MPC Call Center Redefines Traditional Staffing Models

New York, NY, December 05, 2008 --(PR.com)-- Cecile Williams, General Manager of New York’s MPC Call Center has always been a pioneer in the industry. Miss Williams having spent most of her life operating 24 hour operations knows the most challenging task at hand is staffing. Beyond the obvious difficulties that United States call centers encounter, there is a mathematical science involved in when and how much staff is needed. Most call centers are challenged with a balancing act between understaffing and overstaffing. Running a one of the nation’s most respected l call center operation means continuously crunching numbers. Williams must make sure that every hour of the day has ample staff to handle calls while eliminating operator down time. Since more than sixty percent of call center budget is allocated personnel, staffing is the number one concern in any call center operation.

Williams has thrown out the window the traditional methods for calculating staffing and has developed systematic process that creates a balance between service and operational costs. While there is several call center traffic engineering philosophies that exist, MPC Call Center has circumvented the problem by creating an overflow system that utilizes several United States based call centers within the MPC family, to help handle calls during peak times. These services usually are based in different time zones helping MPC to manage time of day traffic. In addition, Williams has assigned two “on call” supervisors each night, who are able to answer calls at a remote location on an as needed basis. This staff comes in handy when unpredictable traffic occurs.

While most centers are not able to process calls generated form television advertising and infomercials, MPC has relied on the resources of flex scheduling, allowing operators to work short, specified shifts to handle targeted.

Cecile Williams’ idea utilizes the same service that MPC provides to other in house call center; overflow call center services. By having overflow options in place MPC is able to maximize it’s personnel budget which allows a savings cost to be passed onto the end user. Williams feels it is important to run a lean, but efficiently run operation. This allows the calls to be answered here in the United States as opposed to overseas. It also enables cost efficiency. Williams stated that call center clients are the people paying unnecessary salaries that go to pay for poorly staffed shifts. Efficiency experts in the industry have taken notice also. MPC actually has begun to act as an overflow center for many of it’s competitors.

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