Understanding Agent Occupancy

摘要

When it comes to call center efficiency, bigger is better. A larger call center or work team will be more efficient than a smaller one. This doesn't mean that the people are any smarter, or that they have better work practices or better technologies. They are simply more efficient as a function of their size due to economies of scale. This "economies of scale" phenomenon has important ramifications on call center service, productivity and cost. As seen in Table 1, doubling the call volume does not require twice the number of staff to meet the same service goal of 80 percent in 20 seconds. When call volume increases eight-fold, only about six times the number of staff are needed. As the volume grows, the staff to workload ratio gets smaller and smaller.