The Human Numbers 19-Point Forecasting Method

We produce carefully hand-crafted forecasts and schedules, tailored specifically to your call center’s experiences and its agents’ preferences. We can accommodate schedule bids, special rankings, and lunch/break optimizations.  Our schedules are produced two weeks out, and if you let us know about special plan coming up we can incorporate meetings, trainings, huddles, and planned vacation into your schedule runs. Human Numbers' forecasts consistently outperform those generated by WFM Software. The reason is we start with a baseline of our unique 19-point forecasting methodology using time-series analysis and we top that off with a customized layer specifically built around your own call drivers.
 

In our experience that WFM software does a very impressive job with the heavy lifting of drilling down a forecast into time-of-day arrival patterns.  It also manages AHT forecasts for interval scheduling at an optimum rate. But that's as far as we let our forecasts go with automated WFM software, because our Excel-based forecasting models have always been able to do a better job.  Even with a state-of-the-art software solution, you still need a highly-skilled workforce manager to methodically capture these types of things and adjust it in the forecast. After the event is over, that data needs to be analyzed, documenting what just happened, normalizing its effect on the trends/patterns, and archiving it for repeat offenses against the forecast in the future. If your call center is small, the ROI to purchase expensive software doesn’t always pay off.

We have unlimited combinations of possibilities available. This is the 19-point forecasting method we use as our baseline in a reforecast that is done every single week:

After the math does its part, there's still room left to top it off with special manual adjustments (ex. campaigns, event-drivers, etc.) and we even reserve a special  yearly cycles with average weekly volume in a 6-season calendar period in case things get really rough. We know there are very specific and complex factors that must be considered.  Emergencies, bizarre moves by the Marketing department, surprise electrical outages, and other unpredictable activities can wreak havoc with your forecast.  Holidays do not consistently occur on the same day of the week, nor even the same week of the year for that matter.  There’s not always a mathematical precedent to rely on, and that’s where we come in.
 

When you let us take over this responsibility of forecasting and scheduling for you we will provide you with carefully thought-out forecasts, and we will work closely with your team to generate the best possible schedules for their lifestyles.
 

WFM Software has the raw data and potential power to measure every one of these points, too.  But it doesn't look at them as a human does and make an experienced judgement to decide when to start using one and stop using another, which gives Human Numbers the edge.