A new method for estimating the real number of callers for call centre staffing optimisation

Valentina Radojicic, Goran Markovic and Vesna Radonjic

International Journal of Engineering Management and Economics, 2010, vol. 1, issue 4, 321-341

Abstract: This paper deals with functional organisation of a call centre by adjusting the amount of human and technical resources such that the quality of service is satisfied while the costs of the resources are significantly reduced. If the call centre is not well designed, a great number of repeated requests occur, particularly in periods of peak traffic intensity. In such circumstances, the recorded data statistics give an unreal number of callers. This paper proposes a new method for estimating the real number of callers and the offered traffic using the general probability theory. Additionally we developed the two-level dynamic programming (DP) method for call centre staffing optimisation. Proposed method enables optimal allocation of available human resources by shifts such that the operation costs are significantly reduced.

Keywords: call centres; cost; repeated requests; shifts; caller numbers; call centre staffing; staffing optimisation; quality of service; QoS; resource allocation; human resources; probability theory; dynamic programming. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=38648 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ids:ijemec:v:1:y:2010:i:4:p:321-341

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in International Journal of Engineering Management and Economics from Inderscience Enterprises Ltd
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sarah Parker ().