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E-mail is the most commonly used Internet application today, and while the telephone is still the communication channel most customers use, the percentage of e-mail contact is rapidly growing.
Most companies realize that e-mail contact is just as important as phone contact and that e-mail customers expect a prompt response every bit as much as telephone customers do. The obvious thing to do is to bring e-mail into the contact center and give it the same priority as voice calls get.
But that creates new challenges for the contact center manager already faced with the difficult task of maintaining service levels while keeping staffing costs to a minimum. How well that task is accomplished in a multichannel contact center depends on how the work is consolidated.
How not to do it
Setting longer response-time goals for e-mail than for telephone calls, and then assuming that agents can fit e-mail response in between calls as time is available, is an ineffective way to consolidate communication channels. The workload is the same whether e-mail messages are handled as soon as they arrive or later. This approach might even increase the workload, as customers who haven't gotten a response to their e-mail messages send follow-up messages or decide to try the telephone.
It is much more desirable to answer e-mail messages as they arrive. Customers appreciate the courtesy, and efficient e-mail handling can be a differentiator if your competitors aren't up to speed. The question is, how do you go about it? You have two options.
Scheduling distinct blocks of time for each channel
"Blending" workloads means giving individual agents multiple tasks to handle during a single time period, in this case both e-mail and telephone calls. If your agents need to concentrate in order to respond effectively to e-mail, then blending contacts is risky. While some agents can switch channels quickly and effectively, others need to focus on one task at a time. An agent who is interrupted during e-mail processing by an incoming phone call might make errors in the e-mail or have to rethink it after handling the phone call, spending longer than he otherwise would have.
Many centers avoid this problem by scheduling blocks of time for agents to answer one type of contact exclusively. The blocks can be an entire shift or a week, but more commonly are an hour or two within a shift. This allows agents to keep their skills active and gives them a more varied workday.
Blending workload in small call centers
While blending is risky, it does have a potential upside. Blended agents will stay more consistently busy, filling in the periods when telephone calls slack off with e-mail messages and vice versa. Some contact centers are more suited for blended workloads than others. In larger centers, the occupancy of staff is so high that there is little time for alternate tasks. But in smaller centers, or in small, dedicated agent teams within large centers, the occupancy level often drops sufficiently to allow time for "filler" work. Only you can tell whether blended workloads will improve your contact center efficiency. Keep an eye on occupancy levels and idle time, and choose accordingly.
It can only get more complicated
E-mail traffic is just the first of new challenges for contact center managers. It is already becoming commonplace for companies to offer Web chat and shared Web browsing in addition to e-mail and telephone contact for their customers. And as the contact center becomes more complex, so does the task of staffing efficiently.
How can you be prepared? The best advice we can give is, "Put the best workforce management solution you can get in place, to give your managers the tools they need to understand the effect of new contact channels and measure the results of staffing processes."
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