Forecasting
Accuracy Matters
An accurate forecast is the foundation of any good schedule. Without precision forecasts of customer demand – whether contact center calls, branch visits, or any other measure – a scheduling tool is only making a guess at how many employees are needed to meet the demand. An accurate forecast ensures a business schedules the right people in the right place at the right time.
GMT provides accurate forecasting of demand for each part of the business for each day of week and time of day. GMT translates the forecast volume to the staffing requirement that is needed to meet desired service and sales goals.
The Industry’s Most Precise Forecasting
GMT’s patent-pending forecasting algorithms and methodologies are the most accurate in the industry with clients reporting up to 99% accuracy. Studies show that even a 1% difference in accuracy can result in large differences in cost and service level performance.
GMT’s forecasting tools provide comprehensive support for:
- Forecasting of multiple event types such as branch transactions, call volumes, non-call work, product sales, and so on. If you can count it, GMT can forecast it.
- Inclusion of large number of causal factors that can impact future demand forecasts such as historical data, seasonal trends, weather conditions, and unique local conditions.
- Calculation of forecasts at multiple levels of organization from the whole enterprise to each unique branch, position, queue or skill.
- Forecast for low-volume, time-intensive transactions such as new accounts.
- Forecasting for different time periods including annually, quarterly, monthly, daily and interval-level.
GMT Planet interfaces with customer database systems to extract the data required to build forecasts. GMT leverages an extensive library of pre-built interfaces with leading bank teller systems and leading contact center ACD switches.
Campaign Forecasting for Contact Centers
GMT also offers campaign forecasting for contact center customers. History-based forecasting is great as long as history will predict the future. But when a cataloguer sends out a million more catalogs this year compared to last year and sends them out a week later or earlier (and the economy has picked up from last year), history-based forecasting just isn’t enough. GMT’s campaign forecasting produces detailed call forecasts based on the marketing department’s projections of sales, conversion rates and/or customer contacts.
Intra-Day Forecasting for Contact Centers
When calls trend heavy or light or network problems increase call times, GMT’s precision intra-day reforecasting provides a just-in-time picture of how that trend effects the rest of the day and the near future. Customers using GMT’s intra-day reforecasting maintain better service level in the face of volatile demand or call handle times. Visibility of short-term changes enable customers to use GMT Planet’s scheduling tools to re-plan staffing allocations, whether it means canceling meetings or adding additional training during unexpected slow-downs.
