S08 · business case simulation

How many contact-centre agents does the holiday peak need?

People, data and outputs in this scenario are simulated. Each stage is recorded when you commit; the reveal comes after.

4stages
35 minabout
0stages committed

The brief

The synthetic airline's head of customer care (simulated) writes: "How many agents do we need on the phones for the holiday peak? I need one number by Monday." The contact centre answers calls only; chat and email are separate. All numbers in this scenario are simulated or hypothetical; the queueing arithmetic (Erlang C, which assumes random call arrivals, one queue and patient callers) was computed in Python.

Stage 1 of 4

The workforce-planning team will answer up to three questions.

Which three questions do you ask? Select the ones you would ask.

What service level is the target, as a share of calls answered within how many seconds, and over which interval is it measured?How many calls arrive per half-hour at the peak, how much does that vary between days, and what happens on disruption days?How long does a call take to handle, and what share of paid agent time is lost to breaks, training and absence?Should we forecast call volume with a seasonal ARIMA model or a gradient-boosted model before choosing the headcount?How many agents does a comparable airline's contact centre employ per million passengers carried, so we can benchmark our headcount?