Call Center Research?

[CDavie]

I'm trying to collect some data on call centers, to find what the volume of calls is at other call centers as well as the abandon rate and some other assorted questions. I have some specs for my search:
Serving between 750,000 and 1,000,000 customers
Hard and soft offers
Representaives upsell
Aprox. 4-6 representatives on the phones
Reps. that multi task

If anyone can assist me, or perhaps can point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated!

[beejay]

You'll need to provide some additional information. At first glance 6 agents who multitask and serve 1,000,000 doesn't seem to be the correct span.

However, what is the nature of the call center? Is it true customer care, customer service, upselling (yes/no), typical call content, inbound only?, fronted by IVR, any historical on % of base that calls............I could go on & on but you get the picture.

With a lot more infomation, might be able to offer some assistance.

[CDavie]

I apologize, you are correct my numbers were off :) I heard one thing and wrote something completely different.

We currently have 170,000 active subscribers and we drop 210,000 marketing pieces each month, making our possible base 390,000.

The call center is customer service oriented, providing information about our products, upselling, basic CS service (address changes, cancellations, refunds, renewals, payments, etc - those are our typical call content). Yes, the calls are inbound only (unless we receive a request to contact a customer).

We receive aproximately 3000 calls per month, 2800 of which are answered. Our monthly abandon rate is aprox. 3%.

As far as multitasking, we do data entry, faxes, receipts, incoming mail, incoming e mail, and customer research.

What is IVR?

I hope this provides a bit clearer picture. Perhaps I should mention the reason for the question. Some of our representatives have been feeling overwhelmed recently as we have been down to 4 reps on the phones as opposed to 5/6, so we're trying to provide an accurate picture of how other call centers work, their work loads and how our stats stack up to theirs. This will also help us evaluate whether or not our work load *is* too high and how many more reps we need to have on the phones.

I hope that helps, and thank you so much for your prompt reply.

[beejay]

Well, on the face of it it appears with a staffing level of 6 and answering 2800 of the 3000, you may be slightly overstaffed as the service level is in the high 90's.

However, if you are looking for what size staff is good for the average month or how many calls you could handle with an exisitng staff (not "staffing to mother's day") then you can determine quite a bit including forecasting your needs by using:

Call Capacity=((Net Staffing*1800)/AHT)*0.9

So, it is Net Staffing multiplied by 1800 (to convert to seconds for 1/2 hour increment) then divided by AHT. This number is then multiplied by 90% (10% shrinkage).

Without much more info, it's difficult to provide more but this might help you get started. As to what is an IVR? That's an Interactive Voice Response system that will add an additional layer into your call volume forecasting (and some would say an additional layer of frustration).

How your agents feel when you have attrition is a major management issue. They are used to a particular work expectations and load level and it could seem like they are "overwhelmed" eventhough they were not as productive as they should have been when there were 6 agents. If you determine your staffing level is appropriate, you need to think about the communication process to your agents. They could get cranky pretty fast if they don't understand the business picture.

Hope this helps you.