Call centers are organizations where professional agents receive and process calls from clients and help them. One of the important aspects in call center operations is determining how many employees are needed to keep customers always satisfied with the service. In this article, we will look at what factors affect the number of agents and how it can vary depending on the type of company.
Factors Affecting the Number of Agents
- Number of Incoming Calls
A large online store may receive hundreds of calls per hour, while a small restaurant with delivery will receive much fewer. Based on this, more agents are needed to handle a large number of calls.
- Call Handling Time
For example, if a client can be helped in just a couple of minutes, fewer agents will be needed than when handling more complex issues.
- Required Service Level
Some companies may strive to have 90% of calls handled in no more than 20 seconds. For this, they will need more agents than a company that allows longer customer wait times on the line.
- Type of Call Center
The type of call center is also important for determining the number of agents. For example, an outsourcing contact center executing projects for different companies needs more agents than a call center that only handles internal calls.
Ultimately, the number of agents in a call center depends on many metrics, including Average Handling Time, Average Speed to Answer, Abandonment Rate, Occupancy, Average Available Time, etc. Consider these parameters to determine how many agents you need so your customers receive excellent service.
Step-by-Step Calculation Guide
Below is an overview guide with examples for different types of call centers:
Step 1: Determining Contact Rate
Contact Rate – is a key metric that reflects how much time agents should spend in conversations with clients.
- If you need agents to spend 80% of working time in conversations with clients, then Contact Rate will be 80%.
Step 2: Estimating Average Call Duration
Average call duration is the time required on average to handle one call.
- Provided that the average call duration is 3 minutes (or 0.05 hours), this will be the value for your calculation.
Step 3: Using the Erlang Calculator
The Erlang calculator is a convenient tool for calculating the required number of agents based on Contact Rate and average call duration.
- Suppose Contact Rate is 70%, and average call duration is 4 minutes (or 0.067 hours). Using the Erlang calculator, you will find that to ensure this service level you will need, for example, 7 agents.
Step 4: Optimization and Analysis of Results
After you determine how many agents you need, don’t forget to analyze work processes. If something changes, for example, more calls start coming in, or you begin monitoring customer service quality differently, then you need to recalculate how many agents you need. This will help make your call center more efficient.
How NOT to Calculate the Number of Agents
Correctly determining the required number of agents in a call center is a key aspect for ensuring effective operations. However, there are a number of common mistakes that can lead to insufficient or excessive numbers of agents. Let’s look at five examples of how NOT to calculate the number of agents:
- Seasonal Factors: Neglecting seasonal factors, such as holidays, can lead to an insufficient number of agents during periods of increased demand.
- An online toy store missed the increase in orders before Christmas, not accounting for seasonal fluctuations. As a result, customers faced long wait times for responses, and the store missed the opportunity to increase sales.
- Variety of Inquiries: If you don’t consider that some inquiries are more complex than others, you may underestimate how many employees are needed for good customer service.
- A company with technical support for computer devices. Some clients simply ask about settings, while others report complex malfunctions that require special skills to resolve. And if the company doesn’t have such specialists, this can lead to customer disappointment and negative brand perception.
- Outdated Data. Using outdated data when determining the required number of agents in a call center can lead to underestimation or overestimation of resources.
- An online retailer relied on data collected a year ago and overestimated the required number of agents, which led to inefficient staff allocation and an excessive number of agents.
- Marketing. After successful marketing campaigns, the flow of call center customers may significantly increase. Such changes are important to consider when calculating the required number of agents. This is especially relevant during sale periods, promotions, and advertising activities, which can strongly change the demand for service.
- An online store launched successful advertising but didn’t foresee a 30% increase in customer inquiries. Due to a shortage of agents, customers couldn’t get through and the business missed the opportunity to increase profits.
- Employee Experience. Call center agents possess valuable experience. If you ignore their opinion, you can jeopardize operational efficiency. By establishing feedback with agents and studying their workload in the call center, companies can better assess resource needs and ensure good customer service.
- A company made a decision to reduce the number of employees without consulting them. Agents warned about the growth in inquiries, but their opinion was not heard. This led to overload of the remaining agents who couldn’t handle such a volume of calls, and consequently, to customer loss.
Using these five examples of mistakes when determining the number of agents in a call center, you can avoid unpleasant situations and provide more effective customer service.
The examples reviewed cover various types of call centers and accounting for seasonal changes in demand. This helps find the optimal number of agents for effective customer service in different industries and at different time periods.
Additional Resources
- How to calculate the number of agents using the Erlang calculator can be read on the blog.
- How many agents does your contact center need read in a separate article.
- About call center software from oki-toki and call center automation you can learn on our website.
