Staff resource planning
Riverside Customer Call Centre
Riverside Centre has a small call centre to support customers, leisure visitors and retail occupiers access details about the mall, opening times, product lines, special events and other matters. The call centre also provides a link between individual vendors and centre users concerning inventory, product queries and the like.
The call centre operates eight hours a day (0900-1700) five days a week and is closed on weekends.
Call volumes and demand fluctuate, but there is one noticeable peak period between mid October and January inclusive (15 weeks).
Records show that the average call numbers during the off-peak period is 250 calls per day, whilst on peak days call numbers average 608 calls per day.
The call centre is staffed by a team of 3 permanent staff members. Full time staff can handle up to a maximum of 12 calls per hour each and it has been shown that the full time staff can cope with all the calls during off-peak periods.
Temporary staff are engaged for the peak period and, generally, can answer 8 calls per hour.
Temporary staff, sourced from a local recruitment agency cost £76.75 per 8 hour day shift inclusive of all agency fees.
A specialist IT company has proposed installing an enhanced call handling system which, it is claimed, will increase productivity enabling permanent staff to handle 18 calls per hour and temporary staff 12 calls per hour. The system would require a one-off capital cost of £34,000. On-going revenue and maintenance costs would be the same as the current system.
Consultancy guidance
1. Determine how many temporary staff, will need to be recruited to the call centre to cope with demand in the peak period.
