly in large contact centers. Fortunately that is changing. The big vendors are slowly coming out with packages priced lower than $ 100,000 that are more attractive to the mid market.

At OCCU, however, the workforce management package worked out at $17,000. That included the call center module, another scheduling module customized for use in all credit union branches, installation and a year's maintenance. Next year, Stolp says, the cost will be $2200 for maintenance.

"We expect to save, at a minimum, the equivalent of one FTE, or $25,000 within the first year after implementing Monet," said Stolp. "It has eliminated the guesswork from our profitability analyses and scheduling, and can help us improve our service levels by at least 5 percent. "Although it cost a fraction of the bigger call center packages, it has every key feature that Blue Pumpkin offers."

Drew Robb

Drew Robb is a Los Angeles-based writer specializing in technology and engineering.

Copyright Publications & Communications, Inc. Nov 2004
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