Adherence to Schedule Meaning:
If you look at the dictionary meaning of
adherence to schedule, it means to be conscientious in supporting or following something or
somebody. In terms of a call center, adherence to schedule is about measuring the accuracy
of an agent in terms of work schedule. Adhere to schedule is a metric used
in the call center to determine whether professionals of the call center are
working the amount of time they are scheduled to work or not. It is also termed
as a call center agent’s degree of compliance with their assigned schedule. This
aspect helps in managing the staff of the call center ensuring that agents are
working efficiently in the scheduled work time.
The repercussions
of not working as per the agent schedule
In a survey by Call Miner, it was found that on
an average 45 million hours are wasted every year because the agent doesn't
stick to the schedule. Businesses that are just starting out cannot afford this
level of waste since there is a direct fungible loss involved. Efficient
planning of agents’ schedule is necessary to maximize the productivity and
minimize the investment involved.
How to ensure
that contact centers are best utilizing their agents’ time
Contact centers cannot maximize their agents’
productive time unless they have an idea of the wasted agent-hours. Effective
and accurate measuring is necessary in this regard. Measuring the agents’ adherence to schedule will help you ensure your company’s time is being
effectively used while also enhancing the overall productivity and the customer
experience.
Adherence to Schedule:
technicalities involved
The time that an agent dedicates towards
interacting with the consumers is directly proportional to the agent uptime.
However, the key here is that the employee may not be able to focus 100% of
this time towards consumer complaints because of the intermittent breaks
involved.
Anything close to 60% is considered a good
performance and above 80 is extraordinary. Note that it is technically
impossible to achieve 100% agent productivity because no human can fully stick
to the call center schedule.
The importance of
adhere to the schedule
Adhere to schedule is important for optimizing
staffing, efficiency, and productivity of an outsourced call centers.
Adherence to Schedule is calculated using following
equation:
Adhere to schedule can be negatively impacted
when agents arrive late in the office, take extended breaks, and leave early
from the office without completing their working hours. Manually changing agent
status to “away” or “busy” to avoid fielding calls can indubitably affect the
productivity of the company thereby impacting schedule adherence.
How to enhance
adherence to schedule in a call center
Call center service providers enhance adherence to schedule with following points:
- Optimizing agent training
- Promoting efficiency-centric culture
- Giving recognition and awards to agents who
adhere to schedules
- Monitoring call center status
- Give regular feedback to agents
- Provide incentives on performance
Thus, it is vital for call center agents to be
aware of the repercussions for not adhering to the norms. Optimizing adherence to schedule is one of the most important managerial tasks that has a major impact
on the overall efficiency and bottom-line of the call center. This factor helps
in ensuring that your most valuable asset is utilized optimally.
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