Agent Idle Time standards

[Demetris]

Hi everyone
I recently took over as manager of a call center based on 2 shifts (AM 0730-14:30 and PM 14:30-21:30).
There are instances where agents are logged in but not taking calls due to low traffic (mainly early morning or late evening).
We try to assign other duties to them on a logged out basis, but inevitably some agents must man the phones in case calls start coming in.
Does anyone know of any acceptable idle time standard that could be applied for such cases? Our current "idle time" is around 10% and we need to see how to drop it. Obviously we cannot have zero idle time but then again we need to maintain it at acceptable levels.

[rdaley1971]

Your idle time / availability metrics should be based off of your service level goals. The higher your service level, the more idle time is required. Also, the shorter the measurement period, the greater the idle time. Averaging a service level over an hour, a day, a week, or a month yields very different staffing requirements and net idle time.

Some things to consider are your forecasting practices, to make sure your staffing levels are optimized based on expected call volumes, and your shift policies. If there are significant drops in volume, look at your mix of full time vs. part time employees, and also look at how you stagger start times and length of shifts. Staggering breaks and lunches can also help smooth out idle time.

Maintaining a service level during perios of low volume can be difficult, because a single missed call can have a greater impact on the metrics if you are measuring them to the period. For example, I once had a client as an outsourcer who was upset because our abandonment hit 50% for one hour. I had to explain to him that we missed 1 out of 2 calls because we had two people staffed for the period, and one of them was unavailable (probably a bathroom break), and the second call came in before the first call was completed.

rick.daley@invisionwfm.com