Forecasting Service Levels In Absence of WFM

Forecasting Service Levels In Absence of WFM

Would be interested in any suggestions on forecasting service levels in the absence of having access to a WFM tool.

My objective is to predict based on a certain number of calls and certain number of agents an idea of what a service level will be. Ideally WFM would be useful but its not an option at present!

Question asked by DublinB

Start with an Erlang Calculator

Here would be a good place to start:-

Erlang C Calculator Excel – Including Shrinkage

You’ll have to play on a trial and error basis, but, it

should get you going in the right direction.

With thanks to applebyd

Excel Based Forecasting Tool

Hi

I developed an Excel based forecasting tool before the company invested in a WFM programme and as Dave has already advised you will need to use the Erlang calculation for staff scheduling.

Although it’s a bit of a long winded process, it always worked well for us.

Regards

With thanks to suet

Online Forecasting Tool

There is also an online Forecasting tool

https://www.callcentrehelper.com/forecasting-tool-97883.htm

Thanks to Jonty

An Excel Sheet

we had a very old system so i did an excel sheet that did the following:

a. Got the average calls per 30 per day

b. Got the average length of each call

c. Then calculated the average calls a Agent can receive within 30 min based on the average call lenght i.e. each agent can receive 10 calls per 30 min

d. Divided the number of calls by 10 and worked out how many people i would need.

e. I compared last years week on week stats with this years in order to find a patern (taking in consideration time of year i.e. when business gets a bit busier.

Cheers

With thanks to rikus

The Erlang tool

The Erlang tool which can be downloaded from the web is OK but not a good prediction method. The problem is that it looks at each time block (eg: 15 minute span) as an entity in itself and doesn’t consider that a loss of service level in the previous 15 minutes will have an effect as calls roll over.

Remember, a WFM system tends to run scenarios where a loss of service impacts on subsequent time blocks.

With thanks to Jack7176

Erlang will only ever model in intervals

The Erlang tool which can be downloaded from the web is OK but not a good prediction method. The problem is that it looks at each time block (eg: 15 minute span) as an entity in itself and doesn’t consider that a loss of service level in the previous 15 minutes will have an effect as calls roll over.

This is true, however…..

Erlang will only ever model in intervals, I’m not sure how service level from one interval can affect the next directly, bar repeat callers.

The only exception I can see is in long queue times, as you put it ‘rolling over’ the interval break, and, yes, whilst a WFM system may *allow* for this, it isn’t normally an integral part of the function.

It may be that you are looking at Erlang in an Intraday model? If that is the case you will be correct as it doe not have any sense of ‘History’.

Although, loading your exant model factored for the day-to-date WILL then start to model in this fashion.

With thanks to applebyd

Agents too are stressed out at the end of the day

Hi

i am unable to cope with the present call volumes receiving & the agents too are stressed out at the end of the day. Peak time starts in the evening for a volume of 4,000 + calls withe only 22 agents manned..

With thanks to brian

Erlang Calculator May Help

Brian

Ouch! By my simple calculations this works out as 181 calls per agent per day which is way beyond most business norms.

You have not indicated what type of business you are in, but I tend to see most contact centres running between 45 and 85 calls per agent per day. At this level call quality will drop off and your agents will get burnt out.

In a nutshell you need more agents. Possibly twice as many as you have now.

You probably need to use something like our free Erlang calculator to calculate the number of staff required. https://www.callcentrehelper.com/erlang-c-calculator-2473.htm

Then you need to start writing a business case.

What sort of business are you in?

With thanks to Jonty

Predict Service Level

Hi guys,

Is there a way that i can predict the ending service level for the day? given i have the average abandon rate.

thanks,

Cire

With thanks to Cire

Email Calculator

Hi, I’m looking to find or design a calculator that would work out how much headcount I would need on a daily basis to work mail. IE – I have 450 pieces of mail coming in on a Monday, with 350 already allocated to work left from the weekend and advisors close around 35 pieces of mail a day on average – how many advisors would I need for Monday?. I know it’s a simple excel calculation but I’m just useless when it comes to excel. Any help or support would be great.

With thanks to L

We don’t have a WFM tool to schedule

Hi we are a small organizations and hence do not have a WFM tool to schedule. However, we have an excel based application that helps us to predict the number of agents required and the SL for each interval.

I would want to know a formula that even predicts the ABND% for each interval. Also based on the staffing for each interval can we also get the SL% for the entire day (prediction).

Regards

With thanks to asipoy

Scheduling Calculator

You can get a basic idea of scheduling from the Erlang Calculator if you select the number of calls over a day, week or month option.

https://www.callcentretools.com/tools/erlang-calculator/

Thanks to Jonty