The Power of One,
or
Why is Adherence important?
This presentation has been placed on the Mitan web site since a number of
contributors to the Professional Planning Forum discussion forum have
requested copies of it. If anyone knows who the original author is then
please email the information to Mitan, so that a proper acknowledgement
can be added.
Why is Adherence important?
What Is Adherence…?
Adherence is a measure of how closely agents stick or
“adhere” to their shift patterns
It measures both how long agents spend in on-phone /
off-phone activities and when they spend that time
It does this by comparing the information from the
agents shift schedules with the information from the
ACD
When we accurately predict the volume of calls coming
in and prepare shift patterns to meet that volume then
adherence can have a huge effect on our service levels
Cont…..
Click on
your
mouse to
continue
Why is Adherence important?
Cont…..
In resource planning we forecast the number of calls
that we expect each section to receive in every 15
minute period of the day
We add in the average transaction time and forecast
the number of Agents required to answer the calls and
hit the service levels
How does this translate to what actually happens on
the day……….?
I have used a simulation programme to accurately
show what happens when adherence goes wrong
Click on
your
mouse to
continue
Why is Adherence important?
We are going to look at one hour of a contact centre
operation 10am - 11am
45
CSA's required
For each 15-min
period we predicted
that we needed 37
Agents in order to hit
the service level of
90% in 20 secs
CSA's provided
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
10:00-10:15
10:15-10:30
10:30-10:45
10:45-11:00
The shifts have been issued out to all, they
include breaks, lunches, Team meetings etc to
leave 37 Agents on the phones across the hour
We will look at each 15-min interval in turn to
look at the effect of adherence on Service levels
Click on
your
mouse to
continue
With 37 agents
During the period there is, on average, no more than
one call in the queue at any time and customers, on
average, wait less than 7 seconds to be answered
This is an example of what should happen.
Resulting
in a 90.3%
Service
level
The customer is happy as their call is being
answered in a reasonable time
The Agents are happy as they are not under
severe pressure
On happy
average, during
The business is
as this scenario puts us
the period 30 Agents
We received
We are
average 7 will
be
best place
to be
achieve
ourOnservice
levels
(blue) will
dealing
90 calls at in the
trying to hit
in available (yellow)
with a call
300 secs per
90%
in
20
and greater Customer Satisfaction
call
All Agents will spend 18.9% of
the 15min period in available
Overall we answered 90.3% of calls in 20
seconds
Click on
Let’s
see
what
happened
in
the
next
15-min
your mouse
Each period is identical in that we will receive 90 calls. The average transaction time
to run the
is 300 seconds (5 mins) and we are trying to answer 90%
of all calls in 20 seconds
interval
scenario
The above example will show the first fifteen minute period.
So how did we do………?
Look over the information in
Click on your mouse to
this scenario and then click
continue or click on the
on your mouse when you are
green button to return to
ready to continue
the scenario results
The Service
level has
dropped 4.5%
to 85.8%
Now with only 36 agents
The average queue size is now over 1 and the average
wait time has increased by 3 seconds to 10 seconds
per customer
So even the removal of just one Agent can have
a huge effect on our service levels
Customers have to wait longer to be answered
The remaining staff are under more pressure as
they
work
On average
duringharder to make up for the absence of
the period 30 Agents
their colleague
(blue) will be dealing
On average 6 will be
with a call
in available (yellow)
85.8% of calls were answered in 20 seconds in
this period. Overall so far in the hour
the
Availability has dropped 2%
to 16.7%
service level is now 87.8%
Now on to the third period….
One of the Agents takes an extra 15mins on their break so that they can chat with a
friend. They don’t imagine that it will matter much as things don’t look that busy
So what is the impact if any………?
Click on
your mouse
to run the
scenario
Look over
Clickthe
on information
your mouse in
to
this scenario
and
then
click
continue or click on the
on your
mouse
when
you areto
green
button
to return
ready
to
continue
the scenario results
The effect on the office is devastating
Now with only 31 agents
The average queue size is now 24 calls (which will
increase the Abandonment rate) and the average wait
time has increased by 232 secs (nearly 4 mins)!
The Service
level has
dropped 62.5%
to 25.3%!
Customers are now waiting almost 4 minutes to be
answered
This will actually increase the number of incoming
calls as customers try to get through, abandon and
then try again later
On average, during
the period 30 Agents
(blue) will be dealing
with a call
Agents are taking one call after another almost
On average only 1 will
constantly, increasing
the pressure they’re under
be in available
(yellow)
This is not an environment to achieve greater
dropped 15%
Customer Satisfaction Availabilitytohas
3.2%!
25.3% of calls were answered in 20 secs. Overall
soof the
farTeam
inleaders
thedecides
hour
theforward
service
level
At this point one
to bring
their team’s
planned is now 67%
30-min meeting to 10:30 (it was originally planned for 10:45 to coincide with the
arrival of 6 further Agents starting their shifts)
Click on
And
now
the
final
15-min
period
your mouse
What does this scenario show us………?
to run the
Look
over
Click
on the
yourinformation
mouse
to
scenario
incontinue
this scenario
and
then
or click on the
click
onbutton
your mouse
when
green
to return
to
youthe
arescenario
ready to results
continue
Now with 43 agents
The Service
level has risen
76% to 99.3%!
Being 6 Agents overstaffed adds only 9.3% to the
service level where taking 6 away loses 65%!
The average queue size is now zero, meaning that each
customer is answered almost immediately as the
average wait time is less than a second
Customers are being answered quicker but this is
virtually undetectable by the customer
30% availability looks attractive but this often
On average, during
produces the “drag” factor as Agents don’t feel
the period 30 Agents
On average 13 Agents
(blue)
will beenough,
dealing
busy
call times increase and we can
will be in available
with a call
(yellow)
actually be providing
an inferior service
Availability
has risen to over
This is wasted resource as we could
hit our
30%!
service levels with 37 Agents
Although the Service level in this period isClick
99.3%
on
The T/L realises that the office is under pressure and quickly concludes the Team
mouse
meeting. They assume
as they are now
back on thelevel
phones and
have
the hour is your
thethat
overall
service
for
the
75%.
to run the
addition of 6 Agents just starting their shift that the situation will be recovered soon
scenario
Look over the
Were they right………?
information in this
Click
onand
your
mouse
scenario
the
click to
continue
or click
on the
on
your mouse
when
green
button
to
return
to
you are ready to
the continue
scenario results
Why is Adherence important?
•Overall in this hour we achieved 75% Service Level
when we predicted that 90% was attainable
•In overall adherence terms we had only 15-mins extra
off-phone activity than was planned (the Agent who
went over on their break)
•Though the last 15-minute period helped improve the
service level we would need to repeat this performance
for the next 2 hours to get back to 90% in 20 overall!
•This shows the importance, not only of overall
adherence (taking the correct amount of time) but
accuracy as well (sticking to the time of the day)
Click on
your
mouse to
continue
Why is Adherence important?
Key things to consider •We try to match the number of Agents required to the
number of Agents shifted in for every 15-min interval
•Even the removal of 1 Agent has an effect on service
levels
•The removal of more than 1 Agent can have a
potentially devastating effect
•It is not possible to “fix” it by putting the Agents back
or by overstaffing, the damage may have been already
done
•Lack of adherence damages the service to our
customers and the work of our colleagues Click on
your
mouse to
continue
Resulting
in a 90.3%
Service
level
With 37 agents
During the period there is, on average, no more than
one call in the queue at any time and customers, on
average, wait less than 7 seconds to be answered
We received
90 calls at
300 secs per
call
We are
trying to hit
90% in 20
On average, during
the period 30 Agents
(blue) will be dealing
with a call
On average 7 will be
in available (yellow)
All Agents will spend 18.9% of
the 15min period in available
The above example will show the first fifteen minute period.
Each period is identical in that we will receive 90 calls. The average transaction time
is 300 seconds (5 mins) and we are trying to answer 90% of all calls in 20 seconds
So how did we do………?
Click on the
green
button to
continue
The Service
level has
dropped 4.5%
to 85.8%
Now with only 36 agents
The average queue size is now over 1 and the average
wait time has increased by 3 seconds to 10 seconds
per customer
On average during
the period 30 Agents
(blue) will be dealing
with a call
On average 6 will be
in available (yellow)
Availability has dropped 2%
to 16.7%
One of the Agents takes an extra 15mins on their break so that they can chat with a
friend. They don’t imagine that it will matter much as things don’t look that busy
So what is the impact if any………?
Click on the
green
button to
continue
The Service
level has
dropped 62.5%
to 25.3%!
Now with only 31 agents
The average queue size is now 24 calls (which will
increase the Abandonment rate) and the average wait
time has increased by 232 secs (nearly 4 mins)!
On average, during
the period 30 Agents
(blue) will be dealing
with a call
On average only 1 will
be in available
(yellow)
Availability has dropped 15%
to 3.2%!
At this point one of the Team leaders decides to bring forward their team’s planned
30-min meeting to 10:30 (it was originally planned for 10:45 to coincide with the
arrival of 6 further Agents starting their shifts)
What does this scenario show us………?
Click on the
green
button to
continue
The Service
level has risen
76% to 99.3%!
Now with 43 agents
The average queue size is now zero, meaning that each
customer is answered almost immediately as the
average wait time is less than a second
On average, during
the period 30 Agents
(blue) will be dealing
with a call
On average 13 Agents
will be in available
(yellow)
Availability has risen to over
30%!
The T/L realises that the office is under pressure and quickly concludes the Team
meeting. They assume that as they are now back on the phones and have the
addition of 6 Agents just starting their shift that the situation will be recovered soon
Were they right………?
Click on the
green
button to
continue