Specialized agents or multi-skill agents? A WFM dilemma

One of the big dilemmas Workforce Management (WFM) analysts face is What criteria to use to distribute interactions. What is more profitable and productive? Have agents specialized in certain contacts, or agents that can handle a larger universe of interactions? Specialized agents or multi-skill agents, that is the question. Like almost everything in this world, and in particular WFM, the resolution of this dilemma is not linear, and depends on multiple factors. But it's certainly worth the effort, since you can achieve optimizations that are not negligible.

In this note we will analyze the advantages and challenges of each scenario, so that you can choose the one that best suits the characteristics of your contact center.

Dedicated agents vs. multi-skill agents

In the era of the Call Center, with the telephone as the only channel of contact, agents were classified according to a single partition criterion: the type of campaign they were serving. The staff was organized in inbound agents (specialized in incoming calls), outbound agents (specialized in outbound calls) and the so-called “blend” (who answered both types of calls).

With the advent of multichannel technology and the transformation of Call Centers into “Contact Centers”, another factor is added to this partition: The channels. Therefore, the classification of agents according to the type of interaction becomes more complex.

‍Agent skills involve:

‍- The domain of certain channels (phone, chat, email, social networks and recently video call)

- Also from certain areas of knowledge of the company (not only the division of departments such as support, sales and collection, but also between specific topics depending on the complexity of the organization).

Beyond the possible combinations of skills in an agent, we find two major roles:

‍>> Specialized agents: Focused on serving a single channel or some specific issues within the company.

>> Multi-skill agents: Agents with the necessary skills to serve multiple channels or multiple areas of company knowledge.

Let's look at the advantages and disadvantages of each equipment configuration.

Multi-skill agents

Advantages:

- If agents are available, there are no contacts waiting. If the entire team of agents in a contact center were multi-skill - that is, all agents can handle all the interactions that arrive - it is more likely that when an interaction arrives, there will be an agent to handle it.

‍- Better experience. If a customer is contacted for multiple issues, there is no need for a transfer, generating an improvement in service for this type of contact.

- Contact center sizing is made easier.

Disadvantages:

- Training costs and times. Ensuring that all agents are able to serve any channel or any topic involves a high cost of training. In complex organizations, with many areas and a large volume of daily interactions, for an operator to be able to solve absolutely all cases is almost unthinkable. Or it would require extensive experience in the position, with their respective wage costs.

- Lack of focus. It's harder to achieve task efficiency when each task is different.

Specialized Agents

Advantages:

- Efficiency. If an agent is dedicated to only one type of channel or area, their service will probably be more efficient. At the time of answering the contact, you already know that the query is from your area of Expertise and if you need support from a system, you already have it open in the correct module and manage it from memory. Therefore, an improvement in key indicators such as TMO (Average Attention Time) and the FCR (First Call Resolution).

‍- Less training. Training costs are lower, since such an extensive onboarding process is not required for new agents. This is especially relevant when the turnover is high and does not require lengthy training.

- The right task. Another advantage of specialization is being able to assign tasks according to one's profiles. Someone who is shy or has bad diction can be excellent at answering in writing, and someone with the qualities of a speaker can be messy or slow in writing.

- Simple sizing. Strangely enough, in this other scenario, dimensioning is also simple, although more fragmented.

Disadvantages:

-Longer waiting time. The main disadvantage of having specialized agents is that the availability to handle interactions decreases. This happens because it is more likely that an interaction will arrive that the agent is unable to resolve. There could be the uncomfortable case of have a queue of waiting contacts and at the same time idle agents. Therefore, customers will have longer online waits or may even need to contact more times to be served.

Multi-skill or specialization? What is the best solution?

The best thing about all of this is that you don't have to choose. It is possible to combine elegantly! In our experience providing WFM technological solutions, we consider that betting on a hybrid system is the best way to take advantage of both scenarios (availability of care and efficient resolution at the lowest possible cost).

What is a hybrid interaction distribution system like?

The staff is comprised mostly of specialized agents who handle most of the interactions. This allows for a high and agile resolution of cases. The level of expertise should be such that it is unlikely that the same contact will have to be addressed by more than one agent.

But at the same time, to ensure the availability of care, the staff includes a group of “multi-skill” or “multitasking” agents, capable of servicing a wider set of contacts. These agents are given more training time, so that they can provide their support in a multiplicity of cases or channels.

These agents perform the fundamental function of provide support when the number of interactions exceeds the attention capacity of specialized agents. Thus, it is possible to maintain satisfactory service levels even when there is an atypical workload. It is essential to configure interaction routing so that these backup agents only receive interactions once primary care is saturated.

A side effect of a distribution such as the one proposed is that multitasking agents have little activity as long as there is no saturation. One way to mitigate this problem is Assign them tasks that can be performed while waiting, such as answering emails.

How to implement the perfect alignment for your contact center?

Each company will define the most efficient and cost-effective scheme for its contact center operation, based on its structure and historical analysis of the type of incoming interactions and agent performance.

It is known that eThe classic Erlang is not suitable for multi-skill dimensioning and that's probably one reason why these types of approaches are avoided. To obtain an accurate forecast of the volume of interactions and the availability needed for efficient care, rIt is very beneficial to rely on WFM technology which allows you to simulate scenarios and also allows you to organize shifts depending on the skills and performance levels of each agent.

‍I hope I convinced you that it's worth the effort!