The question many contact centre leaders find themselves asking is ‘what hours should the contact centre be open?’ In this article we delve into the factors that need to be considered when deciding on opening hours and how to determine what works for your contact centre. Contact Centre Opening Hours Matter More Than You Think The hours a contact centre is open for help determine the effectiveness, efficiency and reputation of the organization and the service provided. Contact centres need to strike the right balance between managing operational costs and meeting customer needs. It is, howeve ..read more

The role of the contact centre agent is challenging and can lead to burnout. This results in high rates of absenteeism and attrition too – but fortunately, this can be prevented! That’s why we asked our expert panel for their top tips and advice on reducing absence, agent burnout, and attrition. Here’s what they said… 1. Monitor Schedule Adherence With a Human Touch Isabel Lim It’s crucial to make sure that agents adhere to their schedules, but it’s equally important to understand and empathize with necessary deviations. This means recognizing that situations such as extended customer interact ..read more

Can AI really predict the future? You’ve probably heard countless forecasting solutions claiming AI capabilities, but let’s face it, often it feels more like marketing hype than actual science. Is AI-driven forecasting just a buzzword, or is there something more substantial behind it? Isabel Lim at injixo explains AI-driven forecasting and gives a look inside injixo Forecast The Evolution of Forecasting: From Manual to AI-Driven Methods Manual Forecasting Forecasting in workforce management has evolved significantly over the years. Traditionally, manual forecasting was a laborious task with sp ..read more

AI (artificial intelligence) continues to be big news. There is no shortage of opinion about whether AI represents a boon to society, a new industrial revolution, whether it presages the end of civilization as we know it, or all of the above. There is great uncertainty about what an AI-powered future holds for individuals, businesses, and governments. What is certain is that nearly every software vendor is jumping on the AI bandwagon. Workforce management (WFM) vendors are no exception and there is currently a lot of hype about AI in WFM. To make matters worse, many vendors are conflating auto ..read more

Is your mail delivered by a horse-drawn carriage? Do you write out all of your messages using a quill or a typewriter? Do you do your laundry with a washboard? We can only imagine (and honestly, hope) that you’re shaking your head right now. Sure, those old ways of doing things held up for a while. But as the world moved forward and technology advanced, there were plenty of ways to get them done better and faster. Making that happen meant adapting to change and adjusting our routines — which can admittedly feel daunting in the moment. But nearly anybody would argue it’s a worthy tradeoff. The ..read more

Click here for this webinar recording. There’s always room for improvement when it comes to Workforce Management, but over time it can become increasingly difficult to decide where best to focus your efforts for maximum impact. If you’re concerned your strategy has become stale, join this webinar for fresh inspiration and new ways to optimise your Workforce Management. Panellists: Dan Smitley, WFM Expert Click here to view the slides Graeme Gabriel, NICE Click here to view the slides Megan Jones, Call Centre Helper What You Will Learn: What the best contact centres are doing with their ..read more

Brian Sze at Assembled explains how to move beyond WFM and what it takes to accomplish workforce optimization. Running a high-functioning customer support operation can feel like being a magician. While there are many activities going on behind the scenes, most people only see the final, seamlessly executed illusion. They’re not really aware of just how much time and energy you put into what you do. It’s impressive that you’re able to make a difficult job look effortless, but perhaps you’re ready for it to feel that way, too. You’re aiming for the customer support equivalent of going from a ma ..read more

It’s 10am and call volumes are up! What can you do about it for the rest of the day? From delivery issues to uncommunicated marketing campaigns, and even the weather, there are many reasons why your call volumes could be going up. So how should you react when the volumes unexpectedly increase to limit the impact and make sure your customers still get support? Here Irina Mateeva, Keith Stapleton, and Tim Milburn, explain the practical steps you can take to bring the situation back under control. 1. Don’t Immediately Panic About Meeting Your SLA Target Talk to Your Agents to Try and Establish Wh ..read more

Chris Dealy at injixo takes a look at WFM ROI and how workforce management software pays for itself. To anyone responsible for planning in a contact centre, the return on investment (ROI) of WFM (workforce management) software is so obvious that it doesn’t need explaining. Unfortunately, it is often not so obvious to those who are responsible for signing off on the expenditure. That’s why you need a solid business case. The key ingredient of the workforce management business case is the ROI calculation, which quantifies the hard benefits of investing in workforce management software. Let’s tak ..read more

Andrea Matsuda at NICE provides seven ways to better manage your remote or hybrid workforce. Perhaps the most dramatic shift of the post-pandemic workplace has been the continued reliance on remote and hybrid models. Half of U.S. employees now work in “remote-capable jobs” that can be done from home, at least part of the time, and half of these remote-capable employees expect and prefer splitting their time between home and the office rather than working full-time in either location. And if the surveys and predictions are right, remote work isn’t going away anytime soon. Eight in 10 chief huma ..read more