How do we derive the no of desk required for handling a BO volume? I understand the no of FTE is usually derived linearly from the workload hrs and further the desk is calculated using the FTE based on some seat utilization target. My question is for instant... if we have a TAT which says all emails to be responded on the same day... and the email arrival profiles is skewed towards the last 3 hrs of the operation hrs then there would be more staff required in the last 3 hrs hence desk requirement in the last 3 hrs would go up!!

What would be the approach in deciding the desk requirement for a Back office process which has a TAT (Turn around time)??

Meghanath

I'd say that a service level to turn around all emails on the same day is unreasonable.

Within 24 hours would be fine...I'd probably push for less. But the same day means that if 1000 emails come in at one minute to closing you'll be working all night.

I would also consider reporting on what % of your SLA has been affected by third party queries.

By this I mean those emails that have had to be passed onto another area because of the process. This will also help you identify knowledge gaps and processes to review to aid first time resolution and customer satisfaction.

I certainly understand there would be 1000s of emails and replying to all of them on the same day is not an easy task to achieve. To a great extent the problem of not being able to reply on the same day ( instantly) can be resolved by studying the subject, issue or concern ( which is service dependent). You can have standard answers for FAQs. The emails can be filtered according to the subject say "billing" or " technical problem" etc.

For a particular business/ service the emails would have similar concerns, questions and queries. Segregating them under different heads and then answering to the questions would be quick.

More than 100 emails would have same answer and would be a part of FAQ, similarly if billing, that could be next and so on.

On an average 1 person can reply to about 200 emails in a day after reading and tailor-designing the answer.

If FAQ included 100s of email can be send by just 1 click. ( depends on you ISP too!)

So first analyse the kind of concern expressed in the email and create a catagory and standard answers for them. Unoque email concerns can be dealt uniquely.

Abhijit

On an average 1 person can reply to about 200 emails in a day after reading and tailor-designing the answer. Where did you get that from?

When I answer this I believe that you also have a website.
You can suggest having a chat line.
Make information available on the website.
have tabs on the website where where generally a customer will have queries/doubts(will need some analysis). This tab will connect him to a Rep through a chat line & clear his doubt right then. This I believe, will reduce the number of calls & also e-mails. Ensure the tab is automated that when all Reps are busy this tab is disabled.
You can also cross train your Reps for this on a later stage when the e-mail flow drops.