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 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 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 It does this by comparing the information from the agents shift schedules with the information from the ACD Click on your mouse to continue 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 Click on your mouse to continue 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 Why is Adherence important? Cont…..

We are going to look at one hour of a contact centre operation 10am - 11am Click on your mouse to continue For each 15-min period we predicted that we needed 37 Agents in order to hit the service level of 90% in 20 secs 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 Why is Adherence important?

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………? We received 90 calls at 300 secs per call We are trying to hit 90% in 20 With 37 agents Resulting in a 90.3% Service level 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 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 Look over the information in this scenario and then click on your mouse when you are ready to continue This is an example of what should happen. 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 The business is happy as this scenario puts us in the best place to achieve our service levels and greater Customer Satisfaction Overall we answered 90.3% of calls in 20 seconds Let’s see what happened in the next 15-min interval Click on your mouse to run the scenario Click on your mouse to continue or click on the green button to return to the scenario results

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………? Now with only 36 agents The Service level has dropped 4.5% to 85.8% 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% Look over the information in this scenario and then click on your mouse when you are ready to continue 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 harder to make up for the absence of their colleague 85.8% of calls were answered in 20 seconds in this period. Overall so far in the hour the service level is now 87.8% Now on to the third period…. Click on your mouse to run the scenario Click on your mouse to continue or click on the green button to return to the scenario results

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………? Now with only 31 agents The Service level has dropped 62.5% to 25.3%! 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%! Look over the information in this scenario and then click on your mouse when you are ready to continue The effect on the office is devastating 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 Agents are taking one call after another almost constantly, increasing the pressure they’re under This is not an environment to achieve greater Customer Satisfaction 25.3% of calls were answered in 20 secs. Overall so far in the hour the service level is now 67% And now the final 15-min period Click on your mouse to continue or click on the green button to return to the scenario results Click on your mouse to run the scenario

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………? Now with 43 agents The Service level has risen 76% to 99.3%! 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%! Look over the information in this scenario and the click on your mouse when you are ready to continue Being 6 Agents overstaffed adds only 9.3% to the service level where taking 6 away loses 65%! Customers are being answered quicker but this is virtually undetectable by the customer 30% availability looks attractive but this often produces the “drag” factor as Agents don’t feel busy enough, call times increase and we can actually be providing an inferior service This is wasted resource as we could hit our service levels with 37 Agents Although the Service level in this period is 99.3% the overall service level for the hour is 75%. Click on your mouse to run the scenario Click on your mouse to continue or click on the green button to return to the scenario results

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 Why is Adherence important?

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………? We received 90 calls at 300 secs per call We are trying to hit 90% in 20 With 37 agents Resulting in a 90.3% Service level 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 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 Click on the green button to continue

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………? Now with only 36 agents The Service level has dropped 4.5% to 85.8% 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% Click on the green button to continue

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………? Now with only 31 agents The Service level has dropped 62.5% to 25.3%! 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%! Click on the green button to continue

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………? Now with 43 agents The Service level has risen 76% to 99.3%! 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%! Click on the green button to continue