SlideShare una empresa de Scribd logo
1 de 12
Descargar para leer sin conexión
The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest
Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges




                                       wns.com
Key Contact Center Metrics                              Contact Center: Your Opportunity
          Service Level (SL): Every call center runs on           to Make the First and Lasting
          a certain goal for ‘Service Level’ (SL in
                                                                  Impression
          contact center parlance), which is simply a
          measure of percentage of total incoming                 For many global businesses, world-wide, the
          calls handled within a certain time. SL is              contact center serves as the first interface
          essentially a measure of the Turnaround                 between the organization and its customers.
          Time (TAT). For example an SL of 80 / 30                The quality of service offered by the contact
          requires 80 percent of the incoming calls to            center often becomes a yardstick by which
          be answered within 30 seconds.                          customers evaluate the organization.


          Abandons: This is the percentage of the                 The customer today is sophisticated, picky, and
          total customers (incoming calls) who hang               extremely hard to please, thanks to globalization,
          up before the call is answered.                         the digital and technology boom and a multitude
                                                                  of product, brand and service options. Customer
          Relationship between SL and Abandons:                   loyalties have become fickle, and organizations
          SL and Abandons are inversely proportional.             have to go an extra mile or perhaps even a
          The higher the SL the lower is the abandon              hundred to win, more importantly, retain
          rate, as shown in the graph below:                      customers. As the first point-of-contact between
                                                                  the customer and the organization, the contact
                           SL versus Abandons                     center thus assumes a very key position as a
                                                           NCA%
      120%                                                 SL%    service channel.

      100%
                                                                  Contact Center: At the Revenue
          80%
                                                                  Generation Cross-roads
% Calls




          60%                                                     Despite the role it plays in creating customer
                                                                  satisfaction, the contact center occupies a
          40%                                                     strangely contradictory position in the revenue
                                                                  generation cycle. It is as much an important
          20%
                                                                  source of revenue as it is a cost center! For
          0%                                                      organizations, therefore, it is a challenging task
                                                                  to ensure that the skew does not swing too much
                Source: WNS data
                                                                  towards the contact center being the cost center.
                                                                  Winning organizations are those that are able to
          Average Speed of Answer (ASA): Measures                 work around challenges and create an ecosystem
          the average amount of time the callers wait             that drives the contact center into becoming a
          in queue or on hold before their calls or chat          revenue generating center. This is true for both
          requests are answered.                                  captives as well as third-party BPOs.

          Customer Tolerance: Measures the time
          customers would typically wait in the queue
          before they decide to hang up.




                1
The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges




Contact Center Analytics:                                          Schedule Adherence: A schedule is a time
                                                                   plan for the nine hours that an agent
Tracking and Analyzing Metrics of                                  typically spends in office. All the productive
the New Age Contact Center                                         and non-productive activities, therefore,
                                                                   have a certain pre-defined start and stop
Given the position the new age contact center
                                                                   time. Schedule Adherence is a measure of
occupies in the customer lifecycle and revenue
                                                                   the variance between the ‘actual time’ of the
generation mesh, it becomes imperative for
                                                                   activity versus the ‘planned time’ of activity,
enterprises to track and improve upon the call
                                                                   where both the start time and the stop time
center’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI).
                                                                   are tracked. For example, if the agent was to
                                                                   be on a call from 1400 - 1430 hours,
The list of contact center metrics may seem tad
                                                                   but had to take a break during such time,
long, but contact center managers, in particular,
                                                                   it would be captured as 30 minutes of
and enterprises in general, cannot afford to
                                                                   non-adherence.
ignore any of these, as revenue and customer
satisfaction are closely tied to each metric.
                                                                   Line Adherence: Defines the number of
All activities in the contact center must be
                                                                   agents scheduled during a given time of the
effectively measured and analyzed to enable
                                                                   day (normally blocks of 15 or 30 minutes)
marketing, sales and other decision-making
                                                                   to be on calls. Line Adherence measures the
departments to use the ‘contact center analytics’
                                                                   variance between the number of agents
to make critical management decisions, which
                                                                   actually on calls versus the number of
ensure that the following two key deliverables for
                                                                   agents planned to be on calls. Line
the contact center are met:
                                                                   adherence offsets the non-adherence of
Maximizing
n              revenues while keeping costs low                    agents. Line adherence ensures that even if
   and staying profitable                                          an agent, scheduled to take a call at say
                                                                   1410 hours is away, his absence is
Keeping
n          Customer Satisfaction (C-Sat) high
                                                                   accounted for by another agent, who fills up
   and creating customer delight (to retain, grow
                                                                   for him.
   business and earn referrals)
                                                                   Occupancy: Occupancy is the percentage of
                                                                   the agent's total time in the day (minus all
                                                                   planned off-phone activity) that is spent on a
                                                                   productive / on call activity. By definition it is:

                                                                   (Total Talk Time + Hold Time +
                                                                   After Call Work) / (Total Talk Time
                                                                   + Hold Time + After Call Work) +
                                                                   (Available Time)

                                                                   Available Time: Implies the time for which
                                                                   the agent was logged into the Automatic Call
                                                                   Distributor (ACD) and was available to take a
                                                                   call, but did not receive a call.




                                                                                                         wns.com | 2
WFM - The Basics, The Challenges and Tips to Overcome Them
Workforce Management or WFM in the context of the contact center comprises four key processes:




                       1                                                         3                         4
                                                         2
     WFM          Forecasting
                                                     Scheduling
                                                                           Performance                   Change
                 and Planning                                               Analytics                  Management




                                                                                    P
                                                           ling   Perfo
                                                                                     er


                                                        du                rma
                                                      he                      nc
                                                                                        for
                                          g
                               gic Plannin

                                                 Sc




                                                                               eA


                                                                                            m
                                                                                   nal


                                                                                            ance Man
                                                                                       yt
                                          Planning




                                                         Workforce
                                                                                     ics




                                                        Management
                                                          (WFM)
                           rate




                                                                                        ag
                         St




                                                                                           em
                                                                                             e




                                                                                   nt




Though the WFM function can be broadly                            The key to turning the contact center into a
categorized into four straightforward steps, in                   revenue-generating hub despite the challenges
reality, the process is far from being simple and                 lies with having effective WFM processes run by
straight-forward. Complexities arise at each step                 an efficient team. With its long-standing
of the WFM processes owing to the number of                       experience in contact center and workforce
metrics that are controlled and impacted by                       management, WNS has identified four key
WFM. The outsourcing manager and / or the                         challenges that outsourcing managers / contact
contact center manager thus have to                               center managers are constantly faced with. This
continuously deal with many important, but                        WNS guide throws light on tackling these tricky
difficult questions.                                              challenges efficiently and effectively.



3
The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges




                                                          1
                                    4      CHALLENGES 2
                                                          3




  Challenge 1: What is a Measure of Good Performance?

                                                               WNS suggests a few simple strategies for
                                                               determining the measure of good performance
                                                               and using it strategically to differentiate from
                                                               competition and retain high-value customers:

                                                               (a) Collate data on the SL provided by
                                                                   competitors in the same industry, for the
                                                                   same type of service (Travel and Hospitality,
                                                                   Retail, Consumer Products, Telecom as the
                                                                   case may be) and the medium of
SL is essentially (and should be) a measure of the
                                                                   communication chosen by the customer and
tolerance level of a customer when contacting a
                                                                   only then arrive at the benchmark for your
customer service center. It is part of the expectation
                                                                   contact center. You need to decide on the SL
the customer has and influences C-Sat.
                                                                   benchmark depending on whether your
SL would also depend on the contact medium                         organization wants SL to be a ‘differentiator’
chosen. For instance, a call or a chat would be                    for the end-customer and if there is value in
more real-time; whereas an e-mail or a white                       ‘investing’ in it.
mail communication could be spread over days.                  (b) Another strategy is to sieve out premium
The SL goal, therefore, should be in line with the                 and high-value customers by revenue,
‘customer expectation’ and ‘tolerance’ depending                   profit, references and / or any other criteria
on the ‘urgency’ of the need / response and the                    and strategically provide them a better SL.
type of product or service.



                                                                                                            wns.com | 4
Challenge 2: How Consistently Should I Provide Superior Service
           Level and Customer Experience?

                                                                                                                       It may seem that a similar level of SL is required
                                                                                                                       through a 24/7 window to ensure consistency in
                                                                                                                       customer experience. However, as you keep
                                                                                                                       increasing the demand on SL consistency
                                                                                                                       from a monthly frequency to a weekly, daily or
                                                                                                                       intra-day interval, you will need to deploy a larger
                                                                                                                       number of resources. This will get you into a
                                                                                                                       diminishing marginal utility situation – for each
                                                                                                                       incremental dollar spent, the incremental benefit
                                                                                                                       will keep reducing.
                                                                                                                       Also, another important factor to bear in mind is
                                                                                                                       that customer ‘tolerance’ may be different
                                                                                                                       depending on the time of the day and day of the
                                                                                                                       week. Therefore, understanding customer
                                                                                                                       behavior and tolerance is critical.

                                                                                                                       WNS suggests that rather than increasing the
                                                                                                                       headcount to handle more number of calls across

                120%                                            Monthly versus Interval Level SL                                                                                                                Monthly SL
                                                                                                                                                                                                                Interval SL
                100%


                 80%
Service Level




                 60%


                 40%


                 20%


                  0%
                       00     00     00     00     00     00     00     00     00     00     :0
                                                                                                0
                                                                                                      :0
                                                                                                         0
                                                                                                               :0
                                                                                                                  0
                                                                                                                        :0
                                                                                                                           0
                                                                                                                                 :0
                                                                                                                                    0
                                                                                                                                          :0
                                                                                                                                             0
                                                                                                                                                   :0
                                                                                                                                                      0
                                                                                                                                                            :0
                                                                                                                                                               0
                                                                                                                                                                     :0
                                                                                                                                                                        0
                                                                                                                                                                              :0
                                                                                                                                                                                 0
                                                                                                                                                                                       :0
                                                                                                                                                                                          0
                                                                                                                                                                                                :0
                                                                                                                                                                                                   0
                                                                                                                                                                                                         :0
                                                                                                                                                                                                            0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  :0
                                                                                                                                                                                                                     0
                    0:      1:     2:     3:     4:     5:     6:     7:     8:     9:     10       11       12       13       14       15       16       17       18       19       20       21       22       23

                The HC Required to Meet SL at an Interval Level May Be Higher by 15-17 Percent vs. Meeting a Monthly SL Goal


the 24/7 window, it is a better alternative to look                                                                    provided with a consistent experience in terms of
at providing a consistent service level during the                                                                     wait time without really increasing the cost.
peak calling hours. This ensures that customers
get a consistent experience when they call                                                                             While some organizations use the above strategy
during a specific window rather than any time                                                                          as a means of providing a more consistent
of the day or week.                                                                                                    experience during peak windows, this can be
                                                                                                                       used as a tool to shape demand and customer
Since the bulk of the volume is within this time                                                                       calling behavior.
period, a larger percentage of customers can be
                                                                                                                       There may be other inherent ‘controllable’
                                                                                                                       processes / metrics that drive a demand pattern,
5
The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges




which if tweaked smartly, either by you as a                 by customer behavior. At times, organizations also
business or by your outsourcing partner can cut              chase the design along with the output metric.
costs for contact center operations and provide a            The focus, however, must truly be on the output
more consistent experience to the callers.                   metric. Efforts can also be made to ensure
                                                             efficiency in others. If one chases the input
While SL is an output metric, others like schedule           metrics (like Line Adherence), at times,
adherence, line adherence, occupancy are all part            the output metric (in this case SL) may be
of the staffing pattern designed to deliver a certain        over-achieved and at a higher cost.
SL goal. In certain cases, organizations focus on
metrics like calls abandoned and ASA, which are
often, by-products of the SL or are purely triggered         Challenge 3: How Do I Staff
            80
                                                                                           Intra-day Staffing
            70                                                                               to meet SL and
                                                                                             Line Adherence
            60


            50
 Staffing




            40                                                                                       HC to meet SL
                                                                                                     HC to meet LA
            30


            20


            10


            0
                  8:00
                  8:30
                  9:00
                  9:30
                 10:00
                 10:30
                 11:00
                 11:30
                 12:00
                 12:30
                 13:00
                 13:30
                 14:00
                 14:30
                 15:00
                 15:30
                 16:00
                 16:30
                 17:00
                 17:30
                                                                    18:00
                                                                    18:30
                                                                    19:00
                                                                    19:30
                                                                    20:00
                                                                    20:30
                                                                    21:00
                                                                    21:30




  The Headcount (HC) Required to Meet a Certain Interval Level Staffing Confirmance (Line Adherence
      - LA) is 12 Percent Higher Than What Is Required to Meet the SL, Which Should Be the End
   Objective. If One Chooses to Go with Delivery of Line Adherence, the Cost of Operations Increases



 Appropriately Keeping Parameters Like Business Interest, Law of the Land,
 People Satisfaction and Cost in Mind?

 How Do I Maximize Revenue and E-Sat at the Same Time?




                                                                                                          wns.com | 6
This is perhaps the most important question that        The bottom-line is that you can never have one
baffles WFM teams. Forecasting and scheduling,          set plan despite standardizing, staffing and
keeping multiple parameters like C-Sat, E-Sat, law      scheduling, forecasting and meeting SL goals.
of the land and costs in mind, can be an uphill task.   Organizational and business dynamics will have
                                                        an impact on the long-term capacity planning,
Here WNS looks at some key situations                   and you will need to customize your staffing and
encountered and puts forth some possible                scheduling based on the immediate business
strategies to counter the challenges.                   needs and the environmental forces.

Intra-day call arrival forecasting is the core
activity behind creating schedules to ensure that       Challenge 4: How Do I Manage
SL goals are met. However, there may be certain
                                                        Contractual Staffing (Basis
events that trigger a change in intra-day call
arrival pattern. The change could be seasonal or        Forecasts) and Keep Costs Under
cyclical in nature, and therefore, predictable.
                                                        Control Simultaneously?
Some of the variance may be purely within
statistical limits and must not be read
too much into, unless there is a sustained
pattern observed over a period of time, which
then calls for an adjustment in the forecast and
requires scheduling.

In case of short-term blips, before making
decisions, detailed discussions must be held
between all parties in the partnership
(business - outsourcing service provider) and
available options (cross skilling and flex-up
through onshore, nearshore, offshore teams)
weighed out against the overall outcome and only
then should the agents be moved around to
maximize alignment to the changed call pattern.
                                                        In a typical contact center scenario, managers
Another risk, business managers and WFM                 are required to meet 110 percent or more of the
managers on either side run, is when trying to          forecasted call volume. This can be a challenge
determine when and how much to tweak schedules.         on either side:
This becomes an even more critical parameter in an
environment, which does not embrace frequent            In a dropping volume scenario: Contact center
change. Lifestyles are fast changing and                managers are saddled with a higher cost of
organizations are expected to be more and more          operation if they staff up to 110 percent of the
employee-friendly, allowing employees more room for     forecasted volume and they receive only
work-life balance, and this puts a further constraint   90 percent of the forecasted call volume.
on how much scheduling flexibility (efficiency) is      In an increasing volume scenario: Contact center
available (achievable).                                 managers are potentially exposed to penalties
                                                        depending on the contractual agreement.
In addition, geography, transport, local labor laws
are the other important parameters that
influence strategizing and scheduling.



7
The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges




In either scenario, both the contact center                 worried about customer satisfaction and lost
manager and the outsourcing manager are in a                revenue, more so in a sales environment.
dilemma. In the first instance, while the contact
center manager is worried about cost of operation           It would be ideal to deal with this dilemma by
and dipping margins, the outsourcing manager                having a consensus between both parties by
would be worried about paying for the minimum               mutually drafting the clauses in the Statement of
number of calls committed.                                  Work (contract). This will ensure that both
                                                            parties are on an even ground and there is a
In the second instance, while the contact center            partnership approach in creating the forecast for
manager would be thinking about a ‘possible’                the business. It would also make good sense to
lost revenue opportunity or penalties on SL, in             have regular discussions around factors that
contrast, the outsourcing manager would be                  impact forecasting and scheduling.




WFM – Much More Than MIS; a Leading Business Function
Apart from helping outsourcing and contact                  and other functions like Operations, Training,
center managers cope with the four tricky                   Finance, Talent Acquisition, IT and Facilities is
questions mentioned above, WFM plays a key                  critical to managing a large part of cost for the
role in budgeting, forecasting, controlling costs           contact center delivery and growth (revenue)
and most importantly maintaining profitability              while maintaining profitability. Additionally, WFM
and influencing C-Sat.                                      can effectively control all productivity metrics to
                                                            improve revenue per FTE (read margins) by
Headcount is the single largest cost that ties into         providing real-time visibility to the Operations
other overheads like support staff, seats, IT               team that directly controls agent performance
bandwidth, hiring cost, rewards and penalties               and behavior.
and, therefore, the communication between WFM




Partner with the Expert
With a large client base that it creates contact
center solutions for, WNS is a front-runner in
workforce Management. Read the case study
below to see how a leading global cosmetics
company enhanced customer satisfaction with
WNS's WFM model on forecasting:

The Client:
A Leading Global Cosmetics Company

The Challenge:
The client was generating a call volume for its
Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) business,
which was running at a 21 percent MAPE*.
The client needed to have the MAPE reduced to
get a better grip on the call forecast.

*MAPE: Mean Absolute Percentage Error
                                                                                                         wns.com | 8
The Premise:                                              Calendar
                                                          n              of events that impacted the call
                                                               volume historically. For instance, operational
WNS had been doing similar work for the same
                                                               issues like shipping delays that cause short-
client for their Germany business and WNS's
                                                               term increase in call volume followed by a drop
model proved to be successful. Basis the
experience, WNS got a recommendation to
                                                          Historical call volume available, helped in
carry out the same model for the client's
                                                          exhaustive quantitative analysis to assess and
ANZ business.
                                                          deploy the forecast model that worked best for
                                                          the client. This was followed by discussing and
The WNS Solution:
                                                          agreeing on a governance mechanism and a
WNS partnered with the client to create a step-           sign-off from the client on the forecast volumes
by-step methodology to help achieve improved              created by WNS. The model yielded the
rates of accuracy in call forecasts. The proposed         below-mentioned benefits to the client:
methodology was to analyze a number of
customer data points like:                                Benefits Delivered:
Customer
n              information                                With the implementation of the new model, forecast
Sales
n         and marketing spends and its                    variance reduced from 21 percent MAPE to
     impact on volume                                     9 percent MAPE for a 60 day out forecast (Fig. 1).


                                             Forecast Accuracy
40%
         Before (Client Forecasting)                        After (WNS Forecasting)
30%

20%

10%

    0%

-10%

-20%

-30%
                         MAPE: 21%                                             MAPE: 9%
-40%

-50%
         Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov
         11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12


Fig. 1: Forecast Accuracy Levels for Client Improved with WNS's New Model


The new forecast model also:
Helped
n            better trending available for a long-term model
Improved
n              potential opportunity to use agent time in other productive activities

The overall benefit was enhanced customer satisfaction in the ANZ geography.




9
About WNS
WNS (Holdings) Limited (NYSE: WNS), is a leading global
business process outsourcing company. WNS offers business
value to 200+ global clients by combining operational
excellence with deep domain expertise in key industry
verticals including Travel, Insurance, Banking and Financial
Services, Manufacturing, Retail and Consumer Packaged
Goods, Shipping and Logistics and Healthcare and Utilities.
WNS delivers an entire spectrum of business process
outsourcing services such as finance and accounting,
customer care, technology solutions, research and analytics
and industry specific back office and front office processes.
WNS has over 25,000 professionals across 31 delivery
centers worldwide including China*, Costa Rica, India,
Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka,
United Kingdom and the United States.

* China: Delivered through a joint-venture.




WNS Contact Center Solutions
WNS has a strong track record of supporting customer care
functions of global businesses across multiple industries.
WNS leverages a combination of technology, analytics,
process excellence and a strong talent pool to help clients
with their most challenging customer support requirements
in today's multi-channel customer service environment.
WNS innovates constantly to bring to clients newer
avenues of creating customer satisfaction and enhancing
ROI. Two such offerings from the WNS stable are:

ProGenie: ProGenie is WNS's proprietary tool for Unified
Web Engagement. ProGenie is a customized Web plug-in
for real-time customer engagement that helps online
visitors navigate the Website effectively: make a purchase
or resolve a service need.

Social Customer Service: WNS's range of platform-based
customer service offerings for social channels include:
Social Analytics, Brand Representation, Brand Monitoring,
Customer Services and Community Management.
© Copyright 2013 WNS (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved

Más contenido relacionado

Más de WNS Global Services

4 Smart Options to Overcome the Lonely Journey to Captive Shared Services
4 Smart Options to Overcome the Lonely Journey to Captive Shared Services4 Smart Options to Overcome the Lonely Journey to Captive Shared Services
4 Smart Options to Overcome the Lonely Journey to Captive Shared ServicesWNS Global Services
 
Managing the Complexities of Governance, Risk & Compliance Requires
Managing the Complexities of Governance, Risk & Compliance RequiresManaging the Complexities of Governance, Risk & Compliance Requires
Managing the Complexities of Governance, Risk & Compliance RequiresWNS Global Services
 
Insuring the insurance business with actionable analytics
Insuring the insurance business with actionable analyticsInsuring the insurance business with actionable analytics
Insuring the insurance business with actionable analyticsWNS Global Services
 
Gear Up for Solvency II & IFRS 4 Phase II with the Right Partner
Gear Up for Solvency II & IFRS 4 Phase II with the Right Partner Gear Up for Solvency II & IFRS 4 Phase II with the Right Partner
Gear Up for Solvency II & IFRS 4 Phase II with the Right Partner WNS Global Services
 
WNS Xponential, An ERP Card Solution
WNS Xponential, An ERP Card SolutionWNS Xponential, An ERP Card Solution
WNS Xponential, An ERP Card SolutionWNS Global Services
 
WNS Positioned as a 'High Performer' in Finance and Accounting BPO by HfS Res...
WNS Positioned as a 'High Performer' in Finance and Accounting BPO by HfS Res...WNS Positioned as a 'High Performer' in Finance and Accounting BPO by HfS Res...
WNS Positioned as a 'High Performer' in Finance and Accounting BPO by HfS Res...WNS Global Services
 
The WNS-Outsourcing Center Survey - FAO Outsourcing Drivers
The WNS-Outsourcing Center Survey - FAO Outsourcing DriversThe WNS-Outsourcing Center Survey - FAO Outsourcing Drivers
The WNS-Outsourcing Center Survey - FAO Outsourcing DriversWNS Global Services
 
Building Brands through ‘Social’ Customer Service
Building Brands through ‘Social’ Customer ServiceBuilding Brands through ‘Social’ Customer Service
Building Brands through ‘Social’ Customer ServiceWNS Global Services
 
WNS Receives Dual Recognition at the 'BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11'
WNS Receives Dual Recognition at the 'BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11'WNS Receives Dual Recognition at the 'BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11'
WNS Receives Dual Recognition at the 'BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11'WNS Global Services
 
End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery...
End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery...End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery...
End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery...WNS Global Services
 
Leverage actionable insights to increase competitiveness in U.K.'s retail ind...
Leverage actionable insights to increase competitiveness in U.K.'s retail ind...Leverage actionable insights to increase competitiveness in U.K.'s retail ind...
Leverage actionable insights to increase competitiveness in U.K.'s retail ind...WNS Global Services
 
Role of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing in achieving the CFO’s Agenda for ...
Role of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing in achieving the CFO’s Agenda for ...Role of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing in achieving the CFO’s Agenda for ...
Role of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing in achieving the CFO’s Agenda for ...WNS Global Services
 
Insurers' six customer care challenges
Insurers' six customer care challengesInsurers' six customer care challenges
Insurers' six customer care challengesWNS Global Services
 
Flight Path To Survival: Business process outsourcing helps airlines, hotels,...
Flight Path To Survival: Business process outsourcing helps airlines, hotels,...Flight Path To Survival: Business process outsourcing helps airlines, hotels,...
Flight Path To Survival: Business process outsourcing helps airlines, hotels,...WNS Global Services
 
Taking Shared services to the next level through outsourcing
Taking Shared services to the next level through outsourcingTaking Shared services to the next level through outsourcing
Taking Shared services to the next level through outsourcingWNS Global Services
 
Outsourcing helps a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) of the fare fili...
Outsourcing helps a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) of the fare fili...Outsourcing helps a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) of the fare fili...
Outsourcing helps a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) of the fare fili...WNS Global Services
 

Más de WNS Global Services (20)

4 Smart Options to Overcome the Lonely Journey to Captive Shared Services
4 Smart Options to Overcome the Lonely Journey to Captive Shared Services4 Smart Options to Overcome the Lonely Journey to Captive Shared Services
4 Smart Options to Overcome the Lonely Journey to Captive Shared Services
 
Managing the Complexities of Governance, Risk & Compliance Requires
Managing the Complexities of Governance, Risk & Compliance RequiresManaging the Complexities of Governance, Risk & Compliance Requires
Managing the Complexities of Governance, Risk & Compliance Requires
 
Insuring the insurance business with actionable analytics
Insuring the insurance business with actionable analyticsInsuring the insurance business with actionable analytics
Insuring the insurance business with actionable analytics
 
Travel and leisure infographics
Travel and leisure infographicsTravel and leisure infographics
Travel and leisure infographics
 
Gear Up for Solvency II & IFRS 4 Phase II with the Right Partner
Gear Up for Solvency II & IFRS 4 Phase II with the Right Partner Gear Up for Solvency II & IFRS 4 Phase II with the Right Partner
Gear Up for Solvency II & IFRS 4 Phase II with the Right Partner
 
WNS Xponential, An ERP Card Solution
WNS Xponential, An ERP Card SolutionWNS Xponential, An ERP Card Solution
WNS Xponential, An ERP Card Solution
 
WNS Positioned as a 'High Performer' in Finance and Accounting BPO by HfS Res...
WNS Positioned as a 'High Performer' in Finance and Accounting BPO by HfS Res...WNS Positioned as a 'High Performer' in Finance and Accounting BPO by HfS Res...
WNS Positioned as a 'High Performer' in Finance and Accounting BPO by HfS Res...
 
The WNS-Outsourcing Center Survey - FAO Outsourcing Drivers
The WNS-Outsourcing Center Survey - FAO Outsourcing DriversThe WNS-Outsourcing Center Survey - FAO Outsourcing Drivers
The WNS-Outsourcing Center Survey - FAO Outsourcing Drivers
 
WNS Corporate German Factsheet
WNS Corporate German FactsheetWNS Corporate German Factsheet
WNS Corporate German Factsheet
 
WNS Corporate French Factsheet
WNS Corporate French FactsheetWNS Corporate French Factsheet
WNS Corporate French Factsheet
 
Building Brands through ‘Social’ Customer Service
Building Brands through ‘Social’ Customer ServiceBuilding Brands through ‘Social’ Customer Service
Building Brands through ‘Social’ Customer Service
 
WNS Receives Dual Recognition at the 'BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11'
WNS Receives Dual Recognition at the 'BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11'WNS Receives Dual Recognition at the 'BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11'
WNS Receives Dual Recognition at the 'BPO Excellence Awards 2010-11'
 
End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery...
End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery...End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery...
End-to-end consolidation of the order-to-cash cycle for a global air delivery...
 
Leverage actionable insights to increase competitiveness in U.K.'s retail ind...
Leverage actionable insights to increase competitiveness in U.K.'s retail ind...Leverage actionable insights to increase competitiveness in U.K.'s retail ind...
Leverage actionable insights to increase competitiveness in U.K.'s retail ind...
 
Role of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing in achieving the CFO’s Agenda for ...
Role of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing in achieving the CFO’s Agenda for ...Role of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing in achieving the CFO’s Agenda for ...
Role of Finance and Accounting Outsourcing in achieving the CFO’s Agenda for ...
 
Time to repay
Time to repayTime to repay
Time to repay
 
Insurers' six customer care challenges
Insurers' six customer care challengesInsurers' six customer care challenges
Insurers' six customer care challenges
 
Flight Path To Survival: Business process outsourcing helps airlines, hotels,...
Flight Path To Survival: Business process outsourcing helps airlines, hotels,...Flight Path To Survival: Business process outsourcing helps airlines, hotels,...
Flight Path To Survival: Business process outsourcing helps airlines, hotels,...
 
Taking Shared services to the next level through outsourcing
Taking Shared services to the next level through outsourcingTaking Shared services to the next level through outsourcing
Taking Shared services to the next level through outsourcing
 
Outsourcing helps a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) of the fare fili...
Outsourcing helps a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) of the fare fili...Outsourcing helps a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) of the fare fili...
Outsourcing helps a leading Global Distribution System (GDS) of the fare fili...
 

Último

Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and FestivalsFabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and FestivalsWristbands Ireland
 
MoneyBridge Pitch Deck - Investor Presentation
MoneyBridge Pitch Deck - Investor PresentationMoneyBridge Pitch Deck - Investor Presentation
MoneyBridge Pitch Deck - Investor Presentationbaron83
 
Q2 2024 APCO Geopolitical Radar - The Global Operating Environment for Business
Q2 2024 APCO Geopolitical Radar - The Global Operating Environment for BusinessQ2 2024 APCO Geopolitical Radar - The Global Operating Environment for Business
Q2 2024 APCO Geopolitical Radar - The Global Operating Environment for BusinessAPCO
 
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024Winbusinessin
 
To Create Your Own Wig Online To Create Your Own Wig Online
To Create Your Own Wig Online  To Create Your Own Wig OnlineTo Create Your Own Wig Online  To Create Your Own Wig Online
To Create Your Own Wig Online To Create Your Own Wig Onlinelng ths
 
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZMihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZKanakChauhan5
 
Graham and Doddsville - Issue 1 - Winter 2006 (1).pdf
Graham and Doddsville - Issue 1 - Winter 2006 (1).pdfGraham and Doddsville - Issue 1 - Winter 2006 (1).pdf
Graham and Doddsville - Issue 1 - Winter 2006 (1).pdfAnhNguyen97152
 
Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn - Expert Planet- 2024
 Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn - Expert Planet-  2024 Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn - Expert Planet-  2024
Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn - Expert Planet- 2024Stephan Koning
 
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...TalentView
 
NewBase 25 March 2024 Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...
NewBase  25 March  2024  Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...NewBase  25 March  2024  Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...
NewBase 25 March 2024 Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...Khaled Al Awadi
 
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access
 
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023Steve Rader
 
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...Brian Solis
 
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access
 
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.mcshagufta46
 
Tata Kelola Bisnis perushaan yang bergerak
Tata Kelola Bisnis perushaan yang bergerakTata Kelola Bisnis perushaan yang bergerak
Tata Kelola Bisnis perushaan yang bergerakEditores1
 
Talent Management research intelligence_13 paradigm shifts_20 March 2024.pdf
Talent Management research intelligence_13 paradigm shifts_20 March 2024.pdfTalent Management research intelligence_13 paradigm shifts_20 March 2024.pdf
Talent Management research intelligence_13 paradigm shifts_20 March 2024.pdfCharles Cotter, PhD
 
BCE24 | Virtual Brand Ambassadors: Making Brands Personal - John Meulemans
BCE24 | Virtual Brand Ambassadors: Making Brands Personal - John MeulemansBCE24 | Virtual Brand Ambassadors: Making Brands Personal - John Meulemans
BCE24 | Virtual Brand Ambassadors: Making Brands Personal - John MeulemansBBPMedia1
 

Último (20)

WAM Corporate Presentation Mar 25 2024.pdf
WAM Corporate Presentation Mar 25 2024.pdfWAM Corporate Presentation Mar 25 2024.pdf
WAM Corporate Presentation Mar 25 2024.pdf
 
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and FestivalsFabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
Fabric RFID Wristbands in Ireland for Events and Festivals
 
MoneyBridge Pitch Deck - Investor Presentation
MoneyBridge Pitch Deck - Investor PresentationMoneyBridge Pitch Deck - Investor Presentation
MoneyBridge Pitch Deck - Investor Presentation
 
Investment Opportunity for Thailand's Automotive & EV Industries
Investment Opportunity for Thailand's Automotive & EV IndustriesInvestment Opportunity for Thailand's Automotive & EV Industries
Investment Opportunity for Thailand's Automotive & EV Industries
 
Q2 2024 APCO Geopolitical Radar - The Global Operating Environment for Business
Q2 2024 APCO Geopolitical Radar - The Global Operating Environment for BusinessQ2 2024 APCO Geopolitical Radar - The Global Operating Environment for Business
Q2 2024 APCO Geopolitical Radar - The Global Operating Environment for Business
 
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
Ethical stalking by Mark Williams. UpliftLive 2024
 
To Create Your Own Wig Online To Create Your Own Wig Online
To Create Your Own Wig Online  To Create Your Own Wig OnlineTo Create Your Own Wig Online  To Create Your Own Wig Online
To Create Your Own Wig Online To Create Your Own Wig Online
 
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZMihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
Mihir Menda - Member of Supervisory Board at RMZ
 
Graham and Doddsville - Issue 1 - Winter 2006 (1).pdf
Graham and Doddsville - Issue 1 - Winter 2006 (1).pdfGraham and Doddsville - Issue 1 - Winter 2006 (1).pdf
Graham and Doddsville - Issue 1 - Winter 2006 (1).pdf
 
Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn - Expert Planet- 2024
 Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn - Expert Planet-  2024 Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn - Expert Planet-  2024
Building Your Personal Brand on LinkedIn - Expert Planet- 2024
 
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
TalentView Webinar: Empowering the Modern Workforce_ Redefininig Success from...
 
NewBase 25 March 2024 Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...
NewBase  25 March  2024  Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...NewBase  25 March  2024  Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...
NewBase 25 March 2024 Energy News issue - 1710 by Khaled Al Awadi_compress...
 
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global B2B Panel book-unlock 2024
 
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
NASA CoCEI Scaling Strategy - November 2023
 
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consu...
 
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
Borderless Access - Global Panel book-unlock 2024
 
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
A flour, rice and Suji company in Jhang.
 
Tata Kelola Bisnis perushaan yang bergerak
Tata Kelola Bisnis perushaan yang bergerakTata Kelola Bisnis perushaan yang bergerak
Tata Kelola Bisnis perushaan yang bergerak
 
Talent Management research intelligence_13 paradigm shifts_20 March 2024.pdf
Talent Management research intelligence_13 paradigm shifts_20 March 2024.pdfTalent Management research intelligence_13 paradigm shifts_20 March 2024.pdf
Talent Management research intelligence_13 paradigm shifts_20 March 2024.pdf
 
BCE24 | Virtual Brand Ambassadors: Making Brands Personal - John Meulemans
BCE24 | Virtual Brand Ambassadors: Making Brands Personal - John MeulemansBCE24 | Virtual Brand Ambassadors: Making Brands Personal - John Meulemans
BCE24 | Virtual Brand Ambassadors: Making Brands Personal - John Meulemans
 

The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges

  • 1. The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges wns.com
  • 2. Key Contact Center Metrics Contact Center: Your Opportunity Service Level (SL): Every call center runs on to Make the First and Lasting a certain goal for ‘Service Level’ (SL in Impression contact center parlance), which is simply a measure of percentage of total incoming For many global businesses, world-wide, the calls handled within a certain time. SL is contact center serves as the first interface essentially a measure of the Turnaround between the organization and its customers. Time (TAT). For example an SL of 80 / 30 The quality of service offered by the contact requires 80 percent of the incoming calls to center often becomes a yardstick by which be answered within 30 seconds. customers evaluate the organization. Abandons: This is the percentage of the The customer today is sophisticated, picky, and total customers (incoming calls) who hang extremely hard to please, thanks to globalization, up before the call is answered. the digital and technology boom and a multitude of product, brand and service options. Customer Relationship between SL and Abandons: loyalties have become fickle, and organizations SL and Abandons are inversely proportional. have to go an extra mile or perhaps even a The higher the SL the lower is the abandon hundred to win, more importantly, retain rate, as shown in the graph below: customers. As the first point-of-contact between the customer and the organization, the contact SL versus Abandons center thus assumes a very key position as a NCA% 120% SL% service channel. 100% Contact Center: At the Revenue 80% Generation Cross-roads % Calls 60% Despite the role it plays in creating customer satisfaction, the contact center occupies a 40% strangely contradictory position in the revenue generation cycle. It is as much an important 20% source of revenue as it is a cost center! For 0% organizations, therefore, it is a challenging task to ensure that the skew does not swing too much Source: WNS data towards the contact center being the cost center. Winning organizations are those that are able to Average Speed of Answer (ASA): Measures work around challenges and create an ecosystem the average amount of time the callers wait that drives the contact center into becoming a in queue or on hold before their calls or chat revenue generating center. This is true for both requests are answered. captives as well as third-party BPOs. Customer Tolerance: Measures the time customers would typically wait in the queue before they decide to hang up. 1
  • 3. The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges Contact Center Analytics: Schedule Adherence: A schedule is a time plan for the nine hours that an agent Tracking and Analyzing Metrics of typically spends in office. All the productive the New Age Contact Center and non-productive activities, therefore, have a certain pre-defined start and stop Given the position the new age contact center time. Schedule Adherence is a measure of occupies in the customer lifecycle and revenue the variance between the ‘actual time’ of the generation mesh, it becomes imperative for activity versus the ‘planned time’ of activity, enterprises to track and improve upon the call where both the start time and the stop time center’s Key Performance Indicators (KPI). are tracked. For example, if the agent was to be on a call from 1400 - 1430 hours, The list of contact center metrics may seem tad but had to take a break during such time, long, but contact center managers, in particular, it would be captured as 30 minutes of and enterprises in general, cannot afford to non-adherence. ignore any of these, as revenue and customer satisfaction are closely tied to each metric. Line Adherence: Defines the number of All activities in the contact center must be agents scheduled during a given time of the effectively measured and analyzed to enable day (normally blocks of 15 or 30 minutes) marketing, sales and other decision-making to be on calls. Line Adherence measures the departments to use the ‘contact center analytics’ variance between the number of agents to make critical management decisions, which actually on calls versus the number of ensure that the following two key deliverables for agents planned to be on calls. Line the contact center are met: adherence offsets the non-adherence of Maximizing n revenues while keeping costs low agents. Line adherence ensures that even if and staying profitable an agent, scheduled to take a call at say 1410 hours is away, his absence is Keeping n Customer Satisfaction (C-Sat) high accounted for by another agent, who fills up and creating customer delight (to retain, grow for him. business and earn referrals) Occupancy: Occupancy is the percentage of the agent's total time in the day (minus all planned off-phone activity) that is spent on a productive / on call activity. By definition it is: (Total Talk Time + Hold Time + After Call Work) / (Total Talk Time + Hold Time + After Call Work) + (Available Time) Available Time: Implies the time for which the agent was logged into the Automatic Call Distributor (ACD) and was available to take a call, but did not receive a call. wns.com | 2
  • 4. WFM - The Basics, The Challenges and Tips to Overcome Them Workforce Management or WFM in the context of the contact center comprises four key processes: 1 3 4 2 WFM Forecasting Scheduling Performance Change and Planning Analytics Management P ling Perfo er du rma he nc for g gic Plannin Sc eA m nal ance Man yt Planning Workforce ics Management (WFM) rate ag St em e nt Though the WFM function can be broadly The key to turning the contact center into a categorized into four straightforward steps, in revenue-generating hub despite the challenges reality, the process is far from being simple and lies with having effective WFM processes run by straight-forward. Complexities arise at each step an efficient team. With its long-standing of the WFM processes owing to the number of experience in contact center and workforce metrics that are controlled and impacted by management, WNS has identified four key WFM. The outsourcing manager and / or the challenges that outsourcing managers / contact contact center manager thus have to center managers are constantly faced with. This continuously deal with many important, but WNS guide throws light on tackling these tricky difficult questions. challenges efficiently and effectively. 3
  • 5. The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges 1 4 CHALLENGES 2 3 Challenge 1: What is a Measure of Good Performance? WNS suggests a few simple strategies for determining the measure of good performance and using it strategically to differentiate from competition and retain high-value customers: (a) Collate data on the SL provided by competitors in the same industry, for the same type of service (Travel and Hospitality, Retail, Consumer Products, Telecom as the case may be) and the medium of SL is essentially (and should be) a measure of the communication chosen by the customer and tolerance level of a customer when contacting a only then arrive at the benchmark for your customer service center. It is part of the expectation contact center. You need to decide on the SL the customer has and influences C-Sat. benchmark depending on whether your SL would also depend on the contact medium organization wants SL to be a ‘differentiator’ chosen. For instance, a call or a chat would be for the end-customer and if there is value in more real-time; whereas an e-mail or a white ‘investing’ in it. mail communication could be spread over days. (b) Another strategy is to sieve out premium The SL goal, therefore, should be in line with the and high-value customers by revenue, ‘customer expectation’ and ‘tolerance’ depending profit, references and / or any other criteria on the ‘urgency’ of the need / response and the and strategically provide them a better SL. type of product or service. wns.com | 4
  • 6. Challenge 2: How Consistently Should I Provide Superior Service Level and Customer Experience? It may seem that a similar level of SL is required through a 24/7 window to ensure consistency in customer experience. However, as you keep increasing the demand on SL consistency from a monthly frequency to a weekly, daily or intra-day interval, you will need to deploy a larger number of resources. This will get you into a diminishing marginal utility situation – for each incremental dollar spent, the incremental benefit will keep reducing. Also, another important factor to bear in mind is that customer ‘tolerance’ may be different depending on the time of the day and day of the week. Therefore, understanding customer behavior and tolerance is critical. WNS suggests that rather than increasing the headcount to handle more number of calls across 120% Monthly versus Interval Level SL Monthly SL Interval SL 100% 80% Service Level 60% 40% 20% 0% 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 :0 0 0: 1: 2: 3: 4: 5: 6: 7: 8: 9: 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 The HC Required to Meet SL at an Interval Level May Be Higher by 15-17 Percent vs. Meeting a Monthly SL Goal the 24/7 window, it is a better alternative to look provided with a consistent experience in terms of at providing a consistent service level during the wait time without really increasing the cost. peak calling hours. This ensures that customers get a consistent experience when they call While some organizations use the above strategy during a specific window rather than any time as a means of providing a more consistent of the day or week. experience during peak windows, this can be used as a tool to shape demand and customer Since the bulk of the volume is within this time calling behavior. period, a larger percentage of customers can be There may be other inherent ‘controllable’ processes / metrics that drive a demand pattern, 5
  • 7. The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges which if tweaked smartly, either by you as a by customer behavior. At times, organizations also business or by your outsourcing partner can cut chase the design along with the output metric. costs for contact center operations and provide a The focus, however, must truly be on the output more consistent experience to the callers. metric. Efforts can also be made to ensure efficiency in others. If one chases the input While SL is an output metric, others like schedule metrics (like Line Adherence), at times, adherence, line adherence, occupancy are all part the output metric (in this case SL) may be of the staffing pattern designed to deliver a certain over-achieved and at a higher cost. SL goal. In certain cases, organizations focus on metrics like calls abandoned and ASA, which are often, by-products of the SL or are purely triggered Challenge 3: How Do I Staff 80 Intra-day Staffing 70 to meet SL and Line Adherence 60 50 Staffing 40 HC to meet SL HC to meet LA 30 20 10 0 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30 16:00 16:30 17:00 17:30 18:00 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 The Headcount (HC) Required to Meet a Certain Interval Level Staffing Confirmance (Line Adherence - LA) is 12 Percent Higher Than What Is Required to Meet the SL, Which Should Be the End Objective. If One Chooses to Go with Delivery of Line Adherence, the Cost of Operations Increases Appropriately Keeping Parameters Like Business Interest, Law of the Land, People Satisfaction and Cost in Mind? How Do I Maximize Revenue and E-Sat at the Same Time? wns.com | 6
  • 8. This is perhaps the most important question that The bottom-line is that you can never have one baffles WFM teams. Forecasting and scheduling, set plan despite standardizing, staffing and keeping multiple parameters like C-Sat, E-Sat, law scheduling, forecasting and meeting SL goals. of the land and costs in mind, can be an uphill task. Organizational and business dynamics will have an impact on the long-term capacity planning, Here WNS looks at some key situations and you will need to customize your staffing and encountered and puts forth some possible scheduling based on the immediate business strategies to counter the challenges. needs and the environmental forces. Intra-day call arrival forecasting is the core activity behind creating schedules to ensure that Challenge 4: How Do I Manage SL goals are met. However, there may be certain Contractual Staffing (Basis events that trigger a change in intra-day call arrival pattern. The change could be seasonal or Forecasts) and Keep Costs Under cyclical in nature, and therefore, predictable. Control Simultaneously? Some of the variance may be purely within statistical limits and must not be read too much into, unless there is a sustained pattern observed over a period of time, which then calls for an adjustment in the forecast and requires scheduling. In case of short-term blips, before making decisions, detailed discussions must be held between all parties in the partnership (business - outsourcing service provider) and available options (cross skilling and flex-up through onshore, nearshore, offshore teams) weighed out against the overall outcome and only then should the agents be moved around to maximize alignment to the changed call pattern. In a typical contact center scenario, managers Another risk, business managers and WFM are required to meet 110 percent or more of the managers on either side run, is when trying to forecasted call volume. This can be a challenge determine when and how much to tweak schedules. on either side: This becomes an even more critical parameter in an environment, which does not embrace frequent In a dropping volume scenario: Contact center change. Lifestyles are fast changing and managers are saddled with a higher cost of organizations are expected to be more and more operation if they staff up to 110 percent of the employee-friendly, allowing employees more room for forecasted volume and they receive only work-life balance, and this puts a further constraint 90 percent of the forecasted call volume. on how much scheduling flexibility (efficiency) is In an increasing volume scenario: Contact center available (achievable). managers are potentially exposed to penalties depending on the contractual agreement. In addition, geography, transport, local labor laws are the other important parameters that influence strategizing and scheduling. 7
  • 9. The WNS Guide to Tackling the 4 Trickiest Workforce Management (WFM) Challenges In either scenario, both the contact center worried about customer satisfaction and lost manager and the outsourcing manager are in a revenue, more so in a sales environment. dilemma. In the first instance, while the contact center manager is worried about cost of operation It would be ideal to deal with this dilemma by and dipping margins, the outsourcing manager having a consensus between both parties by would be worried about paying for the minimum mutually drafting the clauses in the Statement of number of calls committed. Work (contract). This will ensure that both parties are on an even ground and there is a In the second instance, while the contact center partnership approach in creating the forecast for manager would be thinking about a ‘possible’ the business. It would also make good sense to lost revenue opportunity or penalties on SL, in have regular discussions around factors that contrast, the outsourcing manager would be impact forecasting and scheduling. WFM – Much More Than MIS; a Leading Business Function Apart from helping outsourcing and contact and other functions like Operations, Training, center managers cope with the four tricky Finance, Talent Acquisition, IT and Facilities is questions mentioned above, WFM plays a key critical to managing a large part of cost for the role in budgeting, forecasting, controlling costs contact center delivery and growth (revenue) and most importantly maintaining profitability while maintaining profitability. Additionally, WFM and influencing C-Sat. can effectively control all productivity metrics to improve revenue per FTE (read margins) by Headcount is the single largest cost that ties into providing real-time visibility to the Operations other overheads like support staff, seats, IT team that directly controls agent performance bandwidth, hiring cost, rewards and penalties and behavior. and, therefore, the communication between WFM Partner with the Expert With a large client base that it creates contact center solutions for, WNS is a front-runner in workforce Management. Read the case study below to see how a leading global cosmetics company enhanced customer satisfaction with WNS's WFM model on forecasting: The Client: A Leading Global Cosmetics Company The Challenge: The client was generating a call volume for its Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) business, which was running at a 21 percent MAPE*. The client needed to have the MAPE reduced to get a better grip on the call forecast. *MAPE: Mean Absolute Percentage Error wns.com | 8
  • 10. The Premise: Calendar n of events that impacted the call volume historically. For instance, operational WNS had been doing similar work for the same issues like shipping delays that cause short- client for their Germany business and WNS's term increase in call volume followed by a drop model proved to be successful. Basis the experience, WNS got a recommendation to Historical call volume available, helped in carry out the same model for the client's exhaustive quantitative analysis to assess and ANZ business. deploy the forecast model that worked best for the client. This was followed by discussing and The WNS Solution: agreeing on a governance mechanism and a WNS partnered with the client to create a step- sign-off from the client on the forecast volumes by-step methodology to help achieve improved created by WNS. The model yielded the rates of accuracy in call forecasts. The proposed below-mentioned benefits to the client: methodology was to analyze a number of customer data points like: Benefits Delivered: Customer n information With the implementation of the new model, forecast Sales n and marketing spends and its variance reduced from 21 percent MAPE to impact on volume 9 percent MAPE for a 60 day out forecast (Fig. 1). Forecast Accuracy 40% Before (Client Forecasting) After (WNS Forecasting) 30% 20% 10% 0% -10% -20% -30% MAPE: 21% MAPE: 9% -40% -50% Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 Fig. 1: Forecast Accuracy Levels for Client Improved with WNS's New Model The new forecast model also: Helped n better trending available for a long-term model Improved n potential opportunity to use agent time in other productive activities The overall benefit was enhanced customer satisfaction in the ANZ geography. 9
  • 11. About WNS WNS (Holdings) Limited (NYSE: WNS), is a leading global business process outsourcing company. WNS offers business value to 200+ global clients by combining operational excellence with deep domain expertise in key industry verticals including Travel, Insurance, Banking and Financial Services, Manufacturing, Retail and Consumer Packaged Goods, Shipping and Logistics and Healthcare and Utilities. WNS delivers an entire spectrum of business process outsourcing services such as finance and accounting, customer care, technology solutions, research and analytics and industry specific back office and front office processes. WNS has over 25,000 professionals across 31 delivery centers worldwide including China*, Costa Rica, India, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom and the United States. * China: Delivered through a joint-venture. WNS Contact Center Solutions WNS has a strong track record of supporting customer care functions of global businesses across multiple industries. WNS leverages a combination of technology, analytics, process excellence and a strong talent pool to help clients with their most challenging customer support requirements in today's multi-channel customer service environment. WNS innovates constantly to bring to clients newer avenues of creating customer satisfaction and enhancing ROI. Two such offerings from the WNS stable are: ProGenie: ProGenie is WNS's proprietary tool for Unified Web Engagement. ProGenie is a customized Web plug-in for real-time customer engagement that helps online visitors navigate the Website effectively: make a purchase or resolve a service need. Social Customer Service: WNS's range of platform-based customer service offerings for social channels include: Social Analytics, Brand Representation, Brand Monitoring, Customer Services and Community Management.
  • 12. © Copyright 2013 WNS (Holdings) Ltd. All rights reserved