A client recently opened a support ticket to report longer than normal hold times in their call center. Specifically, that new calls were showing in a “queued state” on the real-time dashboard while available agents appeared to be idle and ready to answer these new calls.
We took a look and the system seemed okay but something was definitely off. This is a very busy call center that is supported by at least 30 agents at any given time, with 70% working remote.
So we needed to take a closer look to try a few things.
The big question…
Why did it appear that agents were available for new calls but the calls were being queued?
We began our troubleshooting and testing by relying on some of the built-in tools in the system.
To save time and avoid putting you to sleep, I’ll spare you from all of the technical details 😆
One challenge we faced…
We couldn’t collectively observe the agents as calls were flowing because the majority were remote, so solving this issue became a little more challenging.
But that didn’t deter us. Decades of experience and sophisticated diagnostic tools provided us with insights and clues.
Sometimes in situations like this, the solution is obvious. But sometimes, when the symptoms are intermittent, the solution can be elusive. And sometimes, as in this case, the solution is clear but it requires evidence and tact when human error is in play.
And the latter is what happened here. Agents were available, but for reasons unknown, some weren’t answering their phone, which is why so many calls were being queued.
So it’s worth repeating – IDeACOM’s decades of experience and the help from sophisticated diagnostic tools in the system helped us quickly solve this mystery.
And as you probably guessed, it wasn’t a system issue. It turned out to be a human nature issue after all…
Anyway, this reminds me of a similar situation that occurred back in 1999.
Our client was concerned about LONG hold times despite having agents who appeared to be available to answer calls (sound familiar?).
A time prior to the emergence of voice over IP (VoIP) and “the cloud” when phone systems were installed on-premise, usually on a wall in a phone closet with phones that were hard-wired directly to the system.
The main differences…
- This was a smaller call center consisting of 10 agents and 1 manager, all sitting in the same room.
- They had a basic call group setup which provided intelligent inbound call routing, but the system wasn’t licensed with any management functionality to rely on (e.g. a real-time dashboard or call center reporting).
So we convinced the system’s manufacturer (Executone – remember them?) to provide a temporary license to activate the real-time dashboard feature and call center reports option.
We set up in a conference room located about 100′ down the hall from the call center, which was in plain sight because of glass doors in the conference room and an open cubicle environment in the call center.
The meeting included the company’s president, vice president, and IT manager.
When we brought up the real-time dashboard, it showed that only 2 of the 10 were agents logged in.
Keep in mind, without the dashboard they had NO idea who was logged in – and who was not.
Their first reaction was skepticism about the system, believing that something was wrong with the software we had just installed.
We (and they) could all see with our own 2 eyes that more than 2 people in the call center were on their phones.
We assured them that the system was functioning properly and there was nothing wrong with the software.
At this point, the president (we’ll call him Larry) got up and walked down the hall into the open call center.
All of a sudden, the real-time dashboard started lighting up as more agents logged in and became “Available”.
Thankfully, the VP and IT manager were still in the room to witness what just happened.
A few minutes later, Larry walked back to the conference room.
One of us asked him “What did you say to them?”. To which he replied, “Nothing, I just walked around”.
Side note: This example highlights the old adage, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure (or see).”.
We believed that our client would benefit significantly from the advanced call center management functionality for a number of reasons, in addition to helping them solve the “LONG hold times” issue.
Needless to say, we didn’t have to ask if they wanted to purchase the additional software… they pressed us to find out how quickly they could get it.
Thinking back, it’s truly amazing how many success stories IDeACOM and our clients have created together!
If you or someone you know is facing a challenging or nagging situation and need someone with extensive experience to talk with, contact your IDeACOM representative. We would be more than happy to learn about your situation and provide you with an honest and an objective evaluation.
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