Special Report - Operations & Fulfillment: Rethink Your (Web-Influenced) Call Center

How can you get a modicum of control over payroll costs in the contact center in this Web-dominated age? Try the equivalent of zero-based budgeting for your staffing plan.

Start by analyzing where those payroll dollars actually go — to which specific tasks and process steps. In many contact centers, a variety of nonoperations, ancillary functions accumulate over time. Examples include screening marketing lists for a variety of customer characteristics or data difficulties, or proofing catalog or Web copy. Perhaps the related payroll dollars should be charged to the department that’s the source and beneficiary of the task.