Automation is taking the simple contacts away and leaving agents with the hardest ones: the mean UK inbound service call now lasts 422 seconds, almost twice its 2004 length, and US service calls have risen by around 80% since 2003.

 

ContactBabel’s new report, “AI for Workforce Management”, looks at what this means for the forecasting, scheduling and management of the contact centre workforce. There are both US and UK editions.

 

Length – 33 pages | Time to read: 25-30 minutes.

 

Drawing on ContactBabel’s primary research across hundreds of contact centres and thousands of consumers, the report describes a job that is getting harder. 46% of UK and 48% of US contact centres say that handling more difficult contacts has increased the pressure on agents, and attrition and short-term absence cost a typical 500-seat operation around £1.6m a year in the UK and $5.4m in the US.

 

Only 11% of UK and 9% of US contact centres use AI for workforce management today, but at least a quarter in both countries plan to implement it within the next 12 months.

 

Strategic Recommendations

  • Plan for the New Contact Mix: Forecast bot failover and handling time by contact type, and review agent targets as automation goes live. Only 17% of UK and 26% of US organisations changed targets when deploying AI.
  • Schedule for Intensity as well as Volume: Limit runs of difficult contacts and protect recovery time. In a 500-seat operation, each percentage point of attrition is worth almost £48,000 or around $70,000 a year.
  • Extend Flexibility to Agents: Only 24% of UK and 33% of US WFM users offer agent self-scheduling, and AI makes it practical to approve requests immediately while protecting the service level.
  • Govern Automated Decisions: Set the scope of autonomy, record the reason for every automated change and monitor fairness before the system starts moving breaks and offering overtime.

 

“AI for Workforce Management” is provided in both US and UK editions. 

 

 

To download this report, and to gain free access to all of ContactBabel’s research and analysis, please complete the registration form at the bottom of the page.

 

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