See Sytel Real-Time Automation (SRA) in action
as it:
- reassigns agents automatically during a shift – no supervisor involvement
- balances service levels automatically across all inbound queues, even with agent shortages, call spikes, etc.
What is Sytel Real-Time Automation (SRA)?
In any contact center, unexpected peaks in demand for customer contact, agent absence and other challenges are inevitable during the working day that require immediate intervention to keep operations on track.
Sytel Real-Time Automation (SRA) takes the strain of this intraday agent and queue management, making best possible use of any and all available agent resources, both inbound and outbound. SRA automatically balances the needs of all queues so that all service levels are optimised, without the need for human intervention.
For details on how this balancing is achieved, see How SRA Makes Decisions
How Will SRA Revolutionize My Contact Center?
- SRA delivers better CX
SRA improves CX by optimising customer wait times across all queues, and across all contact channels - SRA spreads the impact of high demand
SRA minimises the impact of high demand on any single queue by borrowing agent resources to help out from less-stressed workloads – inbound or outbound, any channel - SRA frees supervisors
SRA cuts supervisor interventions in redeploying agents by 75% or more. Supervisors are freed to assist elsewhere to much better effect, e.g. in supporting and motivating their team. - SRA impact improves with scale
The larger the contact center, the more scope there is in the system for agent reassignment, and the greater the effect will be. - SRA out-performs humans, every time
SRA manages agents and queue service levels far more accurately than humans can, and more quickly – typically before humans have realised action is required. And unlike with human intervention, it doesn’t produce unintentional consequences that need reversing later.
For details on the benefits SRA can bring to your contact center, see The Business Case for SRA
But Doesn’t Our WFM Already Do This?
Workforce Management (WFM) tools are very necessary in planning workloads and agent schedules day by day, and they may be able to assist with and advise on intraday agent and queue management.
But these tools simply cannot manage fluctuations in supply and demand on the day. They still require manual intervention, either to take the required action or to monitor automatic actions that have been triggered.
SRA needs no intervention. It allows agents to come and go as scheduled, taking all fluctuations of supply and demand in its stride.
OK, Show Me What SRA Does
The videos below of a contact center dashboard show 1 hour of simulated activity, compressed into 2 minutes.
These simulations use the actual algorithm within the Sytel platform to manage simulated agents and customers, and demonstrate how the algorithm achieves the best possible outcome under crisis conditions, i.e. more inbound demand than the number of available agents can handle.
We can assume that the agents with the relevant skill sets shown in the videos were identified by the Workforce Management (WFM) team as being the right number at the start of day to service needs and meet SLAs.
And though not shown in these videos, SRA signals to managers how many agents with particular skills are either excess to requirements (defined as SLA adherence), or could be added in dynamically to allow SLAs to be met. These changes can be made automatically, without human intervention (depending on the flexibility with which agent resources are managed.)
Simulation #1
3 inbound queues – 75 agents
Most agents have skills for all queues.
Simulation #2
3 inbound queues – 75 agents
1 outbound campaign – 25 agents
Most agents have skills for all queues. All can work outbound.
Simulation #3
10 inbound queues – 80 agents
1 outbound campaign – 20 agents
Most agents have skills for all queues. All can work outbound.
The Charts
| Bar Charts = current values Line Charts = values over time. 'Current' = right edge |
|
| Customers - # Waiting | Number of customers currently waiting in each queue |
| Customers - # Talking | Number of customers currently engaging with agents in each queue |
| Agents - # Talking | Number of agents currently engaging with customers in each queue |
| Agents - # Assigned | Number of agents assigned to each queue/ campaign |
| Agents - # Free | Number of agents currently available to each queue with the right skills to handle calls. Note that the same agent may appear as a resource for multiple queues simultaneously |
| Agent – Handle Time (avg) | Average time taken by agents in talk/wrap, with target (as dotted line) for each |
| SLA – Adherence %/ Service Level Against Target | How each queue is performing (positive or negative) in relation to its target Service Level Agreement (SLA - normalised to 0 in this graph) |
For more information on how ‘best match’ decisions are made, see How SRA Makes Decisions.