There is an energy company I worked with on a project to assess why they are getting so many consumer complaints with their call center.
The hold times were very long and calls in the Que were dropping drastically. I analyzed the types of issues these reps were handling and the time needed to address different types of issues on average.
To keep this short. The amount of employees they had didn’t support the amount of labor needed to complete said tasks. Some improvements could have been considered in their training to open up more time but that’s another story.
Their employee turnover rate was high because it causes employees to feel pressure to complete work that exceeds their capacity. They were blaming and firing employees for low performance.
Ultimately the problem was far greater than the hold time. The issue was their system, as well as not being able to maintain reliable employees because they didn’t have a system or balanced labor distribution to provide a thriving environment for the employees.
It is one of the main reasons why I suggested to a recent client to use email templates for their sales team. Imagine if a sales rep had to type emails for each and every phase in the sales process? With a time variable of 30 minutes per call, with 5 hours to complete administrative and miscellaneous tasks, that would indicate that the 10 hours that “Employee D” can contribute is actually only 5 hours to take calls due to lack of organization and the missing proper tools to succeed.
If everything is accessible and organized the more time they will have to take calls and produce.
Here are a few things I consider when taking on a project/goal.
1.). What are all the tasks needed to complete the said project/goal?
2.). How much time will it take for each task?
3.). How much labor or hands, what is the capacity of the hands on deck?
4.). What is the budget to hire the labor?
By knowing the above you can create a system of operations that is effective. It takes a system to reach a goal. To build a bridge it costs time, labor, materials, and money. However more importantly it takes an organized system of operations to execute each moving part effectively.
SAMPLE
Employee A
Time Value = 20 hours/Week
Value = $2000 Revenue with in 20 hours.
Leads = 20 Deals Closed
Scheduled Calls = 30
AND
Employee B
Time Value = 40 hours/Week
$ Value = $1000
Leads = 10 Deals Closed
Scheduled Calls = 30