Call Forecasting 2 - Monthly Profile

Author: CCa2z

Date: 21st February 2013

Monthly Calls

Annual calls start to have more meaning when a monthly breakdown is applied. In budgetary terms it allows for resourcing flexibility where temporary staff need to be brought in.

If you have the historical data available then reviewing monthly calls year-on year provides good trend analysis. Displaying the information graphically provides greater analysis than just reviewing data tables.

It is possible to schedule a period report for the complete month from the reporting database. Alternatively, this will be built up daily, during the course of the month from daily ACD scheduled reports.

The information in the line-graph compares current monthly trends with the previous two years.

It is personal preference whether to display the information as a line-graph or bar chart.

Going back to the previous monthly line-graph, a word of caution.  When looking at month-on-month, some months may peak compared to others and this is not necessarily seasonal volumes.  It actually reflects the number of days in the month – so we may see monthly peaks in the line-graph, above, but looking at the line-graph, below, a flattening out of the curve occurs when monthly calls by day are viewed.

This chart divides the monthly volume by the number of days in the month thus flattening out peaks created by the number of days (call volume / days)

Some contact centres have been known to budget and resource monthly, based on call forecast to budget and as such, erroneously attempt to ramp resources up or down with a pure month-view, without flattening out the month by calls per day.  This means they could be releasing staff only to rehire two months later to train new staff!

Where the contact centre covers more than one key service or product it will be necessary to chart them separately to understand the penetration and impact of each.  The chart, below, covers an electric company, which has recently entered the gas market. 

Monthly Product Split Bar Chart

This will also present additional challenges around resourcing, such as muti-skilling versus individual skillset.

Call Forecasting 1 - Historic Call Profile

Call Forecasting 3 - Weekly Profile

 

 

 


Share this
email this page to a friend print this page