Forecast Average Speed of Answer

Forecast Average Speed of Answer

I currently have a headcount of 111 and I am looking to reduce it to 64, how can I forecast for the ASA to see how much it will increase? The abandon rate is 5% and AHT Target 480, ASA Target is 30.

Question asked by V

Service Level Time Will Increase to Hours

Cutting this number of heads will have a drastic effect on service quality.

You can put all the numbers in to an Erlang Calculator to see the impact.

As the old adage says “you can’t fit 2 pints in a 1 pint glass”

With thanks to Jonty

Calculation to Determine ASA?

I have projected call volumes of 20,496, 17,442, 19,308, 18014, 17,867. How can I calculate the Forecasted ASA if I reduce the headcount from 111 to 64?

With thanks to V

First Read This Article

First read this article How to Work Out How Many Staff You Need in a Contact Centre

Then you can put all the numbers in to an Erlang Calculator to see the impact.

With thanks to Jonty

Input Would Be Appreciated

First of all, thank you for sharing these resources! Really helpful.

I am trying to build a model to predict # of FTEs required at a retail location where staff would be resolving customer queries. I believe I can use your call centre model for the same purpose.

However, I have one question. If i look at the equation for Average Speed Answer (ASA), I can re-write the equation as follows:

No of agents = Traffic intensity + Pw * (AHT/ASA)

Now if I know traffic intensity and AHT (based on historical volume), can I define ASA as the “average wait time” (let’s say 300 seconds) and Pw at 25% (i.e. 25% of my customers will have to wait) to calculate the optimal # of agents.

Is this logic sound or I am missing something? Also, does Erlang approach apply to this situation as well or I am missing something?

Any input would be highly appreciated!

With thanks to Gautam

Difficult to Tell

I think you are following this article: Erlang C Formula – Made Simple With an Easy Worked Example

I’ve not seem it written the other way but rewriting the does seem correct.

The flaw is with Pw at 25% (i.e. 25% of my customers will have to wait). I think that the Pw is not an input – it is derived from the Erlang formula based on service level.

But difficult to tell without a detailed look through the maths.

You must also factor in shrinkage and occupancy.

The alternate would be to see how well it models against the Erlang calculator

With thanks to Jonty

Author: Jonty Pearce