Erlang C for Chat?

Can anyone who has successfully implemented the Erlang model for chat staffing give me a hand?

We have 24/7 chats coming in and agents can take 3 chats at a time (sometimes more). Is it as simple as use Erlang, then divide the number of agents required by the number of chats they can handle at once?

Question asked by gburr

Chat Calculation

I think that you will be able to use Erlang OK, but you may need to play around with it. I think that you would need to just divide the “call” duration by a factor to see how you get on.

With thanks to Jonty

Problem Still Exists

I have this exact problem has anyone come up with a solution for this? Jonty’s idea above wasn’t ideal. Does anyone have a solution?

With thanks to Carlyn

I Have Amended By Previous Post

The solution is not ideal, but it is the most widely used.

Because AHT goes up as you increase concurrency you start to loose any real benefit. So you need to experiement with a factor to get a rough approximation.

It is possible to model this in Excel by mapping your Chat Volumes against concurrency, AHT, concurrent AHT and staffing numbers. You can then do some regression to work out a lookup table or a polynomial curve that fits your business.

If you send me some of your Live Chat reports I can probably run these calculations for you.

With thanks to Jonty