Call Center Strategies

Submitted by OperationImprovement on Wed, 08/11/2010 - 15:52

What's wrong with most call centers? Flawed strategy, flawed tactics and misuse of some very old mathematical models. As a result, management is not focused on the proper essentials and the result is high costs and dissatisfied customers. Wrong assumptions about what is important in call center operations leads to the “no-win” alternative; throw money at the problem, or live with customer dissatisfaction.

One hundred years ago, a “hands-on” Danish mathematician climbed into Copenhagen manholes to study telephone traffic. Without knowing who called, why they called, what was discussed or any other particulars , he began to mathematically describe what he saw.

How Many Phone Lines Are Enough?

Submitted by OperationImprovement on Mon, 08/23/2010 - 11:59

Conventional wisdom uses a calculation called Erlang-B to anticipate the likelihood of blocked calls. Of course, Erlang-B was devised over one hundred years ago. In this simpler time, there was no two-way and multi-party conferencing, no IVRs and no voice mail.

Still, the calculations gives us a starting point for estimating line requirements. If we reformulate Erlang-B in terms of line utilization, we get a mathematical model that allows us to infer the call load offered from the actual call load.

Consider this simplified example. Set aside call waiting, voice mail, and other modern call handling. Assume that you have a single incoming line that, when in use, rings “BUSY” to an outside caller. If your average use of that line is 50%, it is reasonable to assume that some percentage of callers attempted their call while you were on the line. Those callers would receive a 'BUSY”.

Asset Tracking Open Source

Submitted by OperationImprovement on Tue, 08/03/2010 - 15:09

Asset tracking is more than the fixed assets portion of one's accounting and ledgers. It is the management of material things. On the one hand it is about managing what goes into a standard "kit" of tools for a certain kind of work. On the other hand it is about rapidly locating those assets. (Who has HR's copy of the building plans?)

Tracemor is open source software that facilitates the inventory and movement of business assets. In addition, it also inventories "inventory" - which can be items more like "supplies" (toner cartridges, paper, and other consumables) or items that are actually purchased and resold. To distinguish Tracemor's functions from corporate accounting functions, think "packing list" - not invoice.

You can see a demo of the package here.
http://demo.tracmor.com/login.php

Willing And Able

Submitted by OperationImprovement on Thu, 07/15/2010 - 20:30

There is no limit to what a productive man is able to do.
There is no limit to what a destructive man is -willing- to do.

Process Communications Tracking

Submitted by rparker on Tue, 07/06/2010 - 16:53

What do Sticky notes, pink message pads, instant messaging, email, and voice mail have in common? They are inadequate to capture, track, manage and report the essential “back-office” communications that go hand in hand with business processes.

How It Ought To Be

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