Taking a few days off across Easter meant that I had a lot to catch up on when I returned. Once I’d worked my through the sudden influx of posts and articles predicting the demise of the contact centre there were a few gems that I felt were worth trying to share more widely across the resource planning community.
Have we Really Adjusted Our Thinking for Remote Working? (Rob Dwyer/Dan Smitley USA)
This is quite a long listen but even if you just tune into the first 10-15 minutes there is some excellent thought provocation about whether we, as resource planners, have really and truly changed how we think and act off the back of remote working.
Personally I’ve never carried out a shift review (I’ve done many) without asking what people would like and don’t like but that’s not always common. Remote working gives us plenty of other opportunities to support people’s “unique” lifestyles too.
About 34 minutes in there is a brilliant description of what a WFM Analyst does too – a great elevator pitch!
Good to get a US perspective on this too.
A Different Approach to Dealing with Customer Complaints (Contact Centre Helper/Brittany Hodback)
Customer Complaints? Try This 10-Point Plan (Call Centre Helper)
As resource planners we need to be all over this kind of stuff. Complaints are failure demand, and we should be at the forefront of reducing it.
Also, this picks up on the value of connecting across the enterprise – I’ve long held the view that end to end planning across the enterprise is the endgame we should all be aiming for as resource planners.
Keeping Problem Solving Simple – A Lesson We Can All Learn (Catalyst Consulting/Kirsty Hutchison)
Interesting article on problem solving which very much matches the approach we take at Select Planning. Before you go hunting for wild and wacky issues/solutions take the time to check on whether your standard planning processes (if you have them) are actually working for you. So often simplicity is the best way to move forward, but too often, it is overlooked.
Resource Planning is the Golden Egg (Keith Stapleton – Select Planning)
Shameless plug for my colleague, Keith Stapleton’s blog on the wide ranging influence of resource planning – if it is done well. The opportunities are immense if you use RP as a strategic tool to drive action and change – that’s what the best organisations do. As resource planners we all need to raise our game to be at the heart of the evolution of customer service operations.