Systems and methods for workforce optimization

• US 20070198322A1
• Filed: 02/22/2006
• Published: 08/23/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Verint Americas Incorporated (Verint Systems Incorporated)
• Inventors: Watson, Joseph, Keren, Shimon, Iannone, Jeff, Fama, Jason, Lyerly, Thomas, Bourne, John, McLean, Nick, Bourke, Mike, Nies, James, Murray, Ed
• Granted Patent: US 8,112,298 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.13
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06393 Score-carding, benchmarking or key performance indicator [KPI] analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06395 Quality analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/20 Education

Abstract

Systems and methods are disclosed for an integrated process for optimizing operations at a contact center. In one embodiment, the method comprises: defining contact center business goals; planning at least one campaign to implement the goals; scheduling and deploying a workforce in accordance with the campaign to produce agent-customer interactions; measuring agent performance on the interactions to produce quality metrics; analyzing the metrics to produce a rating; combining quality metrics to produce performance indicators; and using the performance indicators in the planning step of a second campaign or another iteration of the first campaign.

Claims

1. An integrated process for optimizing operations at a contact center, the method comprising the steps of:

defining contact center business goals;

planning at least one campaign to implement the goals;

scheduling and deploying a workforce in accordance with the campaign to produce a plurality of agent-customer interactions;

measuring performance of an agent on at least a portion of the agent-customer interactions to produce a set of quality metrics for the agent;

analyzing the quality metrics to produce a rating of the measured interactions;

combining at least a portion of quality metrics to produce performance indicators; and

using the performance indicators in the planning step of a second campaign or another iteration of the at least one campaign.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

determining a root cause of a measured interaction having a low rating; and

adapting an operational aspect of the contact center that is identified with the root cause.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the business goals are defined in terms of metrics which describe how the contact center is expected to perform.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the metrics relate to expected revenue.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein the metrics relate to service level.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

scheduling a workforce in accordance with a workload forecast.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the measuring step further comprises:

recording the portion of the agent-customer interactions; and

assessing agent skills in the recorded interactions to produce the set of quality metrics.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing step rates interactions from a customer point-of-view.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the analyzing step rates interactions from a contact center point-of-view.

10. An integrated process for optimizing operations at a contact center, the process comprising the steps of:

providing a workforce management system;

planning and establishing goals from an enterprise and center perspective;

forecasting and scheduling of a workforce to ensure optimum service levels;

recording and measuring performance by using quality monitoring and call recording tools to assess at least one quality score and at least one customer experience;

analyzing and identifying opportunities and correlating the opportunities with at least one key performance indicator and at least one scorecard of the contact center;

developing at least one quality monitoring score to be used by the workforce management system to produce staffing models;

using analytics to provide insights on at least one skill or knowledge gap of at least one agent; and

providing training to address the at least one skill and knowledge gap for the at least one agent.

11. A computer readable medium having a program for an integrating a contact center business process, the program comprising the steps of:

defining contact center business goals;

planning at least one campaign to implement the goals;

scheduling and deploying a workforce in accordance with the campaign to produce a plurality of agent-customer interactions;

measuring performance of an agent on at least a portion of the agent-customer interactions to produce a set of quality metrics for the agent;

analyzing the quality metrics to produce a rating of the measured interactions;

combining at least a portion of quality metrics to produce performance indicators; and

using the performance indicators in the planning step of a second campaign or another iteration of the at least one campaign.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the program further comprises the steps of:

determining a root cause of a measured interaction having a low rating; and

adapting an operational aspect of the contact center that is identified with the root cause.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the business goals are defined in terms of metrics which describe how the contact center is expected to perform.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the metrics relate to expected revenue.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the metrics relate to service level.

16. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the program further comprises the step of:

scheduling and deploying a workforce in accordance with a workload forecast.

17. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the program further comprises the steps of:

recording the portion of the agent-customer interactions; and

assessing agent skills in the recorded interactions to produce the set of quality metrics.

18. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the analyzing step rates interactions from a customer point-of-view.

19. The computer-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the analyzing step rates interactions from a contact center point-of-view.