Workforce management (WFM) has become the latest buzzword in the market. It’s not a new concept though. Companies since long have tried some or the other forms of workforce management to improve employee productivity. But it’s now been viewed in new light of changed industry context. Effective WFM is imperative to make your customer contact center efficient and profitable. WFM is about anticipating probable inbound and outbound calls for a contact center and applying right resources in managing the same.
However, most WFM software applications are complicated to implement and operate. There was a time when companies could spare dedicated resource in managing the software system. But now when organizations are striving to become more operatively efficient they don’t want to throw money in managing redundant resources. Enterprises therefore are looking for WFM solution that is self-manageable and automated to help improving productivity of each customer care executive.
With the growing number of mid-size contact centers the demand for cost effective WFM solutions has increased manifold. Even large organizations are looking for less complex and less time-demanding solutions.
Keeping the changing horizon in mind, the newer WFM software applications are designed to be more effective in performing the jobs of traditional WFM solutions in less than half the time. The improved WFM solutions are less complex and therefore, minimize the time spent on training and managing the applications. These still have the basic modules, such as – forecasting, scheduling, intra-day management, real-time adherence and agent self-service, just like their older versions but through improved UI help in optimizing the functioning of a contact center. This post has discussed how the newer and improved solutions are better than the old versions to help if you decide if the time has come to switch to lighter and faster WFM.
Forecasting: The success and performance of a contact center is centralized around the efficiency of its WFM solution in effectively predicting call volume for days, weeks, months etc. The newer versions with embedded Web 2.0 technology are more accurate in forecasting the call volume for the future dates.
Using statistical tools and algorithm it helps contact centers to become more customer centric by accurately predicting call volume, resource engagement etc.
Scheduling: Scheduling helps organizations in distributing their workforce more efficiently between projects. It offers staffing solutions to contact center managers by allocating resources in better manner based on various determining parameters.
Intra-day management: To help contact center managers get visibility on the performance of the centre and its agents the intra-day management tools capture real-time performance data from different sources. It initiates trigger when the contact center performance sinks below acceptable level.
Real-time adherence: It’s the performance management tool that allows contact centre managers to monitor and track agent movements in real-time. The real-time adherence tool of modernized WFM management software helps tracking agent’s performance both on-the-call and off-the-call.
Agent Self-Service: The purpose of this module is to help agents in monitoring their performance and taking active part in streamlining the work flow process. This can help reducing pressure from the center manager and let him concentrate on strategizing contact centre policies to improve customer satisfaction.
Faster: Take less time in management. The solutions offered through cloud have also eliminated the time involved in deploying the solutions. The cloud-based solutions are ready-to-use, customizable solutions to meet diverse industry requirements.
Nimble: The easy to use solutions have embedded WFM best practices in making the software more effective and accurate, thus, help optimizing resource allocation as per the volume of anticipated calls.
Ease of use: The solutions are designed to eliminate the learning curve. This would translate into more productivity as you would have to spend less time in training your workforce about how to run and manage the system. Moreover, the analytics offered are easy to apprehend and don’t require one to have degree in statistics.
Automation: The newer WFM solutions are aimed at automating work force management so that you can free the managers from tracking and monitoring agents and concentrate more on improving the overall performance of the unit. The inbuilt intelligence facilitates optimal allocation of resources.
Accessible: The cloud-based WFM solutions are accessible from anywhere. So, you can keep track of your agents’ movements in office as well as on-the-fly. It further helps organizing and managing offshore teams by offering a universal platform to work on.
As an end note the newer workforce management solutions are designed to help businesses in improving customer satisfaction quotient. With better allocation and management of resources you’ll be able to serve your customers better and efficiently. Moreover, you can improve transparency across the contact center by allowing agents to monitor their performance.
