Call center scheduling technology evaluation using simulation

Telemarketers, direct marketing agencies, collection agencies and others whose primary means of customer contact is via the telephone invest considerable sums of money to make the calling operation efficient and productive. Investments are required in human resources, infrastructure and technology. Having invested the dollars, businesses want to ensure that value is maximized. Call scheduling algorithms provide an efficient method to maximize customer contact. However, management at a large, national credit-card bank was not convinced that the software used to schedule calls was providing an adequate level of service. Simulation studies showed that management was justified in this assumption. The study also revealed that process improvement opportunities exist, which if implemented would likely produce the desired performance improvements.