Opportunity #1 – Embrace queues! A commonly overlooked fact is that queues are part of the plan and, thus, not necessarily a bad thing

  Unless you have a service level objective of 100 percent in zero seconds, you’re planning to allow a certain number of calls to enter the queue. Managing queues is what your automatic call distributor (ACD) is designed for – it grabs those calls that can’t be answered immediately and holds them until an agent becomes available. And keep in mind that, depending on their need, most customers will give you some time to “open the door.” Of course, if the wait is too long, they may soon be looking for a new door to a new company.

Overcoming the overly aggressive and often counter-productive “attack the queue” mindset is not an easy task. It requires educating everyone who influences the contact center’s results – from frontline agents to senior executives. Don’t worry, you don’t have to train everyone to be a contact center expert – a simple presentation that outlines what it means to work in a contact center is a good way to get the ball rolling. Be sure to clearly communicate your center’s service level objective (i.e., definitions of the inputs, expected queue lengths, average speed of answer translation, the impact of each agent, etc.).

 

Impact:  Getting everyone on-board will not only save you time in explaining results, it also creates a new “calm” in your daily management routine.  And, doing it right, you’ll lay the foundation for making additional positive changes move much easier and faster.  This is such a vital part of getting the support you need, there is a special section at the end of this paper with ideas to help get you started.  

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