We all do it probably more than we would like and that is
call a contact centre, how do we know when it is our turn to call, I say this
as I have worked in a few centres and the call arrival patterns are pretty
standard, so let’s say we take 100,000 calls a day, and I have worked for a
company who handled more, let’s say 80% of these are one time calls, how do
these 80,000 people know when to call to satisfy my call arrival pattern.
I know there is certain factors which drive calls into the
centre like the opening times, lunch time, closing times, breaks in major TV
shows and many other things which build the pattern but if I only take 1000
calls a day or even less how comes the calls follow the same pattern, yes it gets
smoother the more volume you throw at the pattern but still the pattern is the
same.
This question has created some interesting answers over the
years but I still don’t feel like I have the insight into this human timing
behaviour I would like to help me plan and maybe even prevent calls in the
first place, or influence the pattern to help with my staffing. A full
understanding of this could be of great value and could help me improve my
personal wages by offering this insight to centres helping to improve efficiencies.
If you have done any work on this subject and have any information
which could help me build this model please get in touch. I know this will be
different for other industries but I have worked in three centres providing completely
different services and levels of service to three different volumes but the
patterns are still the same so any insight would be useful.
