Introduction to Workforce Management in Call Centers

It’s never easy to manage the sometimes competing demands of customer expectation, worker scheduling, and agent satisfaction. Think of a retail store: demand on a Tuesday evening in February won’t be the same as Black Friday or President’s Day sales.

The same goes for call centers. A well-managed center handles customer inquiries effectively and efficiently while an understaffed call center leads to long wait times and angry customers. The key to being the former is something called workforce management (WFM).

This guide will introduce workforce management, key features, and the benefits of workforce management call center.

Workforce Managment and Call Centers

At the highest level, WFM is strategically aligning resources and people around business goals. On a practical level, call center workforce management means having the necessary amount of agents at the time they’re needed according to demand. WFM refers to the tactics, strategies, and technology solutions you use to optimize schedules and performance.

This probably sounds straightforward and obvious, but call center demand can fluctuate wildly. Call center managers don’t really get much say in scheduling promotions, service outages, or shipping delays.

When you consider that most customers expect omnichannel communication, call centers easily become hectic and complex. Workforce management is the solution.

Key Workforce Management Features

While every call center’s workforce management system will operate a bit differently, they all contain the following key features:

Forecasting: Analyzing past business trends and upcoming events to accurately predict future workloads. Forecasting is the foundation of any WFM system.
Scheduling: Creating shifts so you have the agents you need according to call volume. Good forecasting avoids over- or understaffing your center.
Shift assignments: Ensure you have agents available in the right places. WFM goes beyond simply having the right numbers in place. Effective call centers consider agent skills and experience to deliver the best customer experience.
Real-time management: See the live status of call center employees to have the right people in place to cover a sudden surge in calls or cover an agent who calls out sick.
Time tracking: Track hours, tasks, and overall attendance to optimize your budget and prevent wasted money.
Reporting: Good data and analytics is the key to workforce management. Insights from your WFM platform guide decisions about scheduling, training, and future operations.

Benefits of Workforce Management

Using the features listed above will bring several advantages to your call center and overall business:

Reduced agent costs: Accurately predict the agents you need and save on hiring costs and agent wages.
Easier scheduling: Save time by automating shift coverage to account for mandated breaks.
Better agent performance: Assign agents best suited to specific tasks.
Improved agent satisfaction: Avoid overworking, or underworking, your agents with optimized scheduling and shift assignments.
More satisfied customers: Reduce wait times and have your best agents where they’re needed most to resolve customer tickets successfully and efficiently.

No day is ever really the same at call centers thanks to fluctuations in call center and employee scheduling. However, with the right workforce management, you’ll efficiently weather your metaphorical Black Friday rush.

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