CEGA’s 130-agent contact center is a busy and complicated operation. It consists of two separate groups—a medical screening team and a claims department—which serve different purposes and operate different hours. Medical screening agents operate from 8 a.m. until 9 p.m, seven days per week, and handle calls from people wanting to make sure they’re covered medically before taking out a new insurance product, or needing to update a preexisting condition or add a new condition to their existing policy. Claims agents, on the other hand, handle inquiries regarding new losses or existing claims, and take calls 24/7.

CEGA contact center leaders had assigned their agents an ambitious goal: pay out claims on the first call. But they quickly found that a variety of challenges jeopardized the attainment of that goal.

All agents maintained a long average call handling time of over nine minutes. Call volumes were seasonal—winter volumes averaged 600-700 calls per day, but summer call volumes often rose to 1,300 calls per day. In addition, agent shift patterns were varied and complicated, and the rostering process was a manual, time-intensive one.

If they wanted to meet their claims goal while maintaining high levels of customer service and staff engagement, CEGA contact center leaders knew they needed a new workforce management (WFM) platform that was automated, highly flexible and could support the 24/7 nature of their operations amidst a global, constantly changing travel risk landscape.

With Calabrio WFM, managers are in complete control of their contact center environment even when away from their desks. They can build complicated rosters with ease, publish them using real-time data and share them months in advance.

They also can compare agent schedules as they happen—from tablets or other mobile devices—and make appropriate adjustments on the move. Clear visibility of intraday activities and real-time adherence also lets them schedule team or 1:1 meetings to occur during quiet periods.

In addition, agents receive automatic pop-ups on their desktop that remind them when to take breaks or go to lunch, and confirm any shift changes they requested earlier. And, a new agent leaderboard leverages gamification elements to publicly reward top performers for their hard work and success.

With Calabrio WFM, CEGA has streamlined its rostering processes, and gained tangible time and cost savings. Smarter forecasting and preparedness mean breaks, lunches and holidays happen at the right time, and minimize the risk of insufficient resources being staffed during times of heavy call volumes.

All staff feel empowered to take control of their time—both at work and home—thanks to the new self-service capabilities, advance notice of allocated shifts and increased performance transparency that Calabrio provides. All staff also can identify trends and pinpoint areas for potential improvement by using Calabrio’s historical view of contact center activity.

Agent engagement has grown, with agents appreciating the flexibility and level of control they now have—they can take ownership of their rosters, check and swap shifts, and even book their holidays quickly, from home, with very little management intervention.

Leaders have also found that the automatic notifications and improved real-time adherence enabled by Calabrio have had a calming effect on their day-to-day contact center operations. They’ve also saved several thousands of dollars previously spent on “fall-back” payments—fixed fees paid to agents so they would be on call in case other agents called in sick—once Calabrio revealed these payments were no longer necessary.