Getting a Grip on Agent Time Utilization—Part 1

Time-utilization measurement is a bane of most contact center managers and definitely a pain for contact center agents.  But without it, we might as well close up shop and go home.

Is it time for you to take a new look at your contact center’s time-utilization measurement?  If you’re not sure what I’m talking about or don’t know its importance to contact center management, read on.

The whats and whys of time utilization
When we speak of time utilization in the contact center, we are typically speaking of how agents use the time available to them during their shift.  Time utilization is typically measured by manned time (also known as sign-on time and log-on time) and schedule adherence.   

Time-utilization measurement accomplishes multiple objectives. In the contact center it is integral in

• forecasting and staffing,
• identifying the skill and knowledge needs of agents,
• documenting the return on investment for automation projects,
• determining charge-back or budget monies for projects, and
• identifying process improvement opportunities.

Time utilization is used for staffing.  An accurate accounting of talk time and after-call work time is one of the critical components in ensuring that the right number of agents are available to meet service-level objectives.

The management team also uses the time-utilization statistics to help diagnose the skills and knowledge that agents need.  With this understanding, the supervisors can assist agents through needs-focused coaching.

Without time-utilization measurement statistics, the management team would be missing vital information to help it determine the efficiency of the contact center.  For example, if agents are spending a long time in after-call work, is it because they have to get up to fax critical information to a customer?  Would having a fax server improve efficiency and decrease the overall costs of the contact center?  Remember that labor can account for up to 50% of a contact center’s operating costs.

The contact center is typically involved in a plethora of projects.  These projects may be internal to the contact center, or they may be assigned to the contact center by other departments.  If you want to account for the amount of time you spend assisting others, then you must measure time utilization. This helps you determine the impact of doing these projects on service levels and identify the most effective way to accomplish them.  By tracking these projects, you can establish a viable charge-back system to other departments so that they know the worth of the people on your team.  

By tracking time utilization, the management team is able to determine when processes are causing inefficiencies.  Let’s say that the talk time increases significantly (beyond projections) after a change in customer information verification is implemented.  When the team looks at the numbers, it is easy to spot some people whose talk time did not increase.  But when their calls are monitored, the quality is high.  What the team notices is that these “experts” have figured out a more efficient way of achieving the same goal.  The team could then implement their systems across the board.  

Indicator metrics vs. diagnostic metrics
There are two categories of metrics in the contact center: indicator metrics and diagnostic metrics. Both categories apply to time utilization.

In the contact center, every piece of equipment spews out data at an alarming rate.  How many of you managing a contact center have the time to faithfully review all these reports every day?  I certainly didn’t when I was managing a contact center.  I would conscientiously stack the reports on my credenza to look at later.  I told myself that the data in these reports must be important or why else would we be producing them?  When the stack got so high that it became unmanageable, I would take some reports off the bottom and throw them away. Little did I know that much of these data did not need a daily review. A lot of the data were necessary only if there was a defined problem.  

That’s how I learned about indicator metrics and diagnostic metrics.

Indicator metrics tell us if something needs attention. In a contact center there are perhaps 10-12 indicator metrics covering topics such as customer access (service levels, etc.), customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, financial performance, and human performance. The specific metrics include the percentage of calls answered in so many seconds, the cost per call, and the quality of the calls monitored.

Using indicator metrics, you can tell if there is something going on but you may not know specifically what is causing the problem.  For example, if you see a dip in the indicator metrics for service level, the cause could be absenteeism, elongated talk time due to a change in scripting, or poor forecasting.  That’s where a set of diagnostic metrics is important.

You need to look at diagnostic metrics—talk time, after-call work time, schedule adherence, idle time, etc.—only when there a problem has been determined via the indicator metrics. The diagnostic metrics enable you to home in on the causes of the problem.

Differentiating between the two types of metrics certainly simplifies the life of the contact center management team.  No longer do they have to look at all the data all the time.  They can be selective and look at the indicator metrics first, and then (if some are out of bounds), they can be selective with their diagnostic metrics.

In the realm of time utilization within the contact center, manned time is the indicator metric, and work states are the diagnostic metrics.