Overview

The Planning feature provides contact centre supervisors with a tool to estimate the required capacity of agents based on historical interaction data. This helps in forecasting staffing needs, optimising workforce distribution, and ensuring service level targets are met. By analysing past call volumes and agent performance, supervisors can make data-driven decisions to enhance efficiency and maintain high-quality customer service.

Accessing the Planning Feature

• Navigate to the Planning menu in the Supervisor application.
• This tool currently supports calculations for voice interactions over a one-week period.
• There is no save function yet, but the capacity planning data can be exported to Excel for further analysis.

Steps to Calculate Required Capacity

Selection Tab

1. Select Routers – Choose the routers that should be referenced to determine the number of calls offered in the past.
2. Choose Medium – Currently, only voice interactions are supported.
3. Select Period – Define the timeframe for retrieving historical interaction data.
4. Define Office Hours – Choose whether data should be limited to weekdays.
5. Select Calculation Unit – Specify the time unit for capacity calculations.
6. Click ‘Check Traffic’ – This retrieves historical traffic data based on the applied filters.

Traffic Tab

• Displays an overview of past call volumes.
• Use the Correction Factor to adjust the number of offered calls to reflect anticipated changes.

Targets Tab

• Define service level goals and response time objectives.

Capacity Tab

• The calculated staffing requirements are displayed per selected time unit.
• The total number of agents required is shown for the defined period.
• The data can be exported to Excel for further use.

Service Level Calculator

The Planning feature includes a Service Level Calculator to estimate staffing needs based on different parameters.

Calculation Options

• Calculate Service Level – Estimates expected service level based on available inputs.
• Calculate Number of Calls – Determines the number of calls that can be handled per hour.
• Calculate Required Agents – Calculates the required number of agents to meet the service level target.
• Calculate Abandon Rate – Predicts the number of abandoned calls.

Additional Considerations

• This tool is designed for short-term planning and does not yet support multi-week forecasting.
• The accuracy of the forecast depends on the quality of past data and selected correction factors.
• The Planning feature does not store past calculations, so it is recommended to export data regularly.

Use Case Example: Planning for Sales, Support, and Accounts Teams

To illustrate how the Planning tool can be used, let's consider a contact centre with three teams: Sales, Support, and Accounts. A supervisor wants to determine the number of agents required for each team based on historical data.

Scenario

• Sales Team: Handles high-volume inbound inquiries regarding new products.
• Support Team: Provides technical assistance and troubleshooting.
• Accounts Team: Manages billing and customer account issues.

Data Inputs

Calculation & Results

Using the Service Level Calculator, the supervisor enters these inputs and calculates the required number of agents:

Insights & Adjustments

• The Sales Team has a high call volume but shorter call durations, requiring more agents to maintain an 80% service level.
• The Support Team has longer calls but fewer overall, allowing fewer agents while still maintaining a 90% service level.
• The Accounts Team requires the least staffing but must meet an 85% service level target, ensuring billing inquiries are handled efficiently.
• The supervisor may use the Correction Factor to account for expected seasonal spikes or promotions affecting Sales calls.

By using the Planning tool, the supervisor can proactively allocate resources, prevent understaffing or overstaffing, and ensure a balanced workload across teams, leading to improved service levels and customer satisfaction.