A top-notch contact center workforce management (WFM) strategy cuts operational costs, lowers customer wait times, and drives employee engagement.
Demand forecasting sits as the heart of such a strategy. Get it wrong, and staffing becomes inaccurate while intraday management grows much more stressful.
Moreover, ideal customer, agent, and business outcomes fall by the wayside.
Fortunately, new thinking and technologies are helping businesses to finetune their demand forecasting. The following five ideas provide excellent examples.
1. Start With High-Quality Datasets
Quality of data is directly proportional to the accuracy of forecasting insights. Combining comprehensive data from the computer telephony interaction (CTI) and automatic call distribution (ACD) will help increase the data pool that forecasters work from.
Also, factor in at least three years of data - preferably five. While it is often best to place precedence on more recent data, such an approach allows forecasters to account for trend and seasonality.
2. Consider All the (Unexpected) Variables
Days of the week, months, seasons, holidays, and the time of day influence contact volumes. They are all regular occurrences that affect demand, but projections must also account for exceptional/ad-hoc occurrences. These events provoke changes in call volume, call duration, and channel choice - making WFM much more tricky.
Also, remember to analyze outliers in demand, aiming to find the root cause. Doing so will help planners to uncover new, emerging variables and increase future forecast accuracy.
3. Review and Update the Data at Regular Intervals
Constant evaluation of the factors influencing forecast accuracy is essential. For instance, shrinkage estimates from three months ago may no longer apply to the next schedule reporting period.
Similar to assessing the incoming data feeds, planners should also check the underlying principles and algorithms to ensure they continue to correspond with evolving business demands. Doing so ensures they remain relevant.
4. Forecast for Uncertainty
While contact center schedules will plan for the most likely demand outcomes, keep the best- and worst-case scenarios in mind.
