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The goal of this calculator is to determine the number of call centre
agents and phone lines required to meet a specific level of service. It
is intended to answer questions in the form: "How many agents do
I need if I get 431 calls during my busiest hour, where a typical call
lasts for 51 seconds and I want my customers to queue for no more than
40 seconds, 80% of the time?".
The calculation is made using the Erlang C equation which
gives the probability that a Call Centre resource (agent or
phone line) will not be available to a caller. To use the
calculator enter your service level parameters in the yellow
area. Then enter the number of anticipated calls in the busiest
hour (Peak hour call volume). Then click on the '=' button.
The results appear in the blue areas.
The calculator fields have the following meaning:
|
| Call Duration |
This is the time in seconds that an agent spends talking to
a caller, plus the call wrap-up time. |
| Answer Time |
This is the target for the maximum time a caller
will have to queue until answered by an agent. |
| Grade of Service |
The grade of service refers to the proportion of calls (as
a percentage) that are answered within the target Answer Time. |
| Blocking |
This is the proportion of calls that will receive an 'engaged'
signal as the result of all the incoming call centre phone lines being occupied.
A proportion of 0.01 means that 1 in 100 calls in the busy hour will get
an 'engaged' signal. |
| Peak hr call volume |
This field is normally used for the number of calls expected
in the busiest hour of the day. In practice, different values can be entered
here to represent the expect call load at different times of the day. This
way the calculator can be used to determine how many agents are required
for each hour of call centre operation. |
| Agent Occupancy |
This is the proportion of time during the busy hour that agents
will be actively taking calls. This figure can be used to work out how much
time agents will have available to do non-call work. |
| Grade of Service |
While the Grade of Service in the yellow area is a target,
the Grade of Service in the blue area shows a calculation of the likely
level to be achieved. |
| Immediate Answer |
This field indicates the proportion of calls who will not
have to wait in a queue to be answered. |
| Av Answer Time |
This is the average number of second calls will have to queue
to speak to an agent. |
| Download |
To download a free Excel version of the calculator, right
click on the link and select 'Save' |
