Cloud of contact centers "Beeline": what happens at peak load
If you live in Moscow and want to meet personally with the girl you like from the call center "Beeline", you may be in for a surprise. You will have to go on a date, for example, to Tver or to another neighboring city.
Initially, each contact center served its own region, so it turned out that the load between them was not balanced at all: with a peak load in one center it was impossible to use the free capacity of the other.
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Today, Beeline has 12 contact centers, in which more than 3 thousand people work. Contact centers are located in 4 different time zones, the distance between the most remote is 9000 kilometers. The topic describes how we combined them into one “cloud” system and at the same time facilitated the training of the girl who you liked so much.
In 2007, a new concept of a distributed contact center appeared. It would seem that there is nothing easier than creating one queue of clients and transferring them between the centers, but this is not as easy as it sounds. Here are the difficulties:
All branches are divided into 9 large groups assigned to home contact centers. When you call 0611, the client enters his home CC and passes identification. If operator assistance is required, the call is transmitted to the distributed contact center. On average, a distributed contact center handles about 300 thousand calls per day.
The system evaluates the load of "home" and neighboring contact centers to transfer the call to where it will answer faster. At the same time, not only a free operator is sought, but also an operator with the most suitable qualifications for the client (based on the analysis of geography and data mining results according to the tariff plan and a set of connected services). If there are no free operators in principle, the system searches for the contact center with the shortest waiting time and places the call in the queue there.
To make it easier for the operator to orient in information, each center serves no more than 4 customer regions, and each region is distributed to no more than 4 contact centers. The result is a chain that allows you to maintain the same load, distributed throughout the system. The fact is that if in one of the regions there is a peak load, calls from it are transferred to neighboring ones. If neighbors are also loaded, home calls from them are sent to other contact centers and so on.
In order for the entire system to work optimally, a unification of tools is needed: CTI (Computer Telephony Integration), outbound dialing tools, knowledge base, CRM, and so on.
For example, CTI initially allowed an employee to switch customer calls to other departments or an answering machine-IVR only of its CPC. After the introduction of the distribution of calls to the operator, it was necessary to independently determine the customers' area before switching, after which it was necessary to choose the right direction for switching, which led to an increase in the time of dialogue with the customer. To fix this, a module for determining the region of the client was added to CTI, and it became enough for the operator to select only the subject of the switch: the system then routed the call to the desired city or the required system.
Initially, in each contact center, the outgoing dialing schedule was planned on its own and implemented using local applications. The monitoring officer on duty KC monitored the implementation of accessibility indicators on incoming calls and when there was an excess of resources, transferred employees from incoming calls to outgoing calls. Such an approach gave quite good results, but after uniting into a single network of contact centers, the monitoring officer lost the opportunity to make such decisions on his own because he did not see what was happening in the other centers. To solve the problem, a single resource for outbound dialing was developed, in which applications are formed in one queue.
Resource planning is also centralized. Resource management uses the WFM (workforce management) system. The scheduling process consists of several stages:
To make a forecast of calls, the system takes as a basis historical data for the last two months on the number of calls from customers in each region. These data are superimposed by the coefficients of seasonal activity of customers, the impact of mass disruptions and marketing campaigns, plus other data mining results. The result is a single forecast for the upcoming week, the resolution of which is 15 minutes, and the accuracy is about 99%.
The employee finds out the schedule of his days off and working days for a month, and the exact schedule of shifts a week before the beginning of the period, it is also formed with a discreteness of 15 minutes. Not only the time for receiving calls is planned, but also non-ringing activities, additional functionality, breaks and dinners. The operator knows in advance what time he will receive calls, what time he will go for lunch, and what time he will have a conversation with the manager. Instead of deep analysis of other breaks, the system simply takes into account their creative and spontaneous nature and lays a small "margin of safety" (15 minutes) on them.
When scheduling each operator can leave their preferences for the upcoming period, the system will strive to fulfill maximum preferences so that there is no negative impact on the availability of the contact center. Such planning in the conditions of a distributed system provides operators with additional benefits: for example, in the case when only one contact center is working, 80% of staff cannot be transferred to morning shifts, and in the case of merging several CUs, this becomes possible. Currently, ~ 60% of wishes are fulfilled in shifts.
Each contact center has a monitoring department plus in Moscow there is a central monitoring service.
The main tasks of monitoring:
Monitoring is also responsible for organizing events in emergency situations:
The central monitoring service coordinates the activities of regional monitoring, controls the correctness of the distribution of calls between the centers, and develops systems for centralized service, monitoring, reporting and planning.
Usually, this building is close to the city center so that operators can comfortably get to work. Most often in the same building are other divisions of the company in the region. Affiliation of an object is rarely advertised, usually - just hanging a small sign.
The most numerous center in Nizhny Novgorod, today it employs about 600 operators. The smallest is in Perm, there are only about 100 people there. At the same time, up to 2600 operators can receive calls on all contact centers.
Inside there is a dining room and a lounge. The seats are separated by sound-absorbing partitions. When an employee comes to work, he can sit down at any free space, but usually there is a tacit agreement between all operators who sits where and where, therefore, places are usually equipped. The first shift takes place at about 7 am, 100% filling of places occurs by 16 hours (at this time the largest number of calls arrives). If the operator is open until 23-00 and later, the company takes him home by taxi or bus. After 02-00, only “night” operators remain, of which there are quite a few (about 100 people for all CC). The standard shift is 9 hours, but if desired, the operator can choose 12 and 4 hours shifts. For a standard shift, an employee takes about 200 calls and spends almost 75% of his working time in conversation with a client.
The transition to centralized service has increased the efficiency of contact center resources by 14% overall, plus significantly increasing the system’s resistance to peak loads.
PS April 18 will be a tour of all contact centers in Russia. Here is an event on Habré , where there are contacts to participate. In Moscow, the tour will lead just me.
Initially, each contact center served its own region, so it turned out that the load between them was not balanced at all: with a peak load in one center it was impossible to use the free capacity of the other.
')
Today, Beeline has 12 contact centers, in which more than 3 thousand people work. Contact centers are located in 4 different time zones, the distance between the most remote is 9000 kilometers. The topic describes how we combined them into one “cloud” system and at the same time facilitated the training of the girl who you liked so much.
Like a cloud, only a call center
In 2007, a new concept of a distributed contact center appeared. It would seem that there is nothing easier than creating one queue of clients and transferring them between the centers, but this is not as easy as it sounds. Here are the difficulties:
- Technical. Directing traffic, for example, from Sakhalin to Moscow, and then returning a call to an operator in the Far East is an irrational use of network resources.
- Human The operator will have to memorize the features of service in each region, which will either reduce the quality of service or increase the training time at times.
All branches are divided into 9 large groups assigned to home contact centers. When you call 0611, the client enters his home CC and passes identification. If operator assistance is required, the call is transmitted to the distributed contact center. On average, a distributed contact center handles about 300 thousand calls per day.
The system evaluates the load of "home" and neighboring contact centers to transfer the call to where it will answer faster. At the same time, not only a free operator is sought, but also an operator with the most suitable qualifications for the client (based on the analysis of geography and data mining results according to the tariff plan and a set of connected services). If there are no free operators in principle, the system searches for the contact center with the shortest waiting time and places the call in the queue there.
To make it easier for the operator to orient in information, each center serves no more than 4 customer regions, and each region is distributed to no more than 4 contact centers. The result is a chain that allows you to maintain the same load, distributed throughout the system. The fact is that if in one of the regions there is a peak load, calls from it are transferred to neighboring ones. If neighbors are also loaded, home calls from them are sent to other contact centers and so on.
Automation
In order for the entire system to work optimally, a unification of tools is needed: CTI (Computer Telephony Integration), outbound dialing tools, knowledge base, CRM, and so on.
For example, CTI initially allowed an employee to switch customer calls to other departments or an answering machine-IVR only of its CPC. After the introduction of the distribution of calls to the operator, it was necessary to independently determine the customers' area before switching, after which it was necessary to choose the right direction for switching, which led to an increase in the time of dialogue with the customer. To fix this, a module for determining the region of the client was added to CTI, and it became enough for the operator to select only the subject of the switch: the system then routed the call to the desired city or the required system.
Initially, in each contact center, the outgoing dialing schedule was planned on its own and implemented using local applications. The monitoring officer on duty KC monitored the implementation of accessibility indicators on incoming calls and when there was an excess of resources, transferred employees from incoming calls to outgoing calls. Such an approach gave quite good results, but after uniting into a single network of contact centers, the monitoring officer lost the opportunity to make such decisions on his own because he did not see what was happening in the other centers. To solve the problem, a single resource for outbound dialing was developed, in which applications are formed in one queue.
Resource planning
Resource planning is also centralized. Resource management uses the WFM (workforce management) system. The scheduling process consists of several stages:
- Each contact center prepares a forecast of calls and information about operators (number of agents, sick-lists, operators' preferences) of their region.
- All information is consolidated.
- The distribution of the schedule for each operator starts.
To make a forecast of calls, the system takes as a basis historical data for the last two months on the number of calls from customers in each region. These data are superimposed by the coefficients of seasonal activity of customers, the impact of mass disruptions and marketing campaigns, plus other data mining results. The result is a single forecast for the upcoming week, the resolution of which is 15 minutes, and the accuracy is about 99%.
Operator's schedule
The employee finds out the schedule of his days off and working days for a month, and the exact schedule of shifts a week before the beginning of the period, it is also formed with a discreteness of 15 minutes. Not only the time for receiving calls is planned, but also non-ringing activities, additional functionality, breaks and dinners. The operator knows in advance what time he will receive calls, what time he will go for lunch, and what time he will have a conversation with the manager. Instead of deep analysis of other breaks, the system simply takes into account their creative and spontaneous nature and lays a small "margin of safety" (15 minutes) on them.
When scheduling each operator can leave their preferences for the upcoming period, the system will strive to fulfill maximum preferences so that there is no negative impact on the availability of the contact center. Such planning in the conditions of a distributed system provides operators with additional benefits: for example, in the case when only one contact center is working, 80% of staff cannot be transferred to morning shifts, and in the case of merging several CUs, this becomes possible. Currently, ~ 60% of wishes are fulfilled in shifts.
Monitoring
Each contact center has a monitoring department plus in Moscow there is a central monitoring service.
The main tasks of monitoring:
- Control over compliance with the modes of work of employees of their center (exclusion of delays, definition of long dialogues, and so on).
- Analysis of the reasons for customers in their region, identifying customer problems (dynamics of requests on topics, changes in the total time the operator’s dialogue with the customer).
- Incident management - in case of detection of a problem, the monitoring officer organizes the collection of necessary examples characterizing the problem and opens the Trouble Ticket, accompanies the Trouble Ticket in the course of its life (providing additional information, confirming closure).
Monitoring is also responsible for organizing events in emergency situations:
- Enable autoresponders for mass crashes;
- Sending dialogue scenarios on the current situation (for example, found phrases that allow you to accurately determine the problem);
- Attracting calls to employees involved in additional activities (meetings, trainings, outgoing calls);
- Attraction to receive calls from employees of related departments.
The central monitoring service coordinates the activities of regional monitoring, controls the correctness of the distribution of calls between the centers, and develops systems for centralized service, monitoring, reporting and planning.
What does a regional call center look like?
Usually, this building is close to the city center so that operators can comfortably get to work. Most often in the same building are other divisions of the company in the region. Affiliation of an object is rarely advertised, usually - just hanging a small sign.
The most numerous center in Nizhny Novgorod, today it employs about 600 operators. The smallest is in Perm, there are only about 100 people there. At the same time, up to 2600 operators can receive calls on all contact centers.
Inside there is a dining room and a lounge. The seats are separated by sound-absorbing partitions. When an employee comes to work, he can sit down at any free space, but usually there is a tacit agreement between all operators who sits where and where, therefore, places are usually equipped. The first shift takes place at about 7 am, 100% filling of places occurs by 16 hours (at this time the largest number of calls arrives). If the operator is open until 23-00 and later, the company takes him home by taxi or bus. After 02-00, only “night” operators remain, of which there are quite a few (about 100 people for all CC). The standard shift is 9 hours, but if desired, the operator can choose 12 and 4 hours shifts. For a standard shift, an employee takes about 200 calls and spends almost 75% of his working time in conversation with a client.
Summary
The transition to centralized service has increased the efficiency of contact center resources by 14% overall, plus significantly increasing the system’s resistance to peak loads.
PS April 18 will be a tour of all contact centers in Russia. Here is an event on Habré , where there are contacts to participate. In Moscow, the tour will lead just me.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/141850/
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