Shrinkage

[deadriaw]

Our contact center shrinkage seems to be very high. We often reach levels of 40% for about 2000 employees. Can anyone share what his or her current shrinkage levels are and what you have done to lower your shrinkage?

[Mark Brannan]

For us, the most important issue is what is good shrinkage vs. bad shrinkage.

We consider any time not spent on phones as shrinkage, and report our values to determine where it comes from, and whether it is the right kind of shrinkage or not.

You probably also report it, but I'm not sure if you are simply considering sick and late, or adding in other things we would consider good shrinkage like training, project assignments, vacations, etc.

We typically run about 35%, we are a technical support center - not sales or quick service. Of that 35%, we allocate about half to bad shrinkage - and then measure whether we hit that mark or not. Since it is reported, we can work with managers to reduce their shrinkage, or identify potential issues with groups or employees.

Mark

[gholden]

It depends on the type of centre you are working in.

I have worked in a contact centre with up to 70% shrinkage, the business was high value sales and also very seasonal. It made sense for us to train like mad during quiet months and then cut back during the busier times.

Even when we were busy, we struggled to cut shrinkage to much below 30% without affecting sales.