A well-functioning customer support center has agents available to quickly connect when customers call. But what happens if agents aren’t available when customers need them most? The result: frustrated callers and a potential decline in customer satisfaction.
The key to ensuring agent availability and keeping customers happy lies in schedule adherence.
In this guide, we’ll look into:
- What is schedule adherence?
- Why is it an important call center metric?
- Actionable strategies to improve adherence.
What is Schedule Adherence?
Schedule adherence is an important call center metric that measures how well agents adhere to their schedules. This metric encompasses factors like punctuality, agent availability, call time, post-call handling time, and break time among others.
Goes without saying that effective schedule adherence is crucial for call center success. A high adherence rate helps businesses offer better customer support as well as improve operations. Even if just one agent deviates from the schedule, especially during peak times, it could throw everything off balance.
Say a customer calls with a simple routine question, only to be stuck on hold for ages. This could be a result of low agent adherence. Similarly, if an agent arrives late during a call time, the remaining agents must manage a higher call volume.
This could translate to an increase in wait times for customers. Not only will that leave customers frustrated, but also overburden the other available agents, possibly leading to burnout and a dip in performance.
Why is Schedule Adherence an Important Call Center Metric?
Understanding the impact of schedule adherence lays the foundation for appreciating its significance. Here are some common reasons why schedule adherence is a crucial call center metric:
- High adherence directly affects customer satisfaction because it ensures consistent availability of agents. This reduces wait times, leading to smoother operational efficiency, quicker resolutions, and more call center sales.
- With agents available as planned, there is better resource allocation. Managers can monitor and observe factors such as call volume, length, etc. and utilize resources more efficiently, minimizing staff burnout and agent turnover.
- Optimal resource allocation and utilization reduces costs from overstaffing, underperformance, or vacant, idle time.
- Ultimately, schedule adherence is a valuable tool for call center managers. By analyzing adherence patterns, they can make data-driven decisions related to predictive scheduling, training, staffing levels, and more.
- Low adherence can also lead to a higher number of missed calls and sales opportunities.
How to Calculate Schedule Adherence for Your Call Center?
To calculate schedule adherence, you divide the minutes an agent is in adherence by the total scheduled minutes. Then, multiply that number by 100 to get the schedule adherence percentage:
Typically, adherence is calculated for the whole call center by averaging all agents’ individual rates. Additionally, it is important to note that activities like training sessions, meetings, etc. during scheduled hours count towards adherence.
You can find this information through your schedule planning tool, call records, CRM integrations, time management software, etc. For example, agents can log time spent on training, meetings, pre- and post-call tasks, etc., on the CRM or project management software. Managers can also verify time spent on customer calls through call detail records. Then, compare this with time scheduled and expected of them.
What Factors Affect Schedule Adherence?
Understanding the root causes for disruption is crucial for developing solutions that promote consistent adherence. These are some of the top factors that disrupt adherence:
- Agents taking ad-hoc leaves due to sickness or personal emergencies can disrupt the planned schedules. In turn, this may overburden present staff further affecting their adherence.
- Unanticipated, non-seasonal spikes in call volume can overwhelm scheduled agents, making it difficult to adhere to work plans. For instance, there is a sudden influx of calls related to product malfunctions. Agents might even have to work through their breaks to handle the call volume.
- Agents might be forced to pause work when dealing with technical challenges like system downtime or glitching. This is especially true when you don’t have a call center recovery plan in place.
- Factors like inefficient break scheduling and low motivation can also affect agents’ drive to adhere to schedules.
How to Improve Schedule Adherence in Call Centers: 6 Strategies
Once you’ve identified the causes of low adherence in your call center or service center, you can plan out strategies to improve these numbers. Here are some actionable strategies to improve schedule adherence:
- Identify and Address Adherence Issues
- Set Realistic Schedules and Goals
- Leverage Virtual Call Center Features
- Monitor Specific Key Performance Indicators
- Conduct Regular Training and Collect Feedback
- Offer Flexible Scheduling Options and Rewards
1. Identify and Address Adherence Issues
Maintaining high adherence rates requires a proactive approach. Managers would have to spend time analyzing data such as adherence percentages over time, call analytics, reports, etc. This helps identify specific times adherence dips. For example, are there recurring patterns of tardiness or unplanned absences? Are there multiple instances of outages or service downtime? Is call volume trending upwards with staff unable to match call needs?
Once the root cause behind low adherence has been identified, businesses can develop targeted solutions. Some reports also reveal that agent and rep disengagement leads to poor service and high economic cost. To address this, businesses could offer motivational incentives or implement clearer policies. Furthermore, providing agents with timely constructive feedback is essential as this promotes a culture of transparency and support.
2. Set Realistic Schedules and Goals
To foster consistent adherence among agents, it’s crucial to begin by setting realistic schedules and goals. Balancing customer needs with agent well-being is key. Overloaded schedules can lead to burnout, harming both adherence and customer service quality.
Calculate and analyze your current adherence rate to establish a baseline and develop achievable schedules. Refer to agents’ adherence history while goal setting. Further, as part of goal setting, have open communication about the importance of adherence–specifically how individual actions affect team performance and customer satisfaction. When agents understand their impact, they’re likely to stick closely to their schedules.
Also, by making adherence a shared responsibility, businesses can build a culture of adherence in the organization. And by integrating schedule adherence into the organizational culture aligns agent objectives with business goals.
3. Leverage Virtual Call Center Features
Call center software can be a lifesaver when it comes to improving schedule adherence rate. Solutions like call routing, call flow builder, and helpdesk/CRM integrations up the game by streamlining operations, enhancing call handling efficiency, and automating repetitive tasks.
Having call flows with predefined routing rules help agents better adhere to schedules. They structure how incoming calls can be managed automatically. For example, sequential call routing distributes calls evenly among agents, preventing overload and maintaining balanced workloads. Similarly, skill-based routing will ensure callers get directed to the most suitable agent promptly.
VoIP-CRM integrations can further optimize workflow efficiency by automatically syncing call and customer data between the two platforms. And, agents can use these integrations to handle calls directly through their CRM interface. This saves them time switching between systems and keeping them focused on their schedules.
Such solutions reduce wait times as well as minimize agent idle times, thus changing low adherence levels.
4. Monitor Specific Key Performance Indicators
Schedule adherence is certainly a crucial metric, but it doesn’t exist in isolation. It interacts with and influences other call center KPIs, such as handle time (AHT), first call resolution (FCR), average call duration, and customer satisfaction.
For instance, lower AHT generally translates to more calls handled within an agent’s shift, potentially improving adherence. Now, consistent schedule adherence ensures that there are enough agents available to handle incoming calls, reducing wait times and potentially lowering AHT.
Monitoring other KPIs helps identify areas where schedule adherence might be impacting overall performance. Say adherence is high but FCR is low. This could mean agents are rushing calls to meet scheduling goals—which, in turn, may lead to unsatisfied customers who need to call back.
5. Conduct Regular Training and Collect Feedback
Regular training and feedback collection are some other ways you can impact adherence rates. Ongoing training keeps agents up to date. Equally important is collecting feedback from agents to identify any challenges they face.
For instance, let’s say a company notices a dip in adherence rate after introducing a new CRM system. The feedback from agents may reveal that they find the platform cumbersome and time-consuming. In such cases, a focused training session on navigating the system better can equip agents to handle calls more efficiently.
So by regularly collecting feedback and addressing any issues through training, businesses can ensure continuous improvement in adherence over time.
H3: 6. Offer Flexible Scheduling Options and Rewards
Rigid scheduling often leads to frustration and ultimately, low adherence rates. A Gartner survey found that 43% of participants credited flexible working hours for boosting their productivity levels. So consider providing agents with flexibilities like the option to work from home or remotely and adjust their shifts. With cloud telephony solutions, you can provide agents with more location flexibility without compromising on call quality or privacy.
For instance, an agent has a last-minute doctor’s appointment. With flexible scheduling, they could swap shifts with a colleague or work remotely for part of the day. Providing such flexibility to adjust their shifts or work remotely also acknowledges the importance of work-life balance, thereby boosting morale and commitment.
Beyond flexibility, recognizing achievements goes a long way. Rewarding agents who consistently adhere to their schedules closely can boost morale. This could also motivate others to strive for the same level of commitment and excellence.
By implementing these strategies, businesses not only improve adherence metrics but also cultivate a culture of accountability and efficiency among their workforce.
How Can GCF Help?
High agent availability = happy customers. You can achieve this with high schedule adherence at your call center. One effective approach to enhance adherence is by leveraging virtual call center solutions. However, navigating the multitude of options and functionalities available can be daunting.
Contact Global Call Forwarding and let our virtual call center experts help you make the right choice for your business.
Call us today and find out how GCF can empower your business with tailored solutions for better operations!
