How do you balance the workload and staffing needs of different channels? (original) (raw)

Last updated on Jul 15, 2024

Powered by AI and the LinkedIn community

Balancing the workload and staffing needs of different channels is a key challenge for any contact center that wants to provide a seamless omnichannel customer experience. Customers expect to receive consistent, timely, and personalized service across multiple channels, such as phone, email, chat, social media, and self-service. How can you ensure that your agents are well-equipped and well-distributed to handle the varying demands and preferences of your customers? Here are some tips to help you optimize your omnichannel contact center operations.

Top experts in this article

Selected by the community from 15 contributions. Learn more

• Data is key: Use historical data to understand channel-specific trends in customer volume, peak times, and interaction types. This analysis helps in predicting the workload across channels. Match agents' skills with the channels they excel in. Ensure agents are trained and proficient in handling various channels, allowing for flexible deployment based on demand. Establish protocols for handling different types of interactions. For instance, prioritizing urgent or sensitive issues on channels like live chat or phone while allowing email for less time-sensitive queries.

• Understanding your customer journey is crucial for balancing workload and staffing needs across different channels. 🌟 By leveraging customer journey mapping, analytics, and feedback, you can pinpoint the most effective touchpoints and tailor your resources accordingly. Segmenting customers based on demographics and behaviors allows for a more personalized approach, ensuring that your channel strategy aligns perfectly with customer expectations. This not only enhances customer satisfaction but also optimizes operational efficiency. 🚀

• In my experience, understanding your customer journey is crucial for balancing workload across channels e.g. use customer journey mapping and analytics to identify preferred channels for different types of inquiries. This allows you to align staffing strategy with customer expectations, optimizing efficiency while maintaining high service quality

• From my experience in roadside assistance, consider seasonality and ensure you have the right skills in the right place at the right moment. Effective workforce management is key: monitor KPIs like Average Handle Time (AHT) through a real-time dashboard to adapt swiftly to changes. This proactive approach not only optimizes efficiency but also enhances service quality, ensuring your contact center meets demand without overburdening agents.

• AI-powered workforce management tools for forecasting and scheduling are only just starting to emerge but in my experience are game changers.

• AI-based forecasting and scheduling definitely have the potential to be game-changers. They deliver the sort of forecast accuracy and schedule fit that used to require teams of experts, much more quickly and easily. Let’s not forget, however, that human intelligence is at least as important as artificial intelligence when it comes to planning. Frequently you will be aware of upcoming events that didn’t occur in the past and are ‘invisible’ to the algorithms. You need to enrich your forecast with business intelligence about things like marketing campaigns, price changes, new product launches, etc.

• For me, equip agents with the skills and knowledge through tailored courses that foster growth and adaptability. Empowered agents deliver quality service, manage workload fluctuations, and enhance customer satisfaction. This proactive approach ensures your contact center operates smoothly across all channels, meeting diverse demands with confidence and efficiency.

• It's important to cross-train agents. In my role, I am cross-trained in Phone, Chat, Email, and Social Media. I have never been told to switch over from my main channel (Social Media) but I enjoy the opportunity to pick up extra hours in the other departments when available.

• One time at work, we faced challenges with inconsistent service quality across channels. To address this, we implemented a cross-channel training program, empowering agents to handle multiple touchpoints effectively. We also introduced a unified desktop solution, giving agents access to relevant customer information regardless of the channel. This approach significantly improved our ability to balance workload and maintain consistent service levels.

• Unified desktops, knowledge bases and CRM are important parts of empowerment. But empowerment is also about giving agents the autonomy and delegated authority they need to help customers without having to escalate every non-standard query to a team leader. That comes with risks and can’t be done overnight, but apart from anything else, it increases first-contact resolution, which customers looove.

• As other contributors mentioned, real-time monitoring is vital. When it comes to taking corrective action, the best contact centers have in place a ‘playbook’ or ’escalation plan’ that describes the action they take when certain trigger events occur, who takes that action, and when. E.g. if service level dips below target for 2 intervals, team leaders log in as agents. The playbook has to be pre-agreed by all the stakeholders and ideally ‘war gamed’ before being put into use. With a playbook, real-time management becomes more pro-active and less reactive.

• Personally, I continuously measure performance metrics and KPIs, leveraging customer feedback and quality assurance data. This data-driven approach ensures operational efficiency and service excellence. By monitoring trends and adjusting staffing levels accordingly, I can maintain optimal service levels across all channels, meeting customer expectations effectively.

• In my experience, real-time monitoring and adjustment are key to maintaining balance across channels. quickly identify and address any imbalances, shifting resources as needed to maintain optimal service levels and prevent bottlenecks.

• One time at work, we faced a sudden spike in chat volume during a promotional campaign. To address this, we quickly mobilized a cross-functional team of agents from other channels who had received chat training. This flexible approach allowed us to maintain service levels without compromising quality on other channels. It highlighted the importance of having a versatile, multi-skilled workforce to effectively balance workload across channels.

• Start with a robust capacity plan that is the sum of all the parts , not based on a single overall volume/AHT as smaller volumes will require inflated FTE. Multiskilled staff, set priorities on the ACD where possible to accommodate volumes- however, absolute key to achieving set goals is a competent, dynamic Real Time Team to adapt and manoeuvre on the day, feeding back to WFM of unexpected outliers.

More relevant reading

``