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2 The contact routing problem
environment using more complex routing rules, these values can only be estimated by using
simulation.
Another very important measure is the expected utilization rate of agents. This figure represents
the fraction of each hour that an agent can expect to be talking to a customer or performing after
contact work. Again, managers usually specify a maximum desired utilization rate, a figure that
may be different for different agent groups. In simple environments it too can be easily
computed, and in more complicated environments it can only be estimated through simulation.
The question then becomes “What is a simple environment?” For our purposes, the practical
answer is that a simple environment is one in which a single type of contact can be connected to a
single group of agents. For example, customers calling for technical support are directed to a
single group of agents, each member of which is capable of handling those customers’ needs.
These agents handle no other types of contacts and no other group of agents can take this type of
contact. Everything else falls under the heading of “complex,” at least as far as estimating
performance parameters is concerned.
Other variables of interest often involve measures that relate directly to the purpose of the
contact. For example, we may be interested in knowing the revenue that will be generated by a
group of sales agents or the rate of first call resolution for a group of service agents, both of
which may be easy to estimate directly in simple environments but can only be estimated through
simulation in a more complex environment.
2.3
Technology options
Improvements in contact routing technology have made it increasingly more difficult to predict
the value of key indicators without using simulation. Simply allowing contacts to overflow from
one group to another eliminates the ability to easily compute performance measures. And when
skills-based routing came along it simply made such computations even more difficult. In a
skills-based routing environment, virtually no parameter of interest can be computed directly.
Only simulation allows us to estimate the values of performance measures.
The ability of modern, rules-based routing engines to employ computational tools for deciding
routing between individual customers and individual agents further complicates matters. In these
environments, service quality may be highly individualized, with preferred customers getting
great service and less desirable customers not faring nearly so well. Similarly, agent utilization
may be less a matter of ensuring that agents on average work only so hard than of determining
whether a particular set of routing rules produces an unacceptably wide range of agent utilization
rates. In fact, in certain instances, it may be desirable that certain agents work more than others,
such as in a sales environment where the best performers are rewarded with more opportunities.
2.4
Network control options
The previous section dealt with routing at the site level or in a multi-center network that acts as a
single virtual center. Many companies have multiple independent contact centers with a networklevel controller that determines the site to which each contact should be routed. Different
network controllers may use different algorithms to determine the receiving site for each contact.
This is really a two-stage routing procedure. The network controller first selects a destination site
for a contact and then the routing mechanism at that site selects the agent.
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