Deferred Queue Agent Scheduling Smoothing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Contact centers face challenges in determining required staffing for deferred communications, as they can be handled at any time within a range of hours or days, making it difficult to schedule agents efficiently compared to immediate communications that require real-time handling.
Innovation Solution
A system that determines workload requirements for deferred queues and considers staffing needs of immediate queues to smooth agent scheduling across intervals, redistributing staffing requirements to maintain a relatively constant total number of agents across both types of queues.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If agents are scheduled based on immediate queue staffing requirements alone, then immediate communications are handled effectively, but deferred queue workloads are not optimized and total staffing varies significantly across intervals
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the staffing requirements of the immediate queue and deferred queue into a combined staffing requirement for each interval. This integration allows the system to optimize total agent allocation across both queue types simultaneously, reducing overall staffing variations while ensuring immediate communications are handled effectively.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts staffing allocations by redistributing deferred queue staffing requirements from intervals with high total staffing requirements to intervals with lower requirements. This dynamic reallocation smooths out staffing variations across intervals while maintaining adequate coverage for both immediate and deferred communications.
2Productivity
If staffing is redistributed to smooth total agent numbers across intervals, then staffing efficiency improves, but the ability to handle peak immediate queue demands may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial redistribution of deferred queue staffing requirements, redistributing only the excess staffing from intervals where the combined staffing requirement exceeds the optimal level. This partial action maintains adequate staffing for immediate queue peaks while smoothing out unnecessary variations in total agent numbers.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from the immediate queue staffing requirements to guide the redistribution process. By continuously monitoring the combined staffing requirements and comparing them against optimal levels, the system adjusts allocations to maintain service levels for immediate communications while improving overall staffing efficiency.
3Reliability
If deferred communications are handled with dedicated agents, then service quality for deferred queue improves, but total staffing requirements increase and flexibility decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system makes agents universal by allowing them to handle both immediate and deferred communications based on real-time queue demands. Instead of dedicating specific agents to deferred queues, the system dynamically allocates agent capacity across both queue types, reducing total staffing requirements while maintaining service quality for deferred communications.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of agent allocation from fixed/dedicated to dynamic/shared. By transforming how agent capacity is assigned and utilized across different queue types, the system reduces the total number of agents needed while improving flexibility and service quality for both immediate and deferred communications.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for scheduling deferred communications is provided. A workload requirement for a deferred queue for each interval of a set of intervals is determined. Each workload may indicate the amount of work predicted for the associated interval. A staffing requirement for an immediate queue is received and may indicate the number of agents needed to handle the immediate communications for the same intervals. The system, for each interval, may consider the number of agents needed for the interval in the immediate queue. Because the deferred communications do not have to be handled at any particular interval, the system may, based on the workloads, schedule agents for the deferred queue where the immediate queue is less busy (a smaller number of agents are scheduled). The goal of the system being to smooth the intervals such that the total number of agents scheduled for each interval across the immediate queue and the deferred queue remains fairly constant.