Should we centralize or decentralize teams to effectively manage our customer relationship service? Is it possible to provide more stable levels of service? These are the questions that companies face, most of whom struggle to manage the “peak” periods effectively.
Some companies often experience spikes in their call center activities, following periods of calm. To cope with this change in pace, some companies use temporary workers, others subcontract all or part of their services while others opt for overstaffing. All these alternatives are unfortunately not conducive to the stabilization of service levels.
Many factors can lead to rush periods in a contact center: festivities, promotion, new launch etc. In addition, the nature of the activity has an enormous impact on the number of calls. It can increase tremendously in a short period of time and it is quite difficult to manage it, especially when there is a lack of information on the external factors in question.
Three options are possible depending on the possibilities of the company: multiplying the teams managing the queues, subcontracting or exploiting employees internally. The first alternative is to configure a call redirection system to the free advisors. It is especially ideal when the different equipments come to work in concert but for this, they must be given a training program “mutual”. For all that, it is not easy to install a cohesion between the teams.
The second option (outsourcing) is for companies lacking qualified staff or budget to strengthen the in-house team. Several types of services are available and the work can be entrusted in part or entirely to the external collaborator. In-house resource mobilization requires a culture of staff agility. As for the choice of centralization and decentralization, we must know that there are now so-called “hybrid” models associating the two concepts. It is a fusion that benefits from the best of the centralized approach and associates it with the advantages of decentralization.