Posted by Kerry Engle on Tue, Aug 18, 2009 @ 05:42 PM
Holding on to customers during tough times can prove difficult, given inevitable cost reductions and competitors who are just a click away for a dissatisfied customer. Below are two scenarios that can help reduce costs and the risks commonly associated with headcount reduction.
Who has time to answer the phone?
Headcount reduction of agents and/or supervisors can have the most potential for reduced customer satisfaction and revenues. There are a few ways to execute some of the measures below, however, with minimized damage:
Reduce agent headcount: Most centers staff to allow enough time for training, which is effectively "double-staffing" for a portion of FTEs. In a scenario with reduced headcount and the same service levels to meet, training will almost always get trumped. If agents aren't properly prepared for calls, quality will begin to suffer over time. Centers are faced with two unattractive options: double-staff or under-train. By reducing training to short intervals and delivering it only during idle time between calls, training and sufficient availability can both be achieved with reduced headcount. In our findings, 1-3% of scheduled FTEs can be reduced by this method alone.
Increase supervisor span of control: In our research on coaching, time to coach and coaching process execution were top challenges. To effectively manage a larger team, supervisors will need automation to help them find the time to coach all team members and to provide alternatives to face to face coaching. Center management will need a safeguard to ensure coaching processes are being executed effectively. With these tools in place, supervisors can manage teams that are up to 20% larger.
I would love to hear your stories about how you are balancing cost reductions and customer retention.
Posted by Kerry Engle on Thu, Aug 06, 2009 @ 05:37 PM
Today's call center staffing theories force you to bucket on-phone and off-phone activities. It is important to understand that if we don't redfine these activities, we will always overstaff our call centers.
This idea was reinforced recently during a research project when we asked call center operations people if they overstaffed for off-phone or "off-line" work in their call center. The overwhelming answer was no! In fact, most people said, "We staff just enough to get both on-phone and off-phone work completed." This response made me think about why these people don't see staffing for off-phone activities as overstaffing? To operations, work is work and they need to staff for it.
What I think we fail to understand is that due to technology some "work" that is now done "off-phone" or "off-line" can be scheduled and delivered to the agent's desktop just like a call. For example, several years ago call centers actually processed "snail" mail. Mail would come into the center and then during call volume downtime, agents would open the mail and process the requests. Today, "snail" mail has been replace with e-mail and now email (off-phone work) is scheduled to be completed while the agent in on the phone.
Today's technology allows us to treat training, communications and coaching the same way. It can be delivered to the agent at their desktop "between" calls. If you follow this type of model you can reduce your staffing needs between 7% and 10% since you won't be staffing people to "cover" calls while others are in training or being coached.
And with people being the largest cost category in a call center, what an impact a savings of 10% could mean to your bottom line!