Service Levels

[Kristin]

Hi, I'm new to this Forum and I'm hoping that I can get some help. I manage a small call center responsible for taking incoming loss reports for insurance companies. I've been with the company for almost 3 years and now I'm starting to ask questions that no one can seem to answer for me. I inherited the service level and abandon rate standards. We haven't been able to meet them in quite a while. I'm trying to find out if these standards are attainable with the number of people I have. We are expected to maintain a 92% service level (92% in 30 sec) and an abandon rate of 5%.

I see a lot of formulas going back in forth in the messages, however, I don't know how to go in the opposite direction...

Please help, before I pull ALL my hair out!!! Thanks.

[MHJ Indy]

Hi Kristin,

You are correct there are a lot of formula's that bounce around these forums. Bottom line before you can start crunching formula's, you need to get your hands around your data. Call data as well as staffing data in term of inflation factors (vacation, lost time, occupancy, schedule adherance, etc..) Any formula or staffing model you would use will require that data first. In general terms a small operation is more expensive to operate at a high level of service than a large one because absenteeism has a larger impact. Shoot me some more info and I will try to help you out... Call volume, Handle time, number of FTE's, etc...

Mark

[CenterLead]

In our center we are required to maintain a 90% service level, thankfully we have a whole department dedicated to crunching the numbers and helping us with staffing, adherence, etc to maintain this. We have three inbound departments in our center that they keep tabs on. It is possible but those things which matter most such as staffing, daily adherence and absenteeism do need to be closely monitored for success in this area.

[mikael]

<<"We are expected to maintain a 92% service level (92% in 30 sec) and an abandon rate of 5%. ">>

So you are to pick up 92% of all incoming calls within 30 seconds?

To know whether or not you can meet that goal, you'll need to know your AHT (average handle time) and the number of calls you expect to receive in a given period.

Let's say that you know that between 0800 and 0900 on Monday morning, you will receive 100 calls in total, with an AHT of 5 minutes each. You plug those three pieces of information (Servicel Level, AHT and Volume) into the Erlang C calculator, and it will give you the 4th piece of information, which is the number of reps you need to have on deck during that hour in order to meet that service level.

If you have that many reps available, great! But what if you don"t? Then you re-run the calculation, entering in the Number of reps you have, the AHT and the Volume -- and the calculator will give you the 4th piece, which will be the best Service Level you can expect to attain with your available resources.

If the picture isn't pretty, then you need to A) find a way to reduce the incoming call Volume, and/or B) reduce the AHT, C) get Mgmt to agree to lower the Service Level, or D) get Mgmt to authorize an increase in Staff.

You can find Erlang C calculators in a number of places by doing a search on Erlang via google. I've used the Westbay one (www.westbay.com) for some clients -- it's inexpensive and will give you the rough numbers that you need. Portage Communications has another calculator that would also do what you need very well.

[Rakesh Bhambani]

http://mitan.co.uk/ offers a demo copy of an Erlang C calculator and far more. The site is very informative and will answer a lot of your questions.

Rakesh Bhambani
Supportscape
www.supportscape.com

[JoeB]

Before you dive into Erlang calculations you might want to look at the service level objectives from the perspective of the customer. Are 92% in 30 sec. and abandon rate of 5% appropriate? Would the customers even care if you improve them? Or, you might be able to push your agents to improve AHT to meet more aggressive service level targets, but in the process you will sacrifice the quality of service and your first level resolution rate (the number one factor in customer satisfaction) will hit the floorÂ….I meet many call center managers who manage the operation strictly by the numbers and forget the customer in the process.

As for Erlang calculations – this is the acceptable model for call center traffic, but must be used understanding some of its principal assumptions. One key assumption is that callers will hold forever, which we know is not true. Since you are trying to push the performance of your call center to the limit, this may have a significant impact on staffing requirements. There are relatively simple ways to incorporate abandonment in the model, but to be precise, you have to consider the human behavior (such as callers hanging up and immediately calling back trying to beat the system) that is difficult to model. Despite common belief, abandonment rate is not a linear function, so trending the abandonment behavior of your customers may provide the key to improving your abandonment rates (even without adding staff).

Another factor not handled by the Erlang model is the differences in skills - both the agentÂ’s and the callerÂ’s (the original model was developed for telephone switches, where there is no variability in the type of service requested and the quality of service offered). This variance usually averages out in the typical call center performance indicators, but can have a devastating effect on your customer satisfaction and needs to be controlled.

I will be happy to answer any questions and explain how to apply these general guidelines in your situation.

Joe Barkai
DIAGNOSTIC STRATEGIES
www.DiagnosticStrategies.com
Tel. 781-433-0833