FREE online courses on Small Call Center Management - Get the Laws of Call Center Nature Working for You

 

Notice the scenario presented, that a group of nine people are required to handle 50 calls in a half-hour. Their occupancy (the percent of time that the agents who are seated and available to take calls are actually handling calls, versus waiting for calls to arrive) is 65 percent. But for a group handling 10 times the number of calls, you wouldn't need 10 times the number of agents (90), but only 65, with occupancy at 90 percent. Put another way, a group of nine people is much more efficient than nine individuals working independently. And one group of 90 people is a lot more efficient than 10 separate groups of nine people each.

 

The pooling principle is a mathematical fact, based on the laws of probability. It states: any movement in the direction of consolidation of resources will result in improved traffic-carrying (i.e., call handling) efficiency. Conversely, any movement away from consolidation of resources will result in reduced traffic-carrying efficiency. This principle is at the heart of what makes call centers so efficient, and you'll want it on your side as much as possible. More specifically:

 

• If you have a small group to begin with, resist the temptation to further subdivide unless absolutely necessary. You may have to specialize around complex call types or multiple languages, but the impetus ought to be on cross-training and pooling as much as possible.

 

• Look for ways to further pool the resources you have. Can you further cross-train your staff? Would developments in your information systems reduce the time necessary for training and enable newer hires to handle a broader variety of calls? Are you a bottleneck for approvals, escalated calls and staff planning, and can you begin developing others so they can share these responsibilities?

 

• In hiring, find people who can handle the broadest variety of calls. For example, if you handle multiple languages, multilingual agents are worth their weight in gold.