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Monitoring at Global Bilgi Contact Center: How We Help Optimize Our Clients’ Costs

Contact Center Monitoring Services

How do you envision the operation of a contact center? Agents sit at computers with headphones and microphones, fielding consumer calls. However, underneath the perceived simplicity lurks a multitude of processes. These include task planning, scheduling agent shifts, evaluating their performance, ensuring they reach efficiency targets, and much more. All of these processes must work together as a well-coordinated mechanism because the major goal for outsourcing contact center clients is to maximize cost efficiency. Monitoring is crucial to cost optimization.

What is Monitoring in a Contact Center?

Monitoring in a contact center is the systematic observation of specific processes to gather information about their state and dynamics. It involves collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data to make informed decisions. “What kind of decisions?” you might ask. To answer this, imagine a large contact center with hundreds of agents. Each of them works a certain number of hours daily. Each requires time for breaks, training, or education. They all need days off and vacations and occasionally need to adjust their work hours.

At the same time, the outsourcing client has their own requirements, including high-quality service for their customers, meeting defined KPIs, and, most importantly, rational cost management. No one wants to pay for inefficient use of agents’ work hours.

The Purpose of the Monitoring Department at Global Bilgi

The Monitoring Department at Global Bilgi is part of the PRM (Planning, Reporting & Monitoring) department. Its purpose is to track, control, and coordinate workflows to optimize the client’s costs and achieve the best efficiency metrics for the contact center’s performance.

Below, we will share the key functions of the Monitoring Department at Global Bilgi. We are confident that this will help you understand the importance of monitoring processes and make the right choice if you are currently selecting an outsourcing contact center partner for your business. Let’s start from the beginning!

Monitoring in a Contact Center: Communication is the Key to Success!

In a large contact center, timely and accurate communication between departments is crucial. Those responsible for specific processes must stay informed about the current situation to make appropriate decisions. Monitoring specialists, who oversee these processes, act as the connection between agents, team leads (group supervisors), project managers, and departments such as HR, operational planning, performance management, and others.

You may be interested: 5 Reasons to Choose Contact Center Outsourcing in Ukraine

Monitoring and Controlling the Use of AUX Codes

First, what is “AUX codes”? In the context of a contact center agent’s work, “auxiliary” refers to the time when the agent is not handling incoming calls or other customer inquiries. This could include training, lunch, breaks, meetings, etc. In other words, it is the time when the agent is unavailable for customer interactions.

On one hand, using AUX codes can enhance agents’ work processes by allowing them to rest and maintain efficiency and productivity throughout the workday. On the other hand, overuse or misuse of these codes can lead to inefficient use of working hours.

The tasks of monitoring specialists at Global Bilgi’s contact center include:

  • Monitoring the frequency and duration of agents’ AUX codes usage.
  • Notifying the operations department about any misuse of AUX codes.

Based on monitoring specialists’ reports, team leads conduct individual explanatory sessions with agents and ensure adherence to the norms and standards for using work statuses.

Additionally, at the request of monitoring specialists, AUX usage can be restricted or temporarily suspended depending on business needs (e.g., high workloads, long queues, etc.). All of this ensures the efficient use of agents’ working hours.

Monitoring the Shift Exchange Process for Agents

There are times when an agent needs to adjust their working hours or faces unforeseen circumstances preventing them from fulfilling their scheduled hours. To maintain workflow continuity, the agent must “swap shifts” with another agent. At Global Bilgi’s contact center, this process is automated using specialized WFM ShiftSwapper software. Thanks to this contact center solution, agents can independently exchange shifts, minimizing the involvement of team leads and project managers. The monitoring department’s responsibility is to oversee, verify, and assist with shift exchanges within the ShiftSwapper system.

Real-Time Load Monitoring in the Contact Center

The contact center’s monitoring team oversees real-time workload management according to the weekly workload plan and performance goals. In cases of high workload, a written alert is issued to inform all participants about the unstable situation.

An unstable situation, or “Alarm Zone,” occurs when key metrics deviate sharply from the norm for 15–20 minutes. Depending on the project, these metrics may include SLA (Service Level Agreement), ASA (Average Speed of Answer), AR (Answer Rate), AHT (Average Handling Time), and others.

When an Alarm Zone arises, the monitoring specialist or assistant takes the following actions:

  • Proposes that agents work additional hours.
  • Extends shifts (Shift Prolongation).
  • Initiates early login — starting a scheduled shift earlier than planned.
  • Ensures compliance with alarm process management rules and regulations.
  • Implements other actions as necessary.

Launching Additional Motivation Programs

Extraordinary and crisis situations can lead to short- or long-term increases in workload for a contact center. Monitoring specialists collect and analyze data on the current situation. Together with the head of the benefits and compensation department, they can initiate additional motivation programs to encourage agents to take on extra shifts. The tasks of the monitoring specialist in the contact center include:

  • Analyzing risks that may lead to the loss of key KPIs.
  • Calculating the number of additional agent-hours needed to manage the workload.
  • Coordinating the launch of the motivation program with the director of the operations planning and performance management department.
  • Monitoring agents’ working hours under the additional motivation program.

Monitoring Force Majeure and Crisis Situations

We’ve previously written about our unique crisis management experience for call centers and highly recommend reading that article. Here, we want to reaffirm that force majeure and crises happen and, unfortunately, can severely damage your business’s reputation. At Global Bilgi’s contact center, the monitoring team is responsible for action plans during critical situations. Their duties include:

  • Risk analysis to identify factors that may lead to the loss of the contact center’s key KPIs in non-standard situations.
  • Informing representatives of the operations and IT departments about force majeure.
  • Notifying relevant company staff.

For this, Global Bilgi uses the Problem Bulletin procedure. This is an informational bulletin that describes the issue and specifies the time it began. The contact center’s monitoring specialist oversees the problem resolution process, sends updates to all relevant departments and individuals, and communicates with project managers to align overall actions. The Problem Bulletin procedure is repeated until the issue is resolved. This approach significantly reduces business risks for outsourcing clients during crises.

Monitoring Absenteeism in the Contact Center

An agent’s daily work in the contact center begins with logging into the system. But what happens if an employee is absent for their shift? How do you respond when they log in 20 minutes after their scheduled start time? Or even an hour late? Monitoring specialists track and record all such cases.

Absenteeism in contact centers measures the percentage of staff who are not present during their scheduled shifts. Managing absenteeism is critical to ensuring optimal performance and delivering exceptional customer service.

Absenteeism—or an employee’s absence from their workplace (or shift)—is regulated by policies that record the reasons for absence, late arrival times, as well as the scheduled and actually worked hours.

Each instance of absenteeism is assigned a specific status explaining the reason for the employee’s absence. Statistics are logged in the reporting system, and a special formula is used to calculate the absenteeism percentage, which is included in reports for accurate payroll processing. Monitoring specialists are responsible for ensuring the proper use of the control system in this process. They can:

  • Accept adjustment requests from team leaders.
  • Perform control checks of statuses twice during the calculation period.
  • Approve the final version of the absenteeism report for the calculation period.

Global Bilgi’s outsourced contact center assumes full responsibility for tracking, recording, and analyzing cases of absenteeism, late arrivals, and actual working hours. This provides the outsourcing client with effective timekeeping control and minimizes losses associated with absenteeism.

Conclusion

Thanks to comprehensive monitoring of all aspects of contact center operations, Global Bilgi ensures maximum resource efficiency and cost optimization for clients. We carefully monitor agents’ worked hours, AUX status usage, shift exchanges, and workload to prevent unproductive expenses and achieve key performance indicators.

Our monitoring system not only controls but also responds promptly to any changes in the workflow, including force majeure situations and cases of absenteeism. This guarantees stable contact center operations and uninterrupted client service, minimizing risks and potential losses.

Global Bilgi is a reliable and responsible partner, providing transparency and control at every stage of cooperation. We offer clients complete information about contact center operations and guarantee high-quality service, contributing to the strengthening of their business’s reputation and success. To learn more about the cost of outsourcing a contact center with Global Bilgi, fill out the feedback form, and our representative will contact you at your convenience.

About author

Фахівець з маркетингу компанії Global Bilgi
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