When Overstaffing is Ok and How to Calculate It?

When Overstaffing is Ok and How to Calculate It?

The company where I work wants to be able to answer every single call and chat we received, so 100% service level con both skills, but they want to know if we are overstaffed, at what level is still profitable for us.

We provide Customer service and sales so I want to know if there is a way to calculate that? Can you give me any tips as I know how to calculate staffing and forecasting but never worked at a level where I need to do it based on money and profit.

Any suggestions you can provide are always welcome.

Question asked by Cesar

Overstaffing is the Way to Achieve A Service Level.

If you want to hit a service level then overstaffing is the tool to achieve this.

The question is can you afford the level of overstaffing? From a customer satisfaction level answering all calls straight away is an excellent strategy.

A lot of the better contact centres strive to handle 95% of calls in 15 seconds. This would provide a good level of service and be more profitable.

If you want to look at the trade off between staffing numbers and service level then you can look at the results from an Erlang Staffing Calculator.

https://www.callcentretools.com/tools/erlang-calculator/

With thanks to Jonty

How to Cost Overstaffing

Determine how much revenue the call center generates in an hour or a day from the sales and service its agents generate. Someone in Sales or Finance should have that number. Then calculate the cost to run the contact center for an hour or a day. Don’t use only agent wages. Include all the costs (supervisors, quality, training, workforce, benefit costs, office space, technology, etc. Then show the two numbers to your management team and educate them on what it costs to add one person here or there. I hope that helps.

With thanks to Clive

How to Cost Overstaffing

Find out how much revenue your agents generate from their sales and service in a typical hour or a typical day. You should be able to get this number from the finance department. Then compare what it cost to run the contact centre from an hourly or daily perspective. Don’t just count agent wages but also include supervisors, managers, payroll cost, benefit-cost, taxes, facilities costs, technology costs, and so forth. These are all real costs needed to operate the centre. Once you have the two numbers side by side, you can show that to the management team. Very few businesses can afford a considerable amount of idle staff, which will happen when you have a 100% service level. Good luck.

With thanks to Clive

Author: Jonty Pearce