Consulting Services

We offer a full range of consulting services to optimize your workforce, including forecasting, scheduling, guides Intraday performance management and "what if" scenario modeling. 

Our services include analyses of call/contact volume expectations from Marketing and Sales programs and defining contact increases and fluctuation in 1/2 hour patterns for calls and multi-channel contacts such as email, chat, fax, and correspondence.  

We use Erlang C and Merlang best practices contact center algorithms for forecasting call volumes, staffing, and scheduling. We model scenarios based on your unique requirements. We have the expertise to:

• Define optimum workforce utilization to incorporate the rising volume of electronic contacts.
• Analyze workforce utilization and recommend alternatives for more effective use of staff.
• Forecast optimum staffing requirements, seasonally, yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, by 1/2 hour,
• Model various scenarios for ramp-ups, peaks, extended hours, 24x7 service, emergencies, 
  alert levels and consequences, and multi-channel access.
• Develop the business case and forecast labor costs savings for consolidation of small offices,
  sites, and queues. 
• Develop analyses for various staffing options to minimize headcount and control costs such 
  as using part-time, related departments, outsourcing, and temporary agencies. 
• Select as Vendor Neutral Consultants a long term application in WFM or WFO that fits your ACD including Requirements documentation and RFQ and Selection processes.

Workforce Optimization Examples

Example 1: Call Center Staffing 

The first example, Figure 1, illustrates how the workforce can be optimized in a traditional call
center to more closely balance the staff for the volume of calls received throughout the day. 

Example 2: Multi-channel Contact Center Staffing

The second example, Figure 2, illustrates how the workforce can be optimized in a multi-channel
contact center to most effectively utilize existing staff to handle electronic contacts during periods
of low call volume - and still meet the requirements for timely email response. 

Our Consulting Expertise

Examples of our consulting expertise in the area of workforce optimization for call/contact center operations 
with single or multiple skill levels includes:

	Conducting detailed analysis of ACD reports to define historical call/contact volumes;
	Forecasting future contact volumes, including calls and ramp ups for email and other electronic contacts;
	Analyzing call/contact volumes for fluctuation patterns;
	Developing scenarios for volume increases, expanded hours, multi-channel access, etc;
	Determining and/or refining client service levels and customer access goals/requirements;
	Reviewing current staffing level configurations and comparing to contact volumes;
	Developing and/or refine model staffing level scenarios based on various service and  customer access requirements;
	Benchmarking call/contact centers to develop competitive service level goals;
	Defining staff surplus and shortfall variations;
	Developing and/or refining costs associated with each service level scenario;
	Define and/or refine the agent recruiting ramp-up schedule for shortfalls;
	Defining full-/part-time staffing resource requirements as well as outsourcing and temporaries;
	Defining and/or refining in-house/external resources to handle peaks and/or emergencies at least  cost.

An Example of Consolidated Labor Savings 

An example of the labor savings using various consolidation scenarios is shown in Figure 3 below:

   

How is Our Approach Unique?

As vendor-neutral consultants, we do not sell workforce management systems.  We provide workforce optimization analyses for clients and make recommendations on more effective ways to utilize staff.
As such, we have the expertise to:

• Take a long-term view of your staffing requirements and suggest cost effective alternatives, based on the unique peaks and valleys associated with customer contact patterns in your business.  

• Model various "what if" scenarios for you.  We have the software to deliver completed staff work and can help you define those scenarios and the resulting staffing requirements necessary.

• Work with consolidation projects to define the potential staff savings associated with centralizing customer contact functions.

• Work with start-up projects to define staff ramp-up requirements.

• Define optimum customer contact hours, based on customer access patterns and staffing costs.

• Develop the business advantages and cost savings to combining queues.

• Define least cost staffing alternatives, such as the use of part-time, related departments, outsourcing, and temporary agencies for peaks. 

• Evaluate your total staffing needs for call/contact centers, including infrastructure staff such as supervisors and managers, quality assurance, training, recruiting, and HR as well as dedicated technical support such as traffic analysts, telephony, and IT/information technology/systems. 

We welcome the opportunity to discuss your needs in complete confidence.    

For more information about our other consulting offerings, click on Services & Expertise.

To learn how we can help you, call for a complimentary consultation at 513-792-5700 or contact us at eservice@kramerandassociates.com.

We look forward to hearing from you!

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