Productivity 
Finding the right staffing balance can be challenging due to fluctuating call volumes, agent availability, and ever-evolving customer demands. That’s where Nextiva Workforce Scheduling steps in, bringing powerful automation to help businesses maximize efficiency and profitability.
What Is Nextiva Workforce Scheduling?
Nextiva Workforce Scheduling is part of the Nextiva Workforce Engagement Management (WEM) ecosystem. It leverages advanced automation to simplify the complexities of staff forecasting and scheduling. Analyzing historical data helps businesses optimize agent schedules and meet Service Level Agreements (SLAs) without breaking the bank.
The Problems Nextiva Workforce Scheduling Solves
Control staffing costs 💰
Rising labor expenses are a common challenge for contact centers. Overstaffing increases operational costs, while understaffing leads to long hold times and poor customer experiences. In fact, ineffective staffing can increase costs by as much as 20% for a typical call center (Sequence Health), and understaffing can lead to call abandonment rates that further damage revenue and customer retention (GetVoIP).
Nextiva Workforce Scheduler uses historical data to forecast the exact number of agents needed at any given time, preventing these costly inefficiencies. Accurately predicting staffing needs ensures that contact centers operate optimally, improving customer service and reducing unnecessary costs.
Enhance customer service 📈
Long wait times are an everyday customer frustration. According to industry standards, around 80% of callers are likely to abandon a call if they are forced to wait on hold for more than 2 minutes (SQM Group).
Nextiva Workforce Scheduling ensures that your team is adequately staffed for anticipated fluctuations in call volumes, helping you exceed customer expectations and deliver Amazing Service.
Enable flexibility for agents 😊
Extended work hours for agents can lead to burnout and decreased performance, which in turn fuels a cycle of turnover. The costs of turnover are extremely high. It’s estimated that losing an employee can cost a company one-half to two times the employee’s salary (Gallup).
Nextiva Workforce Scheduling ensures agents handle a manageable number of calls, get adequate breaks, and have flexible schedules. This not only reduces burnout but also leads to higher productivity and retention.
Key Use Cases
At Nextiva, we collaborate with companies of all sizes across various industries to improve workforce management through our Workforce Scheduling. Here’s how our platform supports different sectors while integrating core capabilities to streamline operations:
Retail call centers
Retail businesses often face seasonal fluctuations in customer inquiries, especially during holidays and promotions. With Nextiva Workforce Scheduler’s forecasting and planning tools, retail managers can predict these surges and plan staffing levels ahead of time. Intraday management features allow real-time tracking of agent performance to adapt to unexpected changes in customer volume.
Healthcare providers
In the healthcare industry, it’s critical to have the right number of staff available to address patient needs, especially during high-demand periods like flu season. Nextiva’s time-off management capabilities help healthcare organizations efficiently manage staff schedules, ensuring balanced coverage by quickly filling in for agents on leave. The scheduler adherence feature ensures optimal staffing, so patient inquiries are handled efficiently.
Financial institutions
Banks and credit unions experience high call volumes during peak times, such as the beginning and end of the month. Nextiva Workforce Scheduler’s real-time adjustments and scheduler adherence features allow supervisors to efficiently monitor and optimize agent availability. This ensures customer inquiries are handled smoothly, even during high-traffic periods, maximizing efficiency and minimizing customer wait times.
Core Capabilities to Enhance Your Workforce Management
- Intraday management: Monitor agent performance and adjust in real time to improve operational efficiency.
- Schedule adherence: Ensure agents follow schedules to reduce downtime and improve productivity.
- Forecasting and planning tools: Predict future staffing needs based on historical trends, ensuring you’re always prepared for busy periods.
- Scheduling and shift bidding: Enable agents to bid on preferred shifts, increasing flexibility while maintaining optimal staffing.
- Time off management: Handle time-off requests seamlessly to maintain adequate staffing without disrupting service levels.
- Mobile app: Allow agents to manage their shifts and schedules from anywhere using their mobile devices, providing flexibility and convenience.
- Agent and supervisor portals: Provide agents and supervisors with access to schedules, performance metrics, and management tools, improving communication and transparency.
- Reporting and dashboards: Gain insights into performance metrics and trends to inform better decision-making and optimize staffing strategies.
By combining these capabilities, Nextiva Workforce Scheduling helps organizations from diverse sectors optimize staffing, improve operational efficiency, and better manage workforce demands in real-time and for future planning.
Ready to See It in Action?
Explore the interactive Nextiva Workforce Scheduling demo, where you can witness firsthand how it helps businesses stay ahead of customer demand and staffing needs.
Visit the Nextiva Workforce Scheduling product page for more details.
