Call Center Experience Optimization: A Case for a Virtual Predictive Queue

The evolution of the call center into contact centers and the growth of their use in providing customer-facing service by many companies has brought considerable capabilities in maintaining customer relationships but it also has brought challenges in providing quality service when call volumes are high. Limited in their ability to provide service at all times to all customers, companies are forced to balance the costs associated with hiring more customer service representatives and the quality of service provided by a fewer number. A primary challenge when there are not enough customer service representatives to engage the volume of callers in a timely manner is the significant wait times that can be experienced by many customers. Normally, callers are handled in accordance with a first-come, first-served policy with exceptions being skill-based routing to those customer service representatives with specialized skills. A proposed call center infrastructure framework called a Virtual Predictive Queue (VPQ) can allow some customers to benefit from a shorter call queue wait time. This proposed system can be implemented within a call center’s Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) device associated with computer telephony integration (CTI) and theoretically will not violate a first-come, first served policy

Modeling And Optimization Of Non-Profit Hospital Call Centers With Service Blending

This dissertation focuses on the operations problems in non-profit hospital call centers with inbound and outbound calls service blending. First, the routing policy for inbound and outbound calls is considered. The objective is to improve the system utilization under constraints of service quality and operators\u27 quantity. A collection of practical staffing assignment methods, separating and mixing staffing policy are evaluated. Erlang C queuing model is used to decide the minimum number of operators required by inbound calls. Theoretical analysis and numerical experiments illustrate that through dynamically assigning the inbound and outbound calls to operators under optimal threshold policy, mixing staffing policy is efficient to balance the system utilization and service quality. Numerical experiments based on real-life data demonstrate how this method can be applied in practice. Second, we study the staffing shift planning problem based on the inbound and outbound calls routing policies. A mathematical programming model is developed, based on a hospital call center with one kind of inbound calls and multiple kinds of outbound calls. The objective is to minimize the staffing numbers, by deciding the shift setting and workload allocation. The inbound calls service level and staffing utilization are taken into consideration in the constraints. Numerical experiments based on actual operational data are included. Results show that the model is effective to optimize the shift planning and hence reduce the call centers\u27 cost. Third, we model the staffing shift planning problem for a hospital call center with two kinds of service lines. Each kind of service is delivered through both inbound calls and outbound calls. The inbound calls can be transferred between these two service lines. A mathematical programming model is developed. The objective is to minimize the staffing cost, by deciding the shift setting and workload allocation. The inbound calls service level and staffing utilization are taken into consideration in the constraints. Numerical experiments are carried out based on actual operational data. Results show that the model is effective to reduce the call centers\u27 labor cost

Staffing to Maximize Profit for Call Centers with Impatient and Repeat-Calling Customers

Motivated by call center practice, we study the optimal staffing of many-server queues with impatient and repeat-calling customers. A call center is modeled as an M/M/s+M queue, which is developed to a behavioral queuing model in which customers come and go based on their satisfaction with waiting time. We explicitly take into account customer repeat behavior, which implies that satisfied customers might return and have an impact on the arrival rate. Optimality is defined as the number of agents that maximize revenues net of staffing costs, and we account for the characteristic that revenues are a direct function of staffing. Finally, we use numerical experiments to make certain comparisons with traditional models that do not consider customer repeat behavior. Furthermore, we indicate how managers might allocate staffing optimally with various customer behavior mechanisms

Performance Indicators Analysis inside a Call Center Using a Simulation Program

This paper deals with and shows the results of different performance indicators analyses made utilizing the help of Simulation and concentrated on dimensioning problems of handling calls capacity in a call center. The goal is to measure the reactivity of the call center’s performance to potential changes of critical variables. The literature related to the employment of this kind of instrument in call centers is reviewed, and the method that this problem is treated momentarily is precisely described. The technique used to obtain this paper’s goal implicated a simulation model using Arena Contact Center software that worked as a key case at the time where the events analyses could be executed. This article comes to the conclusion that Simulation is a completely suitable instrument to accomplish its purpose since it could be adequate to demonstrate, for the call center taken into consideration principally that: (a) it is feasible to reduce the agent contingent; (b) reasonable variations on the demand design can impact very much the key performance indicators of the Call Centers’ project; and (c) it is feasible to increase the service level if a combined handling format is followed

Performance Indicators Analysis inside a Call Center Using a Simulation Program

This paper deals with and shows the results of different performance indicators analyses made utilizing the help of Simulation and concentrated on dimensioning problems of handling calls capacity in a call center. The goal is to measure the reactivity of the call center’s performance to potential changes of critical variables. The literature related to the employment of this kind of instrument in call centers is reviewed, and the method that this problem is treated momentarily is precisely described. The technique used to obtain this paper’s goal implicated a simulation model using Arena Contact Center software that worked as a key case at the time where the events analyses could be executed. This article comes to the conclusion that Simulation is a completely suitable instrument to accomplish its purpose since it could be adequate to demonstrate, for the call center taken into consideration principally that: (a) it is feasible to reduce the agent contingent; (b) reasonable variations on the demand design can impact very much the key performance indicators of the Call Centers’ project; and (c) it is feasible to increase the service level if a combined handling format is followed

A Survey on Patient Queue Management System

In this paper, we study the various types of Queue and Queue Management System. Queue system can successfully reduce waiting time of the patients in the hospitals. We aim to implement a model that initializes alert notification via SMS to patients of a hospital. It will minimize the queue of patients in the waiting area of hospital and also patient can book an appointment from anywhere at a given time. Patients can book an appointment via android application. and accordingly patients and also it will provide navigation towards that nearest hospital. Hence, for developing such a model a survey has been done on various types of queues

Application–Based Statistical Approach for Identifying Appropriate Queuing Model

Queuing theory is a mathematical study of queues or waiting lines. It is used to model many systems in different fields in our life, whether simple or complex systems. The key idea in queuing theory of a mathematical model is to improve performance and productivity of the applications. Queuing models are constructed in order to compute the performance measures for the applications and to predict the waiting times and queue lengths. This thesis is depended on previous papers of queuing theory for varies application which analyze the behavior of these applications and shows how to calculate the entire queuing statistic determined by measures of variability (mean, variance and coefficient of variance) for variety of queuing systems in order to define the appropriate queuing model. Computer simulation is an easy powerful tool to estimate approximately the proper queuing model and evaluate the performance measures for the applications. This thesis presents a new simulation model for defining the appropriate models for the applications and identifying the variables parameters that affect their performance measures. It depends on values of mean, variance and coefficient of the real applications, comparing them to the values for characteristics of the queuing model, then according to the comparison the appropriate queuing model is approximately identified.The simulation model will measure the effectiveness performance of queuing models A/B/1 where A is inter arrival distribution, B is the service time distributions of the type Exponential, Erlang, Deterministic and Hyper-exponential. The effectiveness performance of queuing model are: *L : The expected number of arrivals in the system. *Lq : The expected number of arrivals in the queue. *W : The expected time required a customer to spend in the system. *Wq : The expected time required a customer to spend in Queue. *U : the server utilization

Application of Computer Simulation Modeling to Evaluate Business Continuity Plans

Business continuity plans (BCP) help organizations plan for and withstand the occurrence of unexpected events that interrupt the normal operation of business. Managers typically develop several alternate plans to minimize the business impact of unexpected events. The problem for decision makers is that comparative evaluation of BCP is typically done using subjective judgments. This research uses a case study approach focusing on a single organization and a single business continuity application to propose the use of computer simulation as a tool for managers to identify and evaluate different BCP prior to committing resources. In the context of an insurance firm, a specific plan was evaluated using simulation methods. A simulation model was used to model the operational aspects of the call center in an insurance company. After the model was validated, it was used to answer questions about what-if scenarios. Results suggest that scenario analysis using simulated model enables managers to ask useful questions that can help evaluate the plan. Managers at the insurance company used the simulation model to determine the level of service required and evaluate business continuity strategies to achieve it

A study of the factors influencing customer satisfaction and efficiency in contact centers: the combined effect

Abstract OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study is to expand understanding of the factors influencing customer satisfaction and efficiency in contact centers. More specifically, the focus is on examining the grouped impact of the factors. First, this research draws on existing research on the factors influencing customer satisfaction. Second, an empirical research is conducted to discover the combined effect of different factors on hand on customer satisfaction and on the other hand on efficiency. METHOD A novel method in marketing called fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis is the used method. It was chosen because it is suitable for a research with a small population and because it takes both quantitative and qualitative aspects into consideration. It also analyses the impact of factors combined together rather than as separate individuals. KEY FINDINGS The main findings include the notion that a factor can have a different impact on customer satisfaction and efficiency depending on which other factors it is combined with. Additionally, separate factors or the same factors in a different form influence customer satisfaction and efficiency. Hence, there are trade-offs while attempting to achieve very good levels of both customer satisfaction and efficiency. In addition, the results include findings related to individual factors. For example, it is indicated that a high degree of feedback can have a positive effect on customer satisfaction. Keywords Customer satisfaction, efficiency, contact center, fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis, FS/QC