Working Hand In Hand to Deliver the Customer Experience - Workforce Management and Intelligent Routing

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1 1 Working Hand In Hand to Deliver the Customer Experience - Workforce Management and Created by Jamie Pickup Workforce Optimisation Business Consultant Sabio Workforce Management and Call Routing systems are often seen as mutually exclusive, operating independently and being administered by separate groups of people with little or no overlap or consideration of the impact of one on the other. In reality these two systems work best in tandem, supporting each other in an environment where there is an underlying reliance on the predictability of the data that each system generates. With increased focus on bringing value to customers and augmenting the customer experience, it becomes fundamentally more important to consider the collaborative efforts of both of these systems - allowing them to work hand in hand and driving the benefits both to the business and the customer. The Common Objective Routing design is a complex process, with the main consideration being the need to identify the customer and connect them with a correctly skilled agent, while also still collecting the maximum amount of information possible in order to streamline the call. Considerations also have to be given to the different options presented to the customer, their route through the IVR, and also to ensuring that agents are prepared and have the right skill sets to deal with enquiries when they are presented with interactions. From the customer s perspective, the call started when they picked the phone up and dialled the number, but from the agent s point of view it has only just begun. So how did the caller come to be talking to the agent they were presented to? Was it solely due to their IVR choices? Was it due to their identity or their status? Was it due to the skill set or priority level of the agent? Was it because there were calls in the queue already, and that their call had been re-routed because of the organisation s requirement to meet a specific service level? These are just some of the decisions continually being made at a routing level that impact where each caller will land. However, from the other side of the coin, it is the decisions taken about how, where and when to schedule agents that force the ACD into making the routing decisions in the first place. At a resource planning level there are also many considerations. First and foremost there is a requirement for accurate forecasting. Any schedule that has been optimised against a forecast will suffer if the forecast is not accurate a schedule of % accuracy is fundamentally still at the mercy of the contact volume and profile predictions. Once agent requirements have been determined, the level of agent flexibility needs to be built in, along with their skill sets and capabilities. After factoring these in it is often then a requirement to make the results fair on the agents, to schedule in teams, to group by start times and to balance the workload all while still meeting interval-based requirements precisely. When considering the intended outcome, the common aim is quite clear meeting the needs of the customer, while also addressing the ongoing requirements of both the business and its employees.

2 Working Together The -Stage Planning Cycle Challenges of a Non-Optimised Schedule 1 So if the objective is a common one, how do the systems work together? To address this the Planning Process is split into three main stages Planning and Routing Definition; Intraday Management, and Reporting and Analysis - within which many sub processes occur. The first stage essentially involves Planning and Routing Definition. In this stage agent skill sets are defined and decisions made about how calls are delivered. Meanwhile the Planning team inputs these agent skills profiles into Workforce Management along with the availability, flexibility and cultural requirements of each agent and location with the ultimate aim of mirroring the ACD routing set up to allow accurate simulation to take place. It is this mirroring of systems that is inherently intrinsic to the success of each. Inaccuracies in either system can ultimately lead to the simulated model - and hence physical schedule - being out of alignment, so impacting both the performance of the centre and the customer experience. As mentioned earlier, non-optimised schedules suffer from a number of symptoms. Too many full-time shifts, shift overlaps and limited start times particularly can cause high idle time and availability issues. Non-optimised schedules also make it harder to staff for peaks, since meeting these spikes would just incur the cost of additional overstaffing at other times. From the customer and agent perspective a schedule like this causes: High wait times at certain times of day and quick answer times at others, mirrored with low and high agent availability respectively Spikes and dips in the that can make the day unpredictable often the centre will rely on % performance at certain times of day to counter poor performance at others High costs but agents and customers who are still unhappy leading to an imbalanced workplace While simulating this model, it is the objective of the Workforce Management system and the Planning team to streamline and optimise the schedule, reducing the amount of available time or wasted time throughout the day in order to maximise occupancy and utilisation. It is with this optimisation that the area of highest cost within the centre its staff can be addressed, as accurately forecasted requirements and a tightly aligned schedule can typically save up to 15% of the staffing costs of non-optimised centres. Schedule fit Addressing staffing levels correctly is crucial for meeting customer satisfaction levels, for the contact centre s efficiency as well as for overall agent morale. Overstaffing leads to unnecessarily high labour costs and low productivity, with large amounts of white space in the schedule and thus high availability. Understaffing, however, leads to poor performance, agent burnout, high attrition and long customer waiting times. Addressing this imbalance is at the core of successful Workforce Management projects, and the business adoption of this system and supporting processes is key to driving and realising the benefit. Optimised Planning So how do we get from a sub-optimal schedule to an efficient one? Schedule optimisation relies not just on the functionality of the WFM software but also on the skills of the people using it. Detailed analysis and decision-making are required to realise the best results, while ongoing business support in the rollout and effectiveness of WFM projects is key to their ultimate success. Often the software is seen as the solution, but in reality the people and supporting processes are also key. During this initial planning process, the decisions required to drive accurate, streamlined and efficient performance are presented through precise modelling and simulation within the Workforce Management system, with the subsequent delivery of this model driven through the Intraday decision making of the optimised call routing platform. Essentially the systems work together, hand in hand, to make the model a reality. Many considerations go into developing an optimised schedule, and include (but are not limited to): Targets Agent availability Agent flexibility Shift Lengths full or part-time agents Fairness early and late shifts, weekend work Preferred start times Agent skills and priorities Overflow or reserve agents Shrinkage factors (Absence, Non Call Handling, Adherence)

3 Each of these factors impacts where the agent can be scheduled, and it s the task of the WFM system to put them in the right place to meet contact demand. An aligned or optimised schedule reduces the areas of overstaffing and minimises spikes in. This helps improve the customer experience and balancing the agent workload, therefore reducing burnout, attrition and improving the customer experience no matter what time of day they call. As a result of the increased visibility that WFM provides, the day becomes more predictable and any available time can be identified in advance - further reducing wasted time and improving occupancy levels. There are many advantages to this: Other teams/departments (back office/ teams etc) can be brought into play automatically, as and when required. There is no requirement to ask people to log in / out of the phone when Service Level is breached as the ACD has already predicted it and is routing to these skilled agents accordingly. The requirement for hiring staff is reduced, since reserve agents are only used at peak time, as and when required. To hire dedicated staff obviously carries a cost and could result in overstaffing and the non-optimised symptoms mentioned earlier. The customer experience is improved. Again, from the customer perspective they are delivered to a skilled agent who can deal with their call. The intelligence of the strategy is seamless and invisible to them. Occupancy rates of existing agents are protected. Bringing the reserve agents into the equation can provide much needed relief at peak times. Optimal WFM Schedule However, optimised schedules are still only as accurate as local or cultural restrictions will allow. For example the contact centre may be in a location where demographics makes it hard to recruit part time staff, or the availability and flexibility of certain types of agents restricts the times of day where they can be scheduled. Also, call peaks often don t last for very long perhaps only a couple of hours - whereas the minimum shift length of staff is restricted to four. As a consequence, while being as accurate as it could be, the planned schedule does not match exactly the interval-based requirements - and resulting s delivered are still prone to spikes and troughs. The very nature of Poisson distribution contact arrivals - a Poisson distribution shows the frequency probability of specific events when the average probability of a single occurrence is known - also contributes to this, since contacts do not arrive at an even and steady rate over any given interval. Optimal WFM Schedule Smoothing through Reserve Agents and Interruptible AUX So how do we address this? Intelligent routing can provide the answer. The availability of Reserve Agents helps massively with both overall and its consistent and smooth Intraday delivery removing many of the troughs and stabilising periods of SL volatility. It is this process that supports the analogy of WFM and Routing being like the two different sides of sandpaper one side is coarse and lays the preparation and foundation for the other, smoother side to deliver the polished finish. Further functionality from the ACD allows interruptible auxiliary modes to further protect where necessary. In this scenario the ACD would look to agents who usually sit in AUX (idle) and automatically sends a message asking them to become available to their handset at times where they are needed. Again, this is a feature designed to protect and minimise the impact on the customer experience. Reserve routings allows the ACD platform to look beyond the initial group of agents, comparatively expanding the agent pool when the wait time is predicted to encroach over a preconfigured time. The ACD platform calculates the expected wait time of each call, and delivers it within the relevant agent group, with the aim of protecting s and maintaining the customer experience.

4 Automated Call Backs Intraday Management 4 At times of peak demand, there is also a higher than average risk of the customer abandoning the call altogether. Intelligent routing makes it possible to automate and optimise a call back process. If the expected wait time reaches a threshold, an announcement can be played to the customer asking them if they would like to remain in the queue or receive a call back. There are two options for this. Either the customer could remain in the queue and the system call them back when their call is ready to be delivered to an agent (as though the customer had stayed on the phone the whole time), or the call back can be scheduled for a period where there is predicted availability. The second stage of the planning process involves Intraday Management, to provide focus and to deliver and execute the plan accurately. The collaborative effort of each system now sees the business following the schedule and the ACD supporting it by routing the calls as designed. This stage of the process usually involves a person or dedicated function monitoring both the ACD and WFM - making real time decisions and adjustments to protect. But what if the day isn t quite going to plan? What options are available in real-time? Key processes and tools exist to ensure successful delivery include: BEFORE time/minutes AFTER Forecasting accuracy Is the day going to plan? - As mentioned earlier the schedule is only as good as the forecast allows if the forecast is wrong, the whole plan is wrong. A process is required to ensure that if the forecast is not accurate, it is corrected as soon as possible and schedule changes made to improve the alignment. announcement Customer Rejects announcement CallBack offered Customer Accepts Call details captured Customer hangs up Agent receives caller details and message and is connected to caller automatically Activity Optimisation Once the forecast has been corrected the plan can then be aligned through Optimisation moving breaks, lunches, meetings and any other activities to provide a better schedule fit. These changes can then be communicated instantly through agent self service tools as well as through and pop ups. Agent Adherence Are the agents following the plan correctly? - The plan can only be successful if the key people the agents follow it. If too many people are off the phones at the same time, service level will suffer, as well as raising occupancy levels and making everyone else work harder. The graphic below shows the effect on service level when just three more agents than planned become unavailable to take calls. Service level drops to nearly half of what it was and the customer waiting time increases by over seconds. This has the effect of shifting the demand to previous areas of wasted time, thus improving occupancy and again, balancing performance. It is common in schedules where there is an imbalance of full-time and part-time agents for this availability to be visible during the middle of the day. This process directly addresses that availability. Move demand Smoothing through Avgtalk: 1s Avg After Call Work: 0Sec 50calls in 0 Minutes 0 Seconds - Goal Prob Avg delay Svc Agt Agents Delay ASA Delayed Lvl Occ 0 8.8% % 97% 1 65.% % 94% 50.7% % 91% 8.8% % 88% 4 9.% % 86% 5 1.8% % 8% % % 81% % % 79% 8 8.1% % 77% 9 5.6% % 75%.8% % 7% 41.6% % 69% A robust adherence process can save the average centre up to 1.5 minutes of productive time per agent per day a potential % reduction in the number of FTEs required to meet s. Through feeds from the ACD and functionality in WFM these processes are made possible and the outcomes of Intraday decisions made visible instantly. This supports the business needs and again protects both service level and the customer experience.

5 5 Reporting and Analysis The final stage of the cycle involves Reporting and Analysis or being able to learn from what happened in order to improve the accuracy of the plan next time around. Decisions can be based on reports and KPIs, with findings fed into the cycle to improve performance in the future. It is a cyclical process that should be seen as both revolving and evolving at the same time, with the business continually learning from the data being captured, and processes refined on an ongoing basis. Various reports exist within both the ACD reporting suite and within WFM to help centres learn and improve. These reports can be both run and ed automatically to the relevant people within the business and - where required - ad-hoc reports can also be produced, tailoring the systems to specific requirements. Some of the most useful reports are: Campaign and queue performance Forecasting Accuracy Scheduled Hours and shrinkage Adherence To match the availability of the reports, the skills of the people analysing them are key. The business must be able to understand and analyse them, and put the results to work in order to make visible and targeted recommendations to drive the business forward.!? PEOPLE TECHNOLOGY PROCESS Natural Partners a plan you can trust! Together and effective WFM should work in partnership. WFM provides the right people, in the right place at the right time, while sophisticated routing complements this by delivering the calls to the correct agents, smoothing the peaks and balancing skills - maximising the performance of the centre in real-time. Together they deliver efficiency and the best possible customer experience, allowing you to make informed business decisions while also providing an increase in predictable available productive time - thus allowing the business to further utilise time previously lost. Having a plan you can trust gives the business confidence - both in its ability to make decisions, as well as in providing a solid and consistent customer experience. However, its not just software that makes this possible the software should only really be the enabler in the equation. The role that people and processes play in the overall success of an integrated WFM and project are key, and investment needs to be made in adequate training and providing employees with an working environment in which to thrive. Too often businesses invest in software on the assumption that it alone will solve the problem. Invariably they forget that the people using the software are actually the creative resource that makes transformation possible. Team structure and role definition are therefore crucial, while processes must also be aligned to business requirements. The culture of the business plays a huge role, and it s important that everyone involved buys into the process, otherwise the goal will be undermined and become much harder to attain. When buying software, consideration should also be given to the strength of the services package that supports it. Businesses are often sold on features and benefits, initial software and training is provided, and the vendor then effectively disappears. At Sabio we specialise in delivering exceptional customer contact strategies and solutions, and putting them to work in our clients businesses to deliver tangible benefits. We understand that the software is only part of the solution, which is why we also offer skills such as business consulting, systems integration and managed services to complement our best-of-breed technology offer. Contact Sabio on , info@sabio.co.uk or visit Sabio Enterprise House 1- Hatfields London SE1 9PG Sabio Global Support Centre Tontine House 8 Gordon Street Glasgow G1 PL Sabio Solutions (APAC) 8 Marina View Asia Square Tower 1 Level Singapore 0189 Sabio Limited Registered in England Number Registered office: Enterprise House, 1- Hatfields, London SE1 9PG. Product names mentioned herein maybe trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies. The information contained in this brochure is subject to change without notice. Sabio shall not be liable for errors or admissions contained herein. Terms and conditions apply. E&OE.