frequently asked questions

Does cc-Modeler Incorporate Shrinkage Factors?

Many call centers still use a 'shrinkage factor' to cater for the effect of agents being away (vacation, sick etc).

This shrinkage factor can be up to 10-15% on top of actual rostering requirements. 

• cc-Modeler works on actual required people ('bums on seats') - we deliberately do not have an embedded 'shrinkage factor' calculation. 

• The reason is that in any one period, things like vacation and absenteeism do not affect every shift equally. They also do not occur evenly from day to day and week to week. 

• Applying a shrinkage percent uplift to all shifts just means you end up with overstaffing in your center (actually quite significant overstaffing in some cases).

• The conclusion is that shrinkage factors are a remnant from a bygone era.

Hint: In cc-Modeler, to analyse the effect on your service performance of one or more agents being away on a particular shift simply select the required shift (on the 'Staffing' tab) and reduce the number of agents by one (or more).