User Capacities: What Works Best?

Quick links in this article:

In Gnatta, user capacity can be defined as a total, and per channel. Unlike other software, that means you can control at the user-level how your assignation logic fits together - you can begin to think of your teams and queues differently, and more dynamically. In this article, we’ll explore a typical use case that works for many contact centres.

Default settings

By default users will have a total capacity of 3, and the following per-channel limits:

Open

Default user capacities

This means the user can be assigned a maximum of 3 interactions on their radar at once, but those 3 interactions could be from any of the channels listed. They can only receive one voice call at a time. This might look like:

• 3 SMS interactions, OR

• 1 Voice Call + 2 Emails, OR

• 1 Facebook + 1 Webchat + 1 Voice Call

• etc!

Most organisations opt to impose a limit on webchat, to avoid users becoming overwhelmed. You can also control the mix of channels an agent receives by setting other limits - for example, if you want a particular user (like a trainee) to only manage emails, but you don’t want to change the queueing logic for your domain.

Edit the capacity limits of user by channel by selecting the Set Capacities button.

Open

Set user capacities to limit the channels they work on, and how much work they can receive

Our recommendation

The way you set up your user capacities will totally change how your team deals with work; understanding capacities, and what blend of contacts works best is essential to effective use of Gnatta. The good news is that we have experience with hundreds of implementations across all sectors and operations, and have collated a list of the best user capacity setups you can use.

To get started, navigate to Configuration > Settings > Users and teams > Select a user. Then, click Set capacities.

The capacity you need is different depending on the type of contacts and skills your advisor has. There are two main things to think about:

1. Is it a live or non-live channel?

2. What priority is that channel?

The challenge with user capacity is balancing the right number of queries, without overloading users so much that it impacts on priority. For example, if your webchat limit is set to 1, but agents also have 9 emails assigned, they may be too distracted to focus on their live interaction (the webchat) - or vice versa!

In the table below, we’ve listed some best-practice strategies you could apply to your users. It’s likely you’ll need to apply different strategies for different users depending on their experience and skill. For example, we’d suggest using the Non-Live Only strategy for trainees, so they’re only ever presented with 1 or 2 interactions from non-live channels, such as email or social media. This means they’ll have plenty of time to read and understand the interaction before replying.

Leveraging less important work

The best way to maximise productive time using the blended strategies above is to think about work that can be assigned to your team that is less urgent, and relatively simply to do. For example, assigning live agents 5* TrustPilot reviews to backfill their time with - it’s not urgent to respond to all 5* reviews, but while an advisor has a break in chats, or is on hold etc., then they can handle these interactions and fill in those gaps in productivity. You can do this with less urgent emails, back-office tasks or any non live contact.

You’ll need to set the user capacity a little higher, to perhaps 4 or 5, to make sure there’s room for agents to be assigned everything they need - but make it clear during training which channel is priority!

Less is more

Whilst it feels strange to have your team only dealing with a total capacity of 1 or 2 interactions at a time on Non-Live channels, trust us, it works! Based on strong feedback from agents, having too many interactions assigned at once creates a feeling of overwhelm, even if all the interactions are from Non-Live channels. Agents get a sense of never making any headway, and become bogged down in their work. They may attempt to solve all of the interactions simultaneously, resulting in mistakes or data protection errors.