New Research Shows Only 1 in 3 Call Centres are Planning Effectively For Skill-based Routing

While 76% of Call Centre Resource Planners believe they have a fair or
good understanding of routing options, only 37% of respondents
(approximately 1 in 3) felt that they were even close to fully using
skills routing and gaining benefits from it.

In response to this research, the Professional Planning forum have
announced the latest new course in their programme of specialist
training. This new course focuses specifically on planning effectively
for skill-based routing and scheduling in call centres. This is
anticipated to become ever more popular as call centre managers attempt to close the gap between what they aspire to achieve and the poor current performance.

The research forms part of the 2007 annual benchmark research carried
out by the Professional Planning Forum, the independent industry body
supporting effective resourcing and planning in Contact Centres. Full
details will be presented at Call Centre Planning 2007 in Dublin on
April 25 - 26 and can be found at www.planningforum.co.uk.

This research represents a unique insight into what has long been
suspected that call centres pay lip service to accurate skills based
planning. �Schedulers know what needs to be done, but either the
workforce management tool, their training or their priorities let them
down explains Steve Woosey, Membership Director at the Professional
Planning Forum. Not only do so few really try to implement it properly
but in fact the research shows that only 10% model the exact steps used in their ACD as in their workforce management tool. 30% can't or don't even try.

It goes without saying that unless an accurate forecast of how centres
are going to perform is prepared, then skills based routing will not be
effective. Yet looking at the scheduling strategies used in more detail,
it is evident that 40% of respondents do not review the impacts of
holidays, sickness and absence across all queues and 22% of offline
activity is planned as a single skill environment.

This means that 62% of resource planners still need to adjust manually
during the day, despite using an automated system.

This represents a big challenge to call centres operating in large
multi-skilled environments, where effective simulation using workforce
management tools is essential. John Casey, the Planning Forum's Director of Professional Development elaborates: As well as up-to-date systems, today's resource planners need confidence and skills to step up to the challenge of multi-skilled resourcing challenges. Planning is an
increasingly complex role and if professional development is
under-resourced, then the consequence is suffered by the business.

The benchmark survey analyses results from 161 contact centre
organisations from all industry sectors and was conducted during first
quarter 2007. The results demonstrate that the complexity of the role of
resource planners and the highly specialist contribution that they can
make to the effective management of call centres is increasing.

For further details contact:

Steve Woosey, steve.woosey@planningforum.co.uk

OR Katherine Potter, Katherine.potter@planningforum.co.uk

Tel: 0870 870 59 60

The Professional Planning Forum www.planningforum.co.uk is the
independent industry body for effective resourcing and planning in the
contact centre industry, working across all industry sectors to provide
specialist support for contact centre professionals. Championing the
importance of these critical skills, the Planning Forum is widely
recognized for its best practice research and case studies, as well as
the results-focused nature of its professional development training and
in-company workshops. The Planning Forum runs the Call Centre Innovation of the Year Award and the Call Centre Planning 2007 conference.
 

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