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Accurate forecasting is critical to successfully managing your call center. In order to meet call demand and avoid under- or over-staffing, you need methods that precisely predicts how many agents are needed to handle the center's call volume, and also methods that help you "re-calculate" if the the call volume fluctuates more than anticipated. Here are 5 considerations and methods that should help you improve forecast accuracy:
The importance of accurate forecasting: First, take a look why an accurate forecast is crucial.
How to improve forecasting with simulation tools: Anticipating the "future" is not easy, therefore, running simulations with different assumptions helps to better predict call volumes.
How to forecast special days: There are certain days that are difficult to forecast, or are important for the business. Here are some tips on how to deal with those.
How to do "intra-day" call forecasting: One of the biggest forecasting challenge is related to unpredictable call volume fluctuations - here are some "intra-day" tips.
How to forecast for multiple channels: As more communication channels open up (phone, email, chat, social media) you have to add those to your forecasting scenarios.
Accurate forecasting is critical to successfully managing your workforce. In order to meet call demand without under-staffing or over-staffing, you need methods that precisely predicts how many agents are needed to handle the center's contact volume. However, predicting the “future” is challenging. Based on a DMG report in 2010, survey participants listed the following five forecasting challenges:
Need to forecast for multiple skill sets
Changing business needs negate usefulness of historical volume data
Volume driven by external events, not controlled by company
Volume is seasonal varies greatly
Volume patterns change frequently, making projections difficult
Here are some tips and best practices that might help you:
Develop "what if" scenarios to explore how a change in call volume or service level goals during a specific day or week would affect your center.
Create regular intra-day forecast updates throughout the day, and calculate a new forecast based on what has already occurred to establish trends that will help you in future decisions. Read more about “Intra-day forecasting”
Forecast and schedule based on response time and "urgency” of the various channels, such as calls, emails and chat.
Analyze call history data for previous and similar periods:
Consider: Growth factor, day of the week, etc.
Apply weight: Highest weight for recent year/month/day
In step two, you need to predict daily and interval call volume. With an WFM solution this is all processed and calculated automatically, but here are the key elements. You have to break down the forecast into monthly, daily, etc. intervals and also apply the "special day" effect (in italic below). The following is an example for 4th of July:
Forecast for year = 382,572
July percentage = 9.38%
Wednesday percentage = 16%
Impact of July 4th = 30%
10:00 to 10:30 proportion of day = 5.2%
In addition, you should adjust for other known influences, such as:
Internal: Planned marketing campaigns, events, news, etc.
External: Weather, season, consumer trends, etc.
The importance of accurate forecasting: First, take a look why an accurate forecast is crucial.
How to improve forecasting with simulation tools: Anticipating the "future" is not easy, therefore, running simulations with different assumptions helps to better predict call volumes.
How to forecast special days: There are certain days that are difficult to forecast, or are important for the business. Here are some tips on how to deal with those.
How to do "intra-day" call forecasting: One of the biggest forecasting challenge is related to unpredictable call volume fluctuations - here are some "intra-day" tips.
How to forecast for multiple channels: As more communication channels open up (phone, email, chat, social media) you have to add those to your forecasting scenarios.
Accurate forecasting is critical to successfully managing your workforce. In order to meet call demand without under-staffing or over-staffing, you need methods that precisely predicts how many agents are needed to handle the center's contact volume. However, predicting the “future” is challenging. Based on a DMG report in 2010, survey participants listed the following five forecasting challenges:
Need to forecast for multiple skill sets
Changing business needs negate usefulness of historical volume data
Volume driven by external events, not controlled by company
Volume is seasonal varies greatly
Volume patterns change frequently, making projections difficult
Here are some tips and best practices that might help you:
Develop "what if" scenarios to explore how a change in call volume or service level goals during a specific day or week would affect your center.
Create regular intra-day forecast updates throughout the day, and calculate a new forecast based on what has already occurred to establish trends that will help you in future decisions. Read more about “Intra-day forecasting”
Forecast and schedule based on response time and "urgency” of the various channels, such as calls, emails and chat.
Analyze call history data for previous and similar periods:
Consider: Growth factor, day of the week, etc.
Apply weight: Highest weight for recent year/month/day
In step two, you need to predict daily and interval call volume. With an WFM solution this is all processed and calculated automatically, but here are the key elements. You have to break down the forecast into monthly, daily, etc. intervals and also apply the "special day" effect (in italic below). The following is an example for 4th of July:
Forecast for year = 382,572
July percentage = 9.38%
Wednesday percentage = 16%
Impact of July 4th = 30%
10:00 to 10:30 proportion of day = 5.2%
In addition, you should adjust for other known influences, such as:
Internal: Planned marketing campaigns, events, news, etc.
External: Weather, season, consumer trends, etc.
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today’s call centers are really contact centers, accessible not just by phone but email and online chat as well. Forecasting staff needs for all of these channels is difficult with spreadsheets, but manageable with WFM.
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For some contact centers with very limited call volume fluctuation, a spreadsheet may suffice. But how many of these businesses experience the same call flows all the time? Better to be prepared for whatever tomorrow has in store, with an automated workforce management solution.
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forecasting has become one of the most significant daily challenges on a manager’s schedule. But it’s a challenge that becomes manageable with a workforce management (WFM) solution that handles much of the processing and calculations automatically.
Unfortunately, many call centers are still working with Excel spreadsheets to create forecasts. And these spreadsheets simply do not have the same functionality as WFM solutions
Unfortunately, many call centers are still working with Excel spreadsheets to create forecasts. And these spreadsheets simply do not have the same functionality as WFM solutions
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