Ever have one of those days when it feels like the gods are just out to get you? Does controlling your intraday activities make you feel as if you are doing penance for some great sin? Mythology tells of how Hercules was given twelve labors to accomplish before he could be forgiven for killing his family. WFM analysts face that many challenges at least once a week, and they didn’t kill anybody.
While Hercules hunted down the Lion of Nemea, WFM analysts go after an invisible creature called “call spikes.” Without a bow and arrow, without a club or sword, WFM analysts must use their bare hands and deviation reports to optimize the handing of calls in their contact center.
Like the great boar Hercules captured on Mount Erymanthus that grew tired, WFM analysts must keep their agents from becoming fatigued when call volumes increase. These deviation reports allow managers to quickly assess where workers need to be reassigned – outbound to inbound calls if the call volume increases or assign other tasks for workers handling inbound calls if the call volume plummets. Quality of service depends on regulating the quantity of calls workers can be expected to handle. To accomplish this intraday Herculean task, you need a workforce management product that offers quick visibility to identify intraday challenges and the ability to quickly redeploy the agents to the optimized assignments with eSmart intelligent editing.
We can learn a lot about choosing the right WFM system by examining Hercules’ fourth task — finding the sacred stag called Cerynitis and returning it to Eurystheus.
Why was this deer considered so special? It was large – but so was all the other animals Hercules was tasked to kill or capture. Hercules was smaller and yet he triumphed over each of those huge beasts – so just being large probably didn’t make it special. Cerynitis might have been considered valuable because of its golden horns and bronze hooves, but what good are these if one cannot hold on to them? And let’s be honest . . . golden horns and bronze hooves will have value only when ole Cerynitis is dead. Most likely Cerynitis was considered sacred because it never tired. Imagine a WFM system that never tires – and doesn’t cost you a gold horn or bronze hoof – and you’ll find true value in Pipkins.