Any way you slice it, call center forecasting is a tough discipline. It’s part art and part science. As a former call center manager many years ago, I kept a laser focus on these four variables to ensure that my team was efficient and driving revenues for the company:
- Forecasting
- Scheduling
- Real-time Adherence
- Exception Planning
Forecasting is a critical factor in the typical contact center staffing model. Workforce management, after all, represents the highest cost for contact centers today. Believe me, forecasting call volumes years ago was not a very accurate exercise. In fact, consider what service provider Omni Interactions calls “extreme forecast accuracy.” Omni schedules its Remote Brand Ambassadors in 30-minute increments. What this does is significantly reduce expenses, by up to 25%, for Omni’s clients. Competing business process outsourcing (BPO) companies typically schedule their agents in (part- or full-time) hourly blocks.
By using Remote Brand Ambassadors with 30-minute shift scheduling, Omni can provide clients with precision staffing that more accurately aligns with a company’s call volumes. In Exhibit 1.0 below, the bar graph represents the forecasted call volumes. The red line is the staffing typical of in-house call centers of physical BPOs that schedule agents by the hour. The blue line depicts the accuracy achieved with Omni Interactions staffing of Remote Brand Ambassadors. With Omni Interactions, programs are never overstaffed or understaffed. This translates into savings for clients and improved CSAT scores.
Exhibit 1.0
Source: Omni Interaction
The most important differentiators that make Omni unique among service providers include:
Access to Highly Skilled Workers. Omni Interactions selects only the most qualified Remote Brand Ambassadors to match client needs. It goes as far as employing users of a particular brand or former employees who understand the company’s products, services, and culture.
Remote Model. 100% of Omni Interactions’ customer service representatives work remotely. This means it can hire from across the nation instead of 25–50 miles around a physical location, which results in highly skilled workers. Remote Brand Ambassadors are remote throughout the entire process — from hiring to virtual certification to taking calls for clients.
On-demand Support. Omni Interactions has a network of more than 75,000 Remote Brand Ambassadors that can be utilized for instant scalability. This is beneficial for companies that experience large seasonal spikes in call volume, businesses that experience more volume on certain days of the week, and firms that have trouble filling overnight and weekend shifts.
The Final Word Omni deserves consideration as a service provider partner for three main reasons:
1. Omni’s virtual learning design means certification in 25% less time than in a physical training room. This means faster, more cost-effective ramp.
2. Omni makes it easy to scale your customer support, even on short notice, by giving your organization instant access to more experienced workers with specialized skill sets from across the United States.
3. More efficient staffing means an at-home environment can handle the same number of contacts as a traditional facility-based workforce, with no overhead or operating expenses. This translates to a 15% or more reduction in your company’s workforce that’s required to meet the demands against forecasted and unforecasted volumes.
Omni Interactions offers a partnership to companies interested in building worker communities with high levels of brand engagement. With no geographical boundaries, Omni represents some of the nation’s leading brands in customer experience roles for service, sales, and technical support.
