Workforce Management Featured Article
AI, Automation & WFM in the Contact Center
Workforce management is a broad term. When applied to call centers and contact centers, it’s typically referring to things like forecasting, scheduling, intraday management, performance management, schedule adherence, and workforce optimization.
Quality assurance and management were the top selling WFO applications in 2017, according to DMG Consulting LLC. The firm also noted that automation and artificial intelligence are starting to play a role in contact center WFO.
“AI and robotics represent both the future direction and a challenge for the WFO market,” said Donna Fluss, president of DMG Consulting LLC, commenting in May about the company’s 2018 Contact Center Workforce Optimization Market Share Report. “Intelligent automation will make substantial contributions to contact centers by taking over many routine, time-consuming tasks previously performed by agents and improving service quality. This will reduce the need for traditional WFO solutions, as there will be fewer agents. The trend toward automation will drive substantial changes in WFO solutions and the competitive landscape.”
While that’s true, some call centers today continue to rely on spreadsheets and other manually intensive tools and processes to track data, set schedules, and work toward KPI improvement.
But using WFM systems could allow them to take into consideration more factors in setting schedules and get more accurate forecasts and scheduling. Advanced technology can consider both traditional key performance indicators like average handle time, hold time, schedule adherence, service level, and shrinkage as well as agent channel expertise, customer relationships, language skills, and product or technical knowledge in setting and resetting schedules. And new solutions can help contact centers meet their goals and deliver better business outcomes.
To learn more about how AI and machine learning can help improve contact center and other customer service initiatives, join TMC (News - Alert) at The Future of Work Expo. This new event from TMC will take place Jan. 30 through Feb. 1 in Fort Lauderdale. It was designed for business leaders who want to leverage automation and intelligence for more productive and effective business communications, collaboration, customer service, marketing, and sales.
Edited by Maurice Nagle
