4 Xexon7 is a specialist artificial intelligence (AI) development firm that develops algorithms for various on-line services. As part of its client services it has a small (10 person) help-desk call centre to answer client queries.

Clients could contact them from anywhere in the world at any time of the day or night with a query. Demand at any point in time is fairly predictable, especially during the (European) daytime. Demand during the night hours (Asia and the Americas) is considerably lower than in the daytime and also less predictable. ‘Most of the time we forecast demand pretty accurately, so we can schedule the correct number of employees to staff the work stations. There is still some risk, of course. Scheduling too many staff at any point in time will waste money and increase our costs, while scheduling too few will reduce the quality and response of the service we give.’ (Peter Fisher, Help Desk Manager) Peter was, overall, pleased with the way in which his operation worked. However, he felt that a more systematic approach could be taken to identifying improvement opportunities. ‘I need to develop a logical approach to identify how we can invest in improving things like sophisticated diagnostic systems. We need to both reduce our operating costs and maintain, and even improve, our customer service.’

What are the trade-offs that must be managed in this type of call centre?