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The contact center is experiencing difficulties in managing staffing levels, resulting in operational inefficiencies and reduced customer satisfaction.
These issues are causing a number of problems for the contact center and its customers. Staffing levels are constantly fluctuating, leading to wasted resources and decreased productivity. Customers are experiencing longer wait times and slower response times due to the insufficient staffing, which is leading to decreased satisfaction and potentially even lost business.
In order to address these issues, the contact center needs to implement a more effective staffing management strategy. This can include implementing forecasting and planning tools to more accurately predict staffing needs, improving retention and onboarding efforts to reduce the turnover rate, and establishing better communication and coordination between teams and departments. By addressing these issues and implementing a more efficient staffing management strategy, the contact center can improve operational efficiency, reduce costs, and increase customer satisfaction.

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Managing staffing levels in the contact center is a delicate balance. Too few staff and your customers will be unhappy, too many and you'll be wasting money. Finding the right number of staff for your contact center is crucial to success. Here's what you need to know about staffing levels in the contact center.


In this blog, we will discuss the following:


1. The contact center is the heart of the company, handling customer interactions and inquiries

2. The staffing levels in the contact center have a direct impact on the quality of service provided to customers

3. When staffing levels are too low, customers will experience longer wait times and less personalized service

4. Conversely, when staffing levels are too high, costs will increase without a corresponding increase in customer satisfaction

5. The ideal staffing level for a contact center is one that strikes a balance between providing excellent customer service and keeping costs under control

6. To determine the ideal staffing level for your contact center, consider factors such as call volume, average handle time, and abandonment rate



The contact center is the heart of the company, handling customer interactions and inquiries

The contact center plays a vital role within any business, as it allows customers to reach out with their concerns and gain assistance quickly. By being the point of contact between customers and companies, contact centers have a major influence on customer experience and satisfaction. Through clear and kinds interactions with customers, agents can reassure people that they can trust the company to provide them with reliable services. Furthermore, these agents are also responsible for listening attentively to customer feedback and inquiries in order to identify opportunities for improvement that the company can make in order to better meet customer needs.

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The staffing levels in the contact center have a direct impact on the quality of service provided to customers

The staffing level of a contact center is one of the most important factors in offering excellent customer service. Teams with sufficient personnel and the correct skill set will be able to respond efficiently and accurately to customers’ needs. This results in satisfied customers who will feel like their problem was handled promptly and with the highest standard of care. Poorly staffed centers, alternatively, will not have enough resources to assist customers adequately, leading to low rates of customer retention and dissatisfaction with their experience. Ensuring the contact center is properly staffed is essential for achieving success in providing quality customer service.

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When staffing levels are too low, customers will experience longer wait times and less personalized service

When staffing levels are too low, customers will inevitably experience diminished service. Longer wait times lead to impatience and frustration, which can lead to dissatisfaction with the services provided. Low staffing levels also detract from the personalized service that is necessary to build customer loyalty and recognition. Diminished service means fewer opportunities for customer engagement, creating a challenge for building a successful business model for long-term success. To provide superior service, it is important to prioritize appropriate staffing that supports business innovation and positive customer relationships going forward.

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Conversely, when staffing levels are too high, costs will increase without a corresponding increase in customer satisfaction

Having the right staff levels is essential to both cost-effectiveness and providing quality customer service. When staffing levels are too low, it is difficult for a business to meet customer expectations and this can even lead to customer dissatisfaction. Conversely, when staffing levels are too high, businesses can inadvertently incur excessive costs that don't translate into a better customer experience. Businesses should strive to find the most effective balance between staffing needs and costs in order to provide the best service possible at an affordable rate.

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The ideal staffing level for a contact center is one that strikes a balance between providing excellent customer service and keeping costs under control

Achieving an ideal staffing level in a contact center requires careful planning and consideration of both customer service quality and cost effectiveness. Striking the right balance between these two goals is essential for success, as it can help ensure customers are receiving the best possible service without going over budget. There are some key steps that contact centers can take to reach the desired staffing level, such as training employees to be open-minded and creative when problem solving and continually re-assessing what the current needs are for both resources and skillsets. It is also worthwhile collaborating with other departments likely to influence customer satisfaction, such as product design or engineering, who may have valuable input that could potentially streamline processes within the contact center. By taking all these factors into account when evaluating resource needs, contact centers will be able to optimize their staffing levels while ensuring they remain focused on delivering an excellent customer service experience.

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To determine the ideal staffing level for your contact center, consider factors such as call volume, average handle time, and abandonment rate

Utilizing staffing optimization tools, such as those that factor in call volumes, average handle time, and abandonment rates during peak times, can help you to determine an effective staffing level for your contact center. By taking proactive steps to optimize your contact center's labor resources, you can increase both customer satisfaction levels and operational efficiencies. Considering these key performance indicators in addition to historical call data and forecasts will result in a more accurate forecast of the ideal staffing numbers as well as the corresponding skill sets required for efficient operations. Taking into consideration the full range of factors such as these will help ensure your contact center is correctly staffed.


In order to provide the best possible customer service, it is important to staff the contact center with the right number of employees. If staffing levels are too low, customers will experience longer wait times and less personalized service. Conversely, if staffing levels are too high, costs will increase without a corresponding increase in customer satisfaction. The ideal staffing level for a contact center is one that strikes a balance between providing excellent customer service and keeping costs under control. To determine the ideal staffing level for your contact center, consider factors such as call volume, average handle time, and abandonment rate.
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There are a few different ways to improve your staffing levels at the Contact Center, for that, we will once again refer to our Operational Management Reference Framework.


The Objective of The Process:

The overall goal of the Staffing/Resource Management process is to employ a robust staffing and scheduling methodology that takes into account workload volume analysis and service level requirements in order to ensure that skilled staff are to meet service levels and that staff utilization is at or above expected levels.

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Sample List of Benefits:

  • Teams are optimally staffed to handle the workloads
  • Work being completed on time and with the expected level of quality
  • SLAs being met
  • Improved customer satisfaction

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Sample List of Observations:

  • Teams not staffed to manage the workloads and requirements of their job.
  • Proper analysis of workloads is not being conducted and as a result staffing plans are not aligned to workload profiles.
  • Productivity reports are not being generated for each employee.
  • Utilization targets not established for the team or each employee.
  • Shift towards automation, self-help, self-healing not in place.

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Sample List of Recommendations:

  • OM1 - Growth Management - understand the workload profile of your service desk so you can adjust your staffing level accordingly. Take advantage of Level 0 support which can be leveraged resources from other departments.
  • OM2 - Financial (Cost) Management - understand the financial constraints the organization is struggling with. If the organization is challenged with Revenue and GP target attainment, cost reduction mandates might be passed down to the service desk.
  • OM3 - Skills/Training Management - understand the impact of skills/training on service desk staff utilization and effectiveness. Poorly skilled agents might force you to hire additional staff to meet the service levels.
  • OM5 - Quality Management - ensure a framework and set of actions are in place so that can quality of the work that is being performed can be improved. And as a result, utilization can be increased and the requirement for staff can be reduced.
  • OM6 - Knowledge Management - ensure employees have adequate resources to understand and resolve the issues promptly, and in a consistent way. This should contribute to improved utilization and fewer staff.
  • OM7 - Technology & Tools Management - ensure staff have the necessary tools to efficiently perform their work. This should contribute to higher utilization and reduced requirement for additional staff.
  • OM11 - Service Level Management - ensure Service Levels are set correctly so additional staff are not required for aggressive SLAs.
  • OM12 - Service Performance Management - Reporting & Measurements - ensure reporting and measurements is in place to track and trend performance and identify areas to improve utilization and reduce staffing requirements.
  • OM13 - Service Performance Management - Analytics & Optimization - ensure analytics & optimization is in place to harvest insights from the data and identify areas to improve utilization and reduce staffing requirements.
  • OM18 - Queue Management - ensure queue management is in place to efficiently process the workloads. This should contribute to improved utilization rates and reduced requirements for staff.
  • OM21 - Staff Utilization - ensure you measure utilization on a regular basis to understand where improvements can be made.
  • OM22 - Self-Service Management - Implement a robust self-service program so calls can be redirected to self-support options.
  • OM23 - Automation/Self-Heal Management - implement automation/self-heal management to address issues at the source without the involvement of service desk agents.

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It can be difficult to maintain staffing levels at your Contact Center when the workload seems to keep increasing. And it's no wonder - with more services being supported and second-level tasks shifted to the first level, there's just more for your team to handle. But don't worry, we're here to help! Contact us today so that we can understand how you can improve your Contact Center Staffing Process and ensure that you have the resources you need to provide excellent customer service. Thanks for reading!

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Exercise: What elements of the Operational Management Framework do you think have an impact on Staffing Levels?

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