Xexon7 is a specialist artificial intelligence (AI) development firm that develops algorithms for various online services. As part of its client service, it has a small (10-person) helpdesk call centre to answer client queries. Clients can 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 and 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’ (Binita Das, Help Desk Manager). Binita is, overall, pleased with the way in which her operation works. However, she feels that a more systematic approach could be taken to identifying improvement opportunities.

‘I need to develop a logical approach to identifying how we can invest into 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?