Three Metrics to Ensure an Accurate Contact Centre Forecast, Every Time

Forecasting for the contact centre is tough.

Understaffed businesses can result in long wait times for customers and leave agents frustrated and even unmotivated. Customers may be forgiving of long wait times once, but don’t expect them to be forgiving if it happens regularly.

On the other hand, labour costs are typically 70-80 percent of the budget, and overstaffing further bloats costs.

An accurate forecast means you have the right agents available with the right skills at the right time. It’s critical to a successful customer experience. So how do companies find the balance to keep both employees and customers happy?

First, it’s important to decide what constitutes success. Without proper context, it’s impossible to develop an accurate forecast. Typically, +/- 5 percent accuracy is the industry standard, but the maths isn’t always that simple. For example, if the target is set at 100 contacts, 106 contacts will show as failure, meaning contact centres can’t always rely on industry standards when setting goals.

After defining success, it’s important to determine metrics. Here are the top three metrics contact centre managers should use to ensure an accurate forecast, every time:

Contact (call) volume

How many calls your contact centre receives is a critical piece of the forecasting puzzle. But it’s not the only piece. That data should not be used to simply look ahead; it should also be used to see how closely the forecast interactions match the actual number of contacts. With this complete view, you’ll be able to make adjustments to achieve greater accuracy.

Handle time

How long your agents need to resolve an inquiry, or handle time, will give you an idea of agent availability to answer new requests. However, call handle time shouldn’t be based on just the first transaction, but on the entire series of subsequent calls that are related to the same case.

Daily contact arrival pattern

Also known as Forecast Accuracy by Interval, daily contact arrival patterns show the busiest and slowest times of day. This allows you to determine the number of agents you need to manage daily peaks and valleys. From there, you’ll be able to account for schedule inflexibility. This ensures the scheduling plan matches the number of agents required to handle the work to the required staffing based on the forecast workload and the assumptions.

While these numbers are important, how you gather them should be equally considered. Be sure to use real-time and historical data across specific time periods and apply prior year trending data to compensate for the increases or decreases in call volume. In addition, don’t forget to include non-phone interactions such as chat and email, because those still require time and resources from your team.

Forecasting is crucial to staffing a contact centre that consistently meets customer needs. When done effectively, it improves the experience for employees and customers while effectively managing budgets. With the right metrics and data, contact centre managers can take the pain out of the process and create an accurate forecast, assuming business as usual, every single time.

Thanks to Kat Worman, WFM Product Owner, Calabrio