Hi Bob,
Unfortunately due to the nature of the bullseye method. WFM support is mathematically not possible as bullseye is effectively moving the interaction target based on those rings from one forecast/schedule group to the next. Modelling that real world / environment behavior when its very much 'in the moment' creates some extremely large challenges that mathematically doesn't resolve.
How bullseye works..
Routes interactions to a queue using the pre-attached skills from a flow. If no agents are available after a set period of time, skill requirements are relaxed, and the pool of evaluated agents is expanded. This effectively creates a new, sub-queue of agents, for which no forecast has been created.
What is the purpose of WFM..
Forecast Interaction Volume and Staffing requirements to match customer demand with employee skills and knowledge to provide superior customer experience.
The bigger picture..
Within Genesys Cloud Workforce Management we have the notion of a planning group. A planning group is a discrete combination of
Queue, Media, Language and Skill(s). Planning groups are usually a 1:1 match with a routing path (the matching combination) however can be merged together to create larger groups if 100% of the employee population are matched. More info
here.
The implication here is across the wider CX engagement strategy.
The net result is we end up with a disconnected experience when leveraging bullseye. While the initial target is fine, the subsequent rings themselves are also valid planning groups. As the interactions cascade from ring 1 to ring n the underlying target location is changing.
As such its recommended that our customers use ACD Routing with Best Skills Matching to get even more capability from the platform. This combination is a combination that is designed to work with Workforce Management. The notion is fairly straight forward.
Bullseye: Moves interactions to where employees are available
ACD Routing: Moves interactions through ranks of preferences to find an available employee
The net benefits of leveraging ACD routing outweigh Bullseye quite dramatically however to leverage this effectively there needs to be the correct support and operationalization of the overall employee structure to make real inroads into these benefits.
Bullseye Considerations
- Harder to adopt Predictive Routing + WEM Suite
- Ignores Employee Knowledge and Capability after Ring 1
- Mathematically Impossible to Simulate for Forecasting
- Ignores Schedule Coverage – WFM Team lose sight of interaction volume
- May distribute interactions to untrained employees
- High Transfer Scenarios are common
ACD Considerations
- Shows True Customer Outcome
- Requires a robust Workforce Management Process across intraday and service level prediction - planning for outcomes is core
- Predictive not Reactive. Works best with a Forecast and Schedule in place
- Discreate Service Impacts on unplanned interactions will occur
- On the day skill changes are detrimental to the outcome
Bullseye Benefits
- Set Design and Flexible Overflow
- Allows Service Level to drive the outcome
- Can be used as a 'safety net' or as a 'escape path' from a high queuing scenario
- Perceived Easy to configure and maintain - however pushes complexity elsewhere
- Allows for the traditional 'overflow' logic
ACD Benefits
- Route effectively based on actual skills, capability, and knowledge
- Change Skills when Knowledge is achieved
- Customer will always reach an employee who has the knowledge to service the customer
- Allows training and development to focus on customer outcomes
- Take advantage of the full WEM Suite from Gamification, Coaching and Workforce Management
The end result is a much tighter ecosystem across Routing and WFM, with direct ties back to how employees are trained, coached and guided to improve their performance. It does require more upfront planning and does require organizations to think about the role of the employee however the upside is that the system can perform its duties without the traditional needs of managing load, moving skills around to support service levels and the like.
The net result also sets up the organization to be a consumer of
Predictive Routing. This configuration looking at the overall customer and employee profile with links back to how the employee is onboard, trained, coached, developed and measured creates a much richer ecosystem of engagement and will drive improved CX.
Cheers
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Cameron Smith
VP, Product Management - Workforce Engagement Management
cameron.smith@genesys.com------------------------------