Re-inventing the call centre with predictive and adaptive execution

Call centres have evolved from simple single-function centres to offer access, convenience, choice and courtesy to callers. Forecasting and staffing fools support planning, enterprise databases permit the business to craft specific caller treatments, and cross-trained agents using desktop applications can respond to a wider range of caller needs and business opportunities on a single call. One key element of the call centre, however, has changed only superficially-the question of `What should each agent do next?' The `oldest waiting call' rule has answered that question for the last 20 years. Signs that this methodology is obsolete are seen in call centres where designs become more complex and results more difficult to achieve; where manual intervention moves agents from skill to skill chasing problems; where the most talented agents are overworked. This paper describes predictive and adaptive techniques; that answer the question `What should an agent do next?' These techniques re-invent the call centre, creating a robust operation cohere performance is aligned with business intentions, without the manual, corrective intervention common in conventional centres.