How often have I not heard comments from fellow developers, like: "That's designed for consumers; we make business software." What this implies is that users of business software tolerate a lower usability level. Yet, when you come right down to it, both consumers and business workers are basically people using software. Admittedly, these target groups [...]

One of the most controversial issues in a contact centre is the scheduling of shifts, especially when a centre works outside the regular nine-to-five working hours and weekends. Then we have to deal with evening shifts, and very often, overnight shifts as well. Generally these are not very popular with agents. They’re off when most [...]

No. This is not the movie sequel to “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”. Who are "the millennials" and why should you, as a contact centre manager care? The millennials, better known as “Gen Y,” are young persons with birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s. This is the first [...]

"No pain, no gain”, still relevant today? A recent study on employee productivity of Latvian-based, social net-working Draguiem Group, using desktop analytics, reveals what could well be the most optimal work-rest pattern: - 52 minutes of work - followed by 17 minutes of rest time Even more interestingly, the 52-17 pattern yielded top results, especially [...]

Measuring KPIs has always been a central task in workforce management, so honestly, what can gamification add to this? Isn’t it just another buzz word without any actual news value, much like the absence of clothes in the children’s tale, 'The Emperor's New Clothes'? We probably all know people addicted to Candy Crush or youngsters [...]

A couple of weeks ago I attended the “Close Network for Contact-Centre-and-Customer-Services Managers” in Sweden. “Close” is the largest and most professional manager network in Sweden and a great forum for discussing challenges with experienced people in the same profession. It´s always interesting and fun to meet counterparts and learn from their challenges and processes. [...]

“Measure twice; cut once,” is a carpentry expression that recommends measuring pieces to be cut several times before actually proceeding. Obviously, if wrongly measured then cut, the action cannot be “uncut” or undone, thus wasting resources. The corresponding parallel in the contact centre world is forecasting. In statistics, it is said: “Forecasts are always wrong, [...]

When working on the Calabrio WFM solution lately we have had a lot of discussions on the complicated topic of user intervention and psychology of the user when running systems. There is always a risk associated with doing things completely in the background without any user intervention. With software being able to make better decisions and [...]