30
WORKFORCEMANAGEMENT
LADBROKES
WICKES DEPLOYS
BETS ON CALL
WORKPLACE SYSTEMS
ROUTING
Global betting and gaming fi rm,
Ladbrokes has been offering telephone
W
ickes, part of the Travis Perkins its staff to this forecast according to contracts.
Group, wanted to further The resulting actual hours are then captured
increase its customer service within the T&A module, which provides an
betting services since 1913. Today, 500
proposition to help drive additional revenue output to the payroll system.
agents spread across two contact centres
growth. WorkPlace also defi ned and documented
in London and Liverpool manage the
seven million calls it receives annually.
To do this the home improvement retailer Wickes’ leanest in-store processes using
“Our contact centre must quickly,
realised it would need to invest in a new RetailEASE. The predetermined time
effi ciently, and seamlessly meet customer
workforce management system that would system developed specifi cally for the retail
demand for our products,” explained
produce more accurate staff schedules for industry uses 5S and 6o
-
based improvement
Liam Hennessy, Ladbrokes head of call
each store, as well as help with attendance frameworks to review, streamline and
centres. “We cannot afford to stack management and assist with the labour document all store processes, including
customers up in a queue because this budgeting process. customer service and management activities
would result in lost business – and very “We knew that if we could and subsequently produce
unhappy customers. Moreover, customers
get a better match between standard timings for all
expect to be able to place bets at
our staff and our customer activities.
precisely the time they want.”
requirements this would make “WorkPlace gave us
However, Ladbrokes’ two call centre
a signifi cant contribution to an integrated approach to
sites operated independently of one
our performance,” stated standards development and
another. Hennessy continued: “The
Craig Pickett, Wickes stores demand generation. The
targets we set for call answer time,
productivity manager. To do accuracy of the standards
service quality, and growth meant that
we needed a more fl exible pool of
this effectively it had to refi ne its current ensured a quick validation and sign-off from
agents.”
scheduling process and so decided to the retail management team,” added Pickett.
A combination of Genesys
implement an automated scheduling system. “The results so far have been outstanding,
solutions and BT’s internet protocol
Wickes has now successfully implemented with all stores that have completed the
(IP) deployment expertise provided
an estate-wide labour budgeting, forecasting, scheduling element of the rollout reaping the
more Ladbrokes with more fl exible call scheduling and time and attendance (T&A) benefi ts of a more fl exible and productive
management options. As a result, skills- software system from WorkPlace Systems. workforce. And the amount of time and
based call routing became a necessity The system allows Wickes to accurately detail spent during the labour standards
for Ladbrokes, where the Genesys
budget labour hours across the estate on an phase of the project has ensured good
Enterprise Routing system enables
annual basis, provide short term forecasts buy-in at all levels of the business, from store
utilisation of its entire agent workforce
according to local conditions, and to schedule colleagues to senior management.”
effectively and, coupled with customer
profi ling, segmentation, the use of
contingency staff and a natural language
SWISS RETAILER REFINES STORE PROCESS
speech recognition system, it can plan
Manor, Switzerland’s biggest department store chain with more than 75 department
and manage its resources much more
effectively and ensure a consistently high
stores and a market share of more than 50%, is using workforce management (WFM)
level of service.
software to optimise demand-driven scheduling processes.
“Genesys Workforce Management
The retailer uses InVision Enterprise WFM from InVision Software to increase customer
allows us to further harmonise our
service and staff productivity, while taking into consideration the working time preferences
staffi ng across both sites,” added
and availability of some 8,000 employees.
Hennessey. “This is particularly important Around 1,000 departmental planners in the Manor department stores now receive a
on days when various events start at the forecast of the expected customer fl ow in their sales areas, as well as the corresponding
same time. We can confi dently state that, work schedules of their staff. They can then use InVision to adjust these schedules
at every peak event, we have maximum
manually in accordance with unplanned events, such as absences or lateness.
staffi ng at both sites answering customer
Patric Eisele, Manor head of human resource operations commented: “With automated
calls.
planning using InVision Enterprise WFM, we have achieved considerable time savings
“By reducing the cost of calls made,
of almost 40% in the creation of schedules. Furthermore, with the integrated forecast
handling more calls through the contact
function, we succeeded in automatically and effi ciently creating customer-fl ow-oriented
centre, and tailoring service around what
staffi ng plans. The helpful management tools, such as the scheduling control and the
the customer expects from us, we’ve
graphic presentation of customer fl ow in comparison with the presence of staff on the
been able to enhance profi tability and
signifi cantly contribute to the overall
sales fl oor, enable our department heads to recognise bottlenecks quickly and make
success of the company,” he said.
necessary adjustments directly to staffi ng plans.”
RETAIL TECHNOLOGY JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2010
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