Transform Your Back Office with Effective Workforce Management

Calling customer support and encountering long wait times, frequent transfers, and unresolved issues is incredibly frustrating, isn’t it? These inefficiencies damage customer satisfaction and demoralise agents stuck with cumbersome tasks. The root cause is often back-office inefficiencies. However, effective Workforce Management (WFM) offers a solution. Studies show that companies who adopt WFM see up to a 25% increase in productivity​  ​and a 10% boost in customer loyalty​. By implementing WFM, businesses can improve operations, empower agents, and enhance overall customer experience.

WFM is an approach to managing an organisation’s workforce, ensuring the right number of agents are available at the right times. In this article, we will look at the challenges back-office contact centres face and how they use WFM to become more profitable while delivering superior customer experiences.

The Back-Office Challenge

Back-office operations are the backbone of customer service, yet they often suffer from several common issues. Manual data entry, repetitive tasks, and inefficient workflows are prevalent problems that plague these environments. According to research, companies that have automated their back-office operations have seen significant improvements. For instance, a McKinsey report indicates that improved processes can result in a 15% to 25% increase in efficiency in indirect functions​.

Agents, the frontline customer service heroes, often bear the brunt of these inefficiencies. They spend countless hours on repetitive, low-value tasks instead of focusing on engaging with customers and solving complex issues. This leads to frustration and affects their performance and job satisfaction. Research indicates that repetitive work can lead to boredom and even depression, dramatically impacting overall job satisfaction and productivity​​. Clearly, something needs to change.

Enter WFM

In today’s technology-driven customer service industry, contact centres are finding smarter ways to keep everything running smoothly. This includes planning, tracking activities throughout the day, managing schedules, and ensuring everyone is as productive as possible. Here’s how they are making a big difference:

Forecasting and Planning

Contact centre team leaders can forecast the number of customer inquiries a company will receive. This type of planning allows companies to prepare better, ensuring they have just the right number of staff on hand. For example, a major retailer might use this system to anticipate the customer rush during a Black Friday sale, ensuring they have enough staff to handle inquiries smoothly. This keeps customer wait times short and service quality high.

Staffing

Efficient staffing is crucial. Contact centres use WFM solutions to create flexible schedules that match the workload, even if some tasks aren’t urgent and can be handled later. This way, they avoid both understaffing, which can leave customers waiting, and overstaffing, which can escalate costs.

Managing Backlogs and Overtime

These solutions help teams monitor pending work and strategically reduce overtime, ensuring that employees aren’t overburdened. Like a traffic control centre monitors roads and redirects flow to prevent jams, contact centres manage their work backlog similarly to keep things moving smoothly without unnecessary delays.

Boosting Employee Productivity

Employees and managers can better understand their performance by providing clear insights into their work, leading to more effective workdays. Think of a fitness tracker that shows your daily steps, motivating you to move more; similarly, WFM solutions help employees track and optimise their day’s work.

Making Customers Happier

Lastly, when all these elements—forecasting, staffing, backlog management, and productivity—are aligned, customers notice. They get quicker, more accurate responses. A happier customer base builds stronger loyalty.

By adopting these advanced tools, contact centres are solving today’s challenges and setting themselves up for future success, ensuring the happiness of both their employees and customers.

WFM in Action

Premium Credit implemented Cirrus’ cloud-based Workforce Management system to upgrade their contact centre operations. The solution provided tools for accurately forecasting and scheduling resources, aligning with customer demand. The technology allowed for quick adaptation to real-time changes in call volumes and simplified the scheduling process. This optimisation led to increased efficiency and productivity among agents, who could now manage customer interactions more effectively with reduced downtime and fewer manual processes. In fact, employee engagement improved by 13% year on year. This strategic move improved operational agility and supported Premium Credit’s transition to a hybrid work model, maintaining high service levels regardless of location.

Implementing Workforce Optimisation with Cirrus

At Cirrus, we take a customer-centric approach to designing WFM solutions. Our tools are intuitive and tailored to meet the unique needs of each business. We focus on creating solutions that are easy to use, ensuring a smooth transition and quick adoption by agents.

Our innovative and responsive WFM tools are designed to adapt to dynamic business environments. Whether scaling operations during peak times or optimising resources during off-peak periods, our solutions provide the flexibility needed to maintain high service levels.

Final Thoughts

Effective workforce management is key to improving your back-office operations. By implementing a robust WFM system, businesses can increase productivity, improve customer experiences, and empower agents to become ‘Superagents’. At Cirrus, we are committed to helping you achieve these goals with our innovative, customer-centric WFM solutions.

Take the first step towards transforming your back office and upgrading your customer experience. Contact us today to explore our workforce management solutions and see how we can help you turn your agents into superagents ready to deliver exceptional service through the power of AI and WFM.