Archive for the ‘Back to Basics’ Category

What if?

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

Let’s take a look at the basic relation between some Call Centre metrics.  Please refer the Call Centre lingo post for acronyms and find the answers below.

Scenario 1:

The call volume is stable and the AHT decreases.  What would be the impact on the Service Level?

Scenario 2:

The call volume is stable and the ASA decreases.  What would be the impact on the Service Level?

Scenario 3:

The call volume is stable and the occupancy increases.  What would be the impact on the Service Level?

Scenario 4:

The ATT is stable and the ACW increases.  What would be the impact on the AHT?

———————————-

Scenario 1:

The Service Level would increase since your agents would spend less time working on files, which means they would be more available to take calls.

Scenario 2:

The Service Level would increase since it the speed of answer is decreasing.

Scenario 3:

The Service Level would decrease since your agents would spend more time working on files, which means they would be less available to take calls.

Scenario 4:

The AHT would increase since AHT = ATT + ACW.

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Call Centre lingo

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

A new agent or Team Leader in your Call Centre might get lost with all the lingo we use.  Here is a quick summary of them.

ASA:  Average Speed of Answer.  Hopefully in seconds, the average time it took for the period to get answered.

TSF:  Telephone Service Factor.  Percentage of calls answered within the threshold defined by the Call Centre.

ATT:  Average Talk Time.  In seconds, the time the agent was on the phone with the customer.

ACW:  After Call Work.  In seconds, the time the agent spent finishing the file of the previous caller, without the caller on the phone.

AHT:  Average Handle Time.  In seconds, the average time it took to handle the call.  From the time the agent is talking to the customer to the time he finished working on the file.   (ATT + ACW)

Occupancy: Percentage of time the agent was busy on the phone.  Included Talk Time, ACW, etc.  Often, the calculation used is: Total time – Available time.

Call Volume:  Number of calls.

Interval: Period of time of a day.  Most Call Centres use 30 minutes increments.

Schedule Adherence: Percentage of time the agent followed is planned schedule.

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How do I calculate a weighted average?

Monday, January 18th, 2010

The equation is:

If we take our Road Side Assistance Call Centre, we currently have two call flows, two queues.  One for Sales and one for Assistance.

If yesterday, we received 500 Sales calls with a Service Level of 80% and we received 215 Assistance calls at a Service Level of 90%, what is the Service Level of the Road Side Assistance Call Centre?

I have seen many people simply take the two queues’ results, 80% and 90%, add them and divide by 2 = 85%.

But the correct answer is 83%. (Rounded)

The weight of the Sales calls (500) in the day is more important than the Assistance calls (215).  The Sales Service Level has more weight.  How much weight?  500 / (500+215).

In this case, the equation would be:

(500 / (500 +215)) * 80 + (215 / (500 +215)) * 90 = 83.

Number of Sales calls divided by the total number of calls = Sales queue weight.

Number of Assistance calls divided  by the total number of calls = Assistance queue weight

Service Level = (Sales queue weight * Sales queue Service Level) + (Assistance queue weight * Assistance queue Service Level)

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