From the Call Center Learning Center
Call Center Hot Topic Checklists

Planning, design and strategy
Design or re-design a best-in-class call center
 
Centerserve's Hot Topic Checklists will provide you fast and easy-to-use fact sheets for 7 major call center topics. This week's Hot Topic Checklist features Call Center Planning, Design and Strategy facts pulled from research based resources, including lessons learned and needs assessment information.  
This week's Hot Topic checklist is based on facts and guidelines found in Centerserve's 'Planning and Design eToolkit' and the report 'Benchmarks in Call Center Operations'. They are Centerserve's most sought-after products!

The easy-to-use and practical Contact Center Model found in the 'Call Center Planning and Design eToolkit' is considered the eToolkit's backbone. Also included in the eToolkit is a comprehensive Planning Roadmap and Master Planning Guide.

For more on both the 'Call Center Planning and Design eToolkit' and the 'Benchmarks in Call Center Operations' report, see the "Don't Reinvent the Wheel"  section below.

Centerserve's Contact Center Model
 

Call Center Planning, Design and Strategy Hot Topic Checklist

Four viewpoints to consider in your strategic plan: the customer, your agents, the call center managers and the organization.  Each viewpoint will have it's own concerns and questions. Be sure to consider each viewpoint when designing or redesigning a best -in-class call center.

Establishing goals and assessing performance is an ongoing process that defines how well the center is doing over time.  Exactly what gets measured varies from center to center.  It's based primarily on those big-picture objectives that you identified in the strategic plan.

A well-written job description allows you to attract the right candidates.  An ideal job description should contain: an organizational overview and job context, description of the position, relationships, skills and level.

Training checklist: Determine training needs. Determine training budget and facilities available. Decide if you will have external or internal trainers. In preparation of training materials and the training of trainers themselves, define incoming parties' needs and concerns.  Develop training content and delivery mechanism. 

The best contact centers are viewed as sources of knowledgeable staff for the entire organization.  How to do that? Ongoing performance management! The benefits are numerous: more skills and knowledgeable staff, promoteable staff, reduce external turnover, better performance and productivity.

To be effective, workforce management is an ongoing process which requires monitoring and adjusting to the dynamic customer demand patterns and agent availability.

Establishing your specific staffing requirements is based on identifying contact types and understanding the variability of contact arrival in your center.  Erlang tables, in conjunction with your projections of contact volumes, will allow you to establish your specific needs. Centerserve's Planning and Design eToolkit offers 11 steps to determining your staff level.  One key step is: consider past performance while considering performance goals.

There are five steps involved in developing productivity and performance reports:
 
  1. Define goals and requirements
  2. Generate reports
  3. Communicate results
  4. Analyze data
  5. Make improvements

 

Don't Reinvent the Wheel!
We have much more where that came from! 

Centerserve's most sought-after resource is also your guide for creating a world-class contact center.  Developed in collaboration with industry leaders, the 'Call Center Planning and Design eToolkit' is a definitive guide for creating the best possible contact center for your organization. Click here for more.

Toolkit Objective: a blueprint for building a successful contact center

Highlighted Tools:  Planning Roadmap, Master Planning Guide and the Contact Center Model

Pages:   258
Templates: 12
Figures: 15
Checklist:
11
Price:   $389

Support:
  Research and education are our #1 priority.
Long after a purchase, Centerserve research analysts are standing by to help you apply research and "how to" information to your call center needs. Ask an analyst now to find out how this eToolkit will work in your call center.
Benchmarking and best practices
'Benchmarks in Call Center Operations' offers you:
  • Performance objectives and results (KPIs)
  • Past improvement initiatives
  • Future directions and improvements
  • Reporting and analytics
  • Home-based/remote agents
  • Demographics

For more information on this and other benchmarking reports click here.

Next week ... Agent Training

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