New Call Center - How To Staff

[IdentityForce]

Hi,

I'm very familiar with staffing levels for Help Desk (internal tech support), but I'm not as familiar with staffing a customer service Call Center. Can anyone recommend resources that give industry averages on how many calls can be expected when supporting the general public on general (non-technical) customer service issues?

Any advice is appreciated...

Thanks!
Peter

[Suziewan]

Peter -- I think you'll need to do research based on your marketing plan. How will people be directed to your call center? If it's via mass mailing, you can expect a 3% response and work from there (ie/ Mailing 100,000 pieces, expect 3000 calls in the week or so following your mailing, then spread those calls out over your hours of operation). On the other hand, if your marketing plan involves television commercials or something like that, you'd get a huge influx of calls immediately following your ads. HTH.

[AllCall]

Check this site, might help

http://www.incoming.com/WebModules/QueueTips/index.aspx

[ragsy]

Hi,

First study the subscriber base.
Study the call volume pattern in the last 3-6 months.
Differentiate between peak hours and non peak hours.
Type of queries answered.
Average Talk Time plays a big role while staffing. So, ensure and understand the historical talk time.
Factor the number of days the center needs to work for you may have to provide the weekly offs. In this case your staffing numbers will change.
Absenteeism percentage to be noted.
Average calls during every hour.

If the above are studied and factored well, I am sure you will get a clear picture on the staffing.

Regards,

Ragsy

[Les Hyde]

For your model I’d recommend you look at:

Customer Satisfaction- What is the goal? Loyalty? Retention? Acquisition? What is the customer experience you are hoping to achieve?

Number of transaction types – There is a point of diminishing returns of how many call types one agent can be expected to perform. If you have specialized requirements e.g. billing, you might need to have specialized agents to handle certain call types.

Average Handle Time per transaction – How long does a transaction take? How long does it take to truly satisfy the customer? If there is a difference, and if it is important to your business – always go for the highly satisfied customer.

Marketing (and any other) contact drivers, and historical patterns – My experiences have been that this can make or break a marketing campaign.

The answer to these questions will impact your staffing and training approach as well as your internal performance metrics.

Other strategy considerations are call deflection for easily answered questions via a phone script as well as any self-help options that could be incorporated. Additionally, email support and chat could also be incorporated into a multi-channel customer support methodology with existing resources.