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7 Steps to Smarter Contact Center Coverage Scheduling

Contact center managers are under a lot of pressure to deliver better results with fewer resources. Meanwhile, diminishing corporate budgets are forcing organizations to think of creative ways to compensate staff. These include pay-as-you-go arrangements in the form of zero-hour contracts, reduced and annualized working hours, and time off without pay.

How then can organizations achieve all-around contact center flexibility and cost savings in a way that satisfies staff, customers, and the business?

It comes down to leveraging the top 7 capabilities and benefits of today’s automated Workforce Management technology:

1. All-In-One, Easy-to-Use Solutions

The biggest barrier to embracing new technology is ease of use, or rather the lack of it. Fortunately, today’s fully automated solutions make light work of managing staff effectively – forecasting demand, creating schedules, developing accurate and insightful reports, and improving overall customer satisfaction. These automated tools make it easy and efficient to optimize workforce management.

2. Easy Access, Anytime, Anywhere

Agents can log in from home or on the go to check their schedules, see whom they are working with, and let their managers know when they are available. Managers and resource teams are able to build efficient schedules at any time and from anywhere for complete control of their call center scheduling operations.

3. Intelligent Resourcing

Using historical data, resource teams have the power to predict at the click of a button how many agents they will need, the skills they require, and who the right people are to fill those roles. They can even support a number of different shift patterns, including short shifts or split shifts, rather than employ a set number of people at set times of the day.

4. Flexible Planning On the Go

Key features provide much-needed flexibility. Real-time adherence monitors agent adherence to schedules. Automated alarms flag when schedules are in danger of being breached, and a real-time data feed – updated in seconds – enables fast decision-making.

Intra-day scheduling allows small changes during the day while considering unplanned agent absences and changes in customer demand. For example, managers can flexibly change break times and lunches or move people between skill groups, as well as front-office and back-office work. The changes may differ by only a few minutes, but those small changes can make the difference between meeting service levels during peak times and losing valuable calls.

5. Fit for the Future

The latest forecasting scheduling technology helps to right-size your contact center for the future. Running a series of “what if?” scenarios can predict staffing needs for regular seasonal fluctuations, upcoming marketing campaigns, and even the organization’s long-term business plan.

6. Self-Service

Self-service capabilities empower agents to trade shifts, voice their preferences for overtime shifts and request time off, increasing contact center flexibility and agent satisfaction. Plus, setting up auto-approvals means your staff doesn’t have to wait until the next day for an answer if management is not available.

7. Time and Cost Efficiencies

The automation provided by workforce optimization technology combines strategic planning with instant fine-tuning throughout the day to create a highly flexible contact center framework that keeps agents motivated, customers satisfied and CEOs happy.

Contact Center management continues to evolve. Ready to explore the latest innovations? Contact TCI experts today: (703) 321-3030 or GetHelp@tcicomm.com.

 

Top Tech Trends in the Hospitality & Lodging Industry… Some May Make Sense for Your Business

Hotels, motels and other hospitality businesses once occupied a fairly simple space in people’s lives – they were a place for guests to lay their heads while away from home.

But anyone who’s spent time on the road in recent years knows that the role of technology has greatly expanded. Here are some of the top communication technology trends in hospitality today…

  1. Cloud migration – The hospitality industry is making the transition to the cloud, where opportunities abound for back office efficiency with low technology acquisition costs. Cloud technologies are simplifying operations, reducing staffing needs, and providing a better guest experience.
  2. Service automation through AI – Automation continues to be a trend that’s changing the way guests are served. With the advancements in Artificial Intelligence, hotels are interacting with guests digitally while freeing up hotel staff to work on other tasks. This also improves the travel experience as language differences can be eliminated, ensuring clear communication with travelers wherever they’re from.
  3. Integrated guest applications – Guest apps for personal mobile devices are the natural place to host everything from deal notifications to hotel services to loyalty programs. Innovative capabilities can be integrated into these hotel applications to grant guests increased ability to engage with hotel staff and other guests.
  4. Touchless interactions – The pandemic has emphasized the need to reconsider how guests interact with amenities. From digital room keys that allow guests to unlock doors using their phones to motion sensors that turn on lights, to voice-activated control of appliances, reducing contact with commonly touched interfaces allows guests to stay safe and housekeeping staff to sanitize and prepare rooms faster.
  5. Self-service meeting spaces – No longer are meeting spaces just about table and chair arrangements. Today’s meetings rely on multimedia presentations and videoconferencing to bring in remote attendees. And for marathon meetings, access to services like catering must be handled with minimal interruption. Advanced technology enablement is also becoming a must-have in ballrooms and event halls.
  6. Predictive Analytics – As more technology is added to improve the guest experience, more data is being collected about how guests interact with staff and amenities. When analyzed, the data can provide insights that can improve internal operations as well as the guest experience, resulting in your property becoming a preferred place to stay and the one that gets recommended to others.

If you see an application here that could help your business get ahead, reach out to the experts at TCI. Contact us today at (703) 321-3030 or info@tcicomm.com.