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Establishing Telephone-Agent Staffing Levels through Economic Optimization

Author

Listed:
  • Bruce Andrews

    (University of Southern Maine, School of Business, Economics, and Management, Portland, Maine 04103)

  • Henry Parsons

    (University of Southern Maine, School of Business, Economics, and Management, Portland, Maine 04103)

Abstract

We developed and implemented an economic-optimization model for telephone-agent staffing at L. L. Bean, a large telemarketer and mail-order catalog house for quality outdoor sporting goods and apparel. The staffing levels we obtained with economic optimization were very different from those used by the company in the past, when staff size was determined by service-level criteria. For L. L. Bean, the resultant savings were estimated to amount to more than $500,000 per year. In the model, we used queuing theory, devised an expected total-cost objective function, and accounted for retrials and potential caller abandonments through a regression model that related the abandonment rates to the telephone-service factor (percentage of calls answered within a predetermined time interval).

Suggested Citation

  • Bruce Andrews & Henry Parsons, 1993. "Establishing Telephone-Agent Staffing Levels through Economic Optimization," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 23(2), pages 14-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orinte:v:23:y:1993:i:2:p:14-20
    DOI: 10.1287/inte.23.2.14
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Z. Justin Ren & Yong-Pin Zhou, 2008. "Call Center Outsourcing: Coordinating Staffing Level and Service Quality," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 369-383, February.
    2. Vijay Mehrotra & Thomas A. Grossman, 2009. "OR Process Skills Transform an Out-of-Control Call Center into a Strategic Asset," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 39(4), pages 346-352, August.
    3. Easton, Fred F. & Mansour, Nashat, 1999. "A distributed genetic algorithm for deterministic and stochastic labor scheduling problems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 118(3), pages 505-523, November.
    4. Duder, John C. & Rosenwein, Moshe B., 2001. "Towards "zero abandonments" in call center performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 50-56, November.
    5. Casado Yusta, S. & Pacheco Bonrostro, J., 2003. "Estudio comparativo de diferentes estrategias metaheurísticas para la resolución del labor scheduling problem./Analisys of different methauristas for solving labor scheduling," Estudios de Economia Aplicada, Estudios de Economia Aplicada, vol. 21, pages 537-554, December.
    6. Schwarz, Justus Arne & Selinka, Gregor & Stolletz, Raik, 2016. "Performance analysis of time-dependent queueing systems: Survey and classification," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 170-189.
    7. Linda V. Green & Peter J. Kolesar & João Soares, 2001. "Improving the Sipp Approach for Staffing Service Systems That Have Cyclic Demands," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 49(4), pages 549-564, August.
    8. Tolga Çezik & Oktay Günlük & Hanan Luss, 2001. "An integer programming model for the weekly tour scheduling problem," Naval Research Logistics (NRL), John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(7), pages 607-624, October.
    9. Aksin, O. Zeynep & Harker, Patrick T., 2003. "Capacity sizing in the presence of a common shared resource: Dimensioning an inbound call center," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(3), pages 464-483, June.
    10. Ernst, A. T. & Jiang, H. & Krishnamoorthy, M. & Sier, D., 2004. "Staff scheduling and rostering: A review of applications, methods and models," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 153(1), pages 3-27, February.
    11. Noah Gans & Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2003. "Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 79-141, September.
    12. Ger Koole & Auke Pot, 2011. "TECHNICAL NOTE---A Note on Profit Maximization and Monotonicity for Inbound Call Centers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 59(5), pages 1304-1308, October.
    13. Stefan Helber & Raik Stolletz & Sophie Bothe, 2005. "Erfolgszielorientierte Agentenallokation in Inbound Call-Centern," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 57(1), pages 3-32, February.
    14. S Casado & M Laguna & J Pacheco, 2005. "Heuristical labour scheduling to optimize airport passenger flows," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 56(6), pages 649-658, June.
    15. Defraeye, Mieke & Van Nieuwenhuyse, Inneke, 2016. "Staffing and scheduling under nonstationary demand for service: A literature review," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 4-25.
    16. Castillo, Ignacio & Joro, Tarja & Li, Yong Yue, 2009. "Workforce scheduling with multiple objectives," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 196(1), pages 162-170, July.
    17. Refik Soyer & M. Murat Tarimcilar, 2008. "Modeling and Analysis of Call Center Arrival Data: A Bayesian Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 266-278, February.
    18. Evrim D. Günec{s} & O. Zeynep Akc{s}in, 2004. "Value Creation in Service Delivery: Relating Market Segmentation, Incentives, and Operational Performance," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 6(4), pages 338-357, May.
    19. Robert M. Saltzman & Vijay Mehrotra, 2001. "A Call Center Uses Simulation to Drive Strategic Change," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 87-101, June.
    20. Prakash Mirchandani & G. G. Hegde & Richard E. Wendell, 2001. "Enhancing Competitiveness of the Customer Loan Center at Promistar Financial Corporation," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 31(3), pages 28-43, June.
    21. Atul Bhandari & Alan Scheller-Wolf & Mor Harchol-Balter, 2008. "An Exact and Efficient Algorithm for the Constrained Dynamic Operator Staffing Problem for Call Centers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 339-353, February.
    22. Li, Hui & Yang, Tao, 2000. "Queues with a variable number of servers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 124(3), pages 615-628, August.
    23. Sanjay L. Ahire, 2023. "McLeod Health Optimizes Staffing for Patient Room Cleaning," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 53(2), pages 155-168, March.
    24. Sem Borst & Avi Mandelbaum & Martin I. Reiman, 2004. "Dimensioning Large Call Centers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 17-34, February.

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