The ultimate guide to contact center workforce management using AI

One of the biggest challenges of a  contact center manager is workforce management. Not because people are difficult to manage, but because so many external factors have to be considered that, in the end, it seems much more like guesswork. 

But that doesn’t have to be the case. Contact center workforce management greatly impacts contact center performance indicators, such as customer satisfaction and service level. And hitting those indicators takes much more than just assigning shifts—workforce management builds the foundation of a smooth-running contact center, and it can make a big difference if it’s done with the most appropriate tools.

In this blog, we look at the impact of workforce management software in the success of the contact center.

The building blocks of contact center workforce management.

Contact center workforce management includes four parts: forecasting, scheduling, assigning agents, and managing intraday activity. To understand the benefits of having a dedicated contact center workforce management system, you need to understand what each part involves.

Forecasting.

Forecasting includes estimating future query volume and the number of agents needed to handle those queries. Contact center forecasting predicts staff needs with reduced effort and a low error rate, maintaining a high level of service, and ensuring your customer satisfaction rate doesn’t drop.

Forecasting uses historical data—information about seasonal spikes, volume trends, and year-over-year changes that may affect the number of agents needed.

Scheduling.

The next step is to find the perfect balance between the number of available agents and the data provided by forecasts to determine shifts and hours of coverage. With an accurate prevision of future contact center demands, supervisors need to look to the skills of each agent, the contract work rules, and the calendar items to optimize the schedules.

Assigning agents.

This is the most delicate part of the process. Managers and supervisors want their teams to productive without getting overwhelmed. To ensure agents remain engaged and motivated, supervisors usually take into account the level of expertise, length of service, and performance when assigning agents to a specific shift.

Intraday management.

A lot can happen from the moment the supervisor assigns shifts. Contact centers are fast-paced environments with unexpected events (like sick leaves or sudden spikes of volume). Contact center supervisors and managers should be able to easily realign shifts and schedules to meet service levels.

The impact of contact center workforce management.

Other than saving contact center supervisors’ time, is there any other advantage of using workforce management software? Undoubtedly yes. Workforce management has a great impact on:

Agent engagement.

It’s not a difficult equation: happy agents make happy customers. Employees who are motivated and engaged create better experiences for customers. While this is not easy to translate directly to the bottom line, you’ll see the negative effects of distressed, unhappy employees in the long run. Workforce management software allows supervisors to leverage performance data to give better feedback, optimize training, and engage agents with metrics so they feel motivated to perform better.

Customer satisfaction.

Customers don’t care if you’re understaffed. They just want quick, efficient resolution without being put on hold or having to wait for long. Having the right agents available at the right moment is crucial to hitting targets in customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and providing a superior customer experience.