Calls per day vs calls per hour

[Belle]

I find it very odd at my new position that calls are averaged on a daily basis. Is this a benchmark that is commonly used? Doesn't most call management software include the option to figure based on calls per hr?

I think my biggest issue with this type of measurement is that no adjustment is made for CSRs who must take off early for doctors appointments or other obligations that have been approved by their supervisors. Thus if a CSR only takes 50 calls instead of 90 because they had to leave early their average drops for the week. This results in CSRs just not comming into work at all when they must miss a couple of hours.

From a HR standpoint this is a nightmare. Apparently management has been granting "adjustments" when they feel like it and not applying the standards across the board. My fellow HR gurus know this is a lawsuit waiting to happen buut management is fighting it. Any ideas?

[LEK7394]

Are you looking at the representatives occupancy time? In other words, if a rep leaves the office early then the amount of calls they take should be measured in relation to the amount of time they were scheduled to be on the phone for that day. This will make the rep feel you are accurately viewing their performance fairly and accurately.

[Belle]

Originally posted by LEK7394
Are you looking at the representatives occupancy time? In other words, if a rep leaves the office early then the amount of calls they take should be measured in relation to the amount of time they were scheduled to be on the phone for that day. This will make the rep feel you are accurately viewing their performance fairly and accurately.

The CSR's productivity is being measured on the number of calls they take daily regardless of how many hours they work. So a CSR may be expected to take 80 calls in a shift. If the CSR takes 60 calls and leaves 2 hours early they have not meet their daily stats even if they left early for a FMLA covered doctor's appointment or some such. So they may not receive an occurence for their doctor's appointment but they will receive a negative report for failing to meet minimum call standards. Now if a CSR is working a 10 hour four day shift and has to leave early they will not have the same reprocussion because their stats aren't adjusted. They are still expected to take 80 calls per day and the fith day is null. If they leave 2 hours early and take 80 calls where they might normally take 100 their stats aren't affected.

It just looks like an HR nightmare waiting to happen.

[y_aurich]

That's Simple,

You can use a spreadsheet that you will use as an Sign In Sheet, when the Rep come you will write that down, when the rep finish his or her shift (early) then you will log that time. as a Log Out.

First you must use and SPH (Sales Per Hour) calculation that way you wont have problems.

Sample.

I came today at 9:00AM
I left at 2:00PM because i have a doctor appointment.

I worked 5 hours and i have 10 contacts for that period. my formula will tell me that my production is:

10 Contacts/ 5 Hours = 2.0 SPH simple as that !

But the next day i come at 9:00AM
I left at 3:00PM (as regular shift)

11 Contacts/ 6 Hours = 1.83 SPH

SPH is the best solution for your problems, if you want i can send you an spreadsheet just let me know ;)

[Belle]

Originally posted by y_aurich
That's Simple,

You can use a spreadsheet that you will use as an Sign In Sheet, when the Rep come you will write that down, when the rep finish his or her shift (early) then you will log that time. as a Log Out.

First you must use and SPH (Sales Per Hour) calculation that way you wont have problems.

Sample.

I came today at 9:00AM
I left at 2:00PM because i have a doctor appointment.

I worked 5 hours and i have 10 contacts for that period. my formula will tell me that my production is:

10 Contacts/ 5 Hours = 2.0 SPH simple as that !

But the next day i come at 9:00AM
I left at 3:00PM (as regular shift)

11 Contacts/ 6 Hours = 1.83 SPH

SPH is the best solution for your problems, if you want i can send you an spreadsheet just let me know ;)

Thank you for the spreadsheet offer. Figuring the hours worked is fairly simple as you stated. Management does have call center software that might be able to do this automatically(I'm not sure what the program is called and haven't even seen it).

My real issue is this......Why would anyone want to calculate productivity in the manner in which this company is doing so? Is there any benefit at all? Are we in HR right to be concerned at the way the CSRs are being managed? With over 200 CSRs at each of 3 different facilities (600 CSRs total) we are getting calls weekly about failure to meet productivity and diciplanary actions being given unfairly.

Management was very vague about supplying us with the info we needed to investigate and we've just had the method finally confirmed. It wa slike pulling teeth. I formerly managed a call center myself and have a difficult time understanding how this method of measurement could be considered fair. Are we in HR overlooking something or is this the disaster I think it is?

[Suziewan]

Hi Belle,

Since WFM tools and concepts are still new to a lot of call centres, it's really not that unusual to find someone measuring productivity with a daily target. In fact, the measurement per hour is what seems to be fairly new (within 1-2 years).

I really don't think that you've got a lawsuit on your hands. In most cases management has some sort of criteria to allow for missing hours, and if they don't it's not all that hard to manage. You can either prorate the day, as someone suggested already, or just don't count the days when they don't have full hours. Voila! Fair.

As far as whether or not you are out of line, being in HR. In a way I would say no -- you have an interest in the success of the company you work for. However, I seriously doubt that the CSC management in your firm is working hard to drive the same company into the ground. My feeling is that you are blowing this a little out of proportion.

Thanks, Suzie

[y_aurich]

-Well as a matter of fact, HR has to deal with all Rep's hours and Commision issues, so the HR department has to work with the Hours and Commisions, because all the rep's will ask the HR department for answers such as: Why i have less hours? why my commision is 1.2 instead of 2.0, But HR doesn't have responsabilities about Productivity, that's why Call centers must have Floor Supervisors, the floor supervisors are in charge for keep the Productivity or SPH UP.

-HR (Call Centers HR) have to deals with Employees Issues, no with Call Center Productivity.

Don't take responsabilities that doesn't concern to HR's Departments.

[Belle]

What we have been told by the call center supervisor at one location is that prorating the days where a CSR doesn't take the minimum required calls is up to management descretion. Appparently if a manager feels that a day shouldn't be prorated then it isn't. So if a CSR getts written up for not meeting call volume yet they had many doctor's appointments for an ongoing illness they can eventually be fired. Yet a CSR who leaves early and misses work for non-FMLA issues (doesn't feel good, has to meet their childs teacher) but is well liked by his/her manager doesn't get written up and the days are prorated. Thus employee preferential treatment!

This is what HR is gettign calls on. The CSRs have come to realize that they may miss a few hours for a doctors appointment and have it count against them but a more popular employee can miss for the same thing and not have it count. An easy way to resolve the issue is to just count calls per hour.

[MHoaglan]

It seems like you really have a nightmare going on. We currently have a WFM system that works all of this out for us. Before that came along, we had a spreadsheet that simply calculated calls/hour, average talk time, and occupancy rate. This is the only way to avoid situations of favoritism and unfair practices.

[ForceGuy]

The measurement doesn't make sense in any respect and also puts the onus of errors in scheduling/forecasting on the agent.

One thing that might help you is to use true calls/hour...to get this measurement take for each agent their # of calls answered in a day, then divide by (total login time-total wait time) the total login and wait should come from the switch report (why use spreadsheets when your $pendy switch already monitors and tracks this info). This removes any variance in login time (for whatever reason) and removes the onus of a mistake in schedule/forecast from the agent (if there is a large amount of wait because of overstaffing, the agent is not at fault ). This measurement gives snr mgmt their calls/hour figure and gives your agent a better end of the deal. hope this helps...

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forceguy_2@hotmail.com

[mikael]

I find it sad that there are still centers out there measuring performance in terms of calls per hour of day as a general rule.

What I've found in my consulting practice is that when a company measures performance by calls taken, they get lots of calls that are taken regardless of whether those calls are really handled or not. Such a measure encourages CSR's to get the customer off the phone as quickly as possible. It also tends to encourage them to close calls on any pretext.

You can screen for this behavior by running some reports that identify repeat calls within a short time frame by the same customer, and by paying attention to customer sat ratings, but it's generally easier to set up a proper suite of performance metrics in the first place, one that is properly sourced in the company's overall CRM strategy.

[Suziewan]

I really don't find it that surprising, even sad is a bit of a stretch, but okay.... Frankly, WFM is fairly new, and many companies have not had the resources to devote to either a) investigating more up to date methods b) spending on the appropriate tools

I've been fortunate enough to work for a company which has had great success and growth over the last 5-7 years, and has had the time to invest in these types of solutions.

I'm not about to sit here smugly and judge those who have not been as lucky for doing the best that they can -- like I did before I had the tools.

[mikael]

"I'm not about to sit here smugly and judge those who have not been as lucky for doing the best that they can -- like I did before I had the tools."

The reality of contact center life is simply that you do the best you can with what you have to work with at the time.

When I ran a support center, our call-tracker was the Mark 1 steno pad and pencil, and the ACD was the front desk receptionist. However, it wasn't the lack of technology that kept my team always behind the 8-ball, it was the lack of a company CRM strategy. So long as you think, or let Sr. Mgmt tell you, that your job is about closing calls, you will be forever stuck playing catch-up. There is no way to win on that field.

[thetuan]

Hey Belle,

You are correct in saying that by measuring calls per day, your operation is exposed to HR issues with your workforce. Simply put, calls per day is not a fair indicator of performance because of the simple fact that calls arrive at different rate base on the time of day. So your CSRs that work the early morning shift will not have enough calls as compared to their counterparts that work the mid day shift.

What you can suggest to your call center managers is that they should consider measuring CSRs performance around the speed of the call, quality of the call, the attendance pattern of the CSR, their teamwork attitude, etc ....

Calls per hour or calls per day can only give the call center managers a sign of how the CSRs are performing against historical pattern. For example, a group of CSRs that work the 8am - 5pm shift that avg 90 calls per day will give you an indicator of how many calls a CSR will take given the same shift. So a CSR that takes 50 calls per day should be monitored very closely to see why that is.

I hope that helps - this topic is more complex and can not be explained or resolved on a public forum.

Good luck

[kala]

I am amazed as well that there are companies out there still using calls per day/hour. Your reps are being measured against something they really have no control over - RANDON CALL ARRIVAL. It seems to me that depending on what shift they work (if they work during peak times) they can be very productive vs those who may work an earlier shift. (that is saying that you have different shifts and not everyone works the same shift). We measure true productivity - An agent is being productive only if they are on the phone or waiting to take a call. Our formula for Prod Time is = ACD time/ offset staffed time + Avail Time/ offset staffed time. Offset staffed time = staffed time - aux codes of training, coaching, computer prob, assign wk etc. You can also use occupancy to gauge productivity - but our After Call Work has been a problem in the past so prod is a better measure for us. We not only use prod, we look at monitoring scores and schedule adherence. Mostl of these measures are tracked in IEX our WFM software. There are low cost WFM systems out there. You should really consider purchasing one. The efficiencies you gain from purchasing the software will pay for the software within a month!