Customer Success
Worldspan | Print |

A leading provider of travel technology resources

Georgia-based Worldspan is a leading provider of technology resources for travel suppliers, travel agencies, e-commerce sites and corporations worldwide. Worldspan provides comprehensive electronic data services that enable consumers to search and book travel and travel-related services from approximately 800 suppliers around the globe. This dynamic, 24/7 organization relied on the TotalView Workforce Management system from IEX Corporation to streamline processes within its customer contact center and deliver significant operational results.

Image“We required a tool that would make forecasting and scheduling customer contact center employees more efficient,” said Worldspan manager - Business Process Re-engineering, Raida Douglas. “TotalView had all the features we needed to not only improve our forecasting and scheduling processes, but increase overall customer contact center efficiency as well.”

Prior to implementing TotalView, Worldspan went through a painstaking and time-consuming process of generating forecasts and employee schedules manually. Three times a year, management spent nearly a week evaluating daily, weekly and monthly historical statistics to forecast activity. Schedules were then developed based on data from those forecasts. In addition, because this manual process could not capture the relevant data required to develop work schedules based on performance, premium time slots were awarded to employees based solely on seniority.

TotalView Workforce Management automated this process, producing considerably more accurate forecasts and better schedules while significantly reducing the time and effort required to develop them. Using TotalView, Worldspan now generates forecasts and updates schedules on a monthly basis. TotalView also captures data that enables Worldspan to provide premium schedule slots as an incentive to high-performing help desk professionals rather than relying on seniority entitlement.

Forecasting & Scheduling

Worldspan now reviews forecasts and staffing schedules regularly to ensure the company remains focused on meeting service level and operational objectives. “With the effectiveness of our current workforce management practices, we can do more with less,” Douglas said. “And there hasn’t been an adverse impact on our service levels.

“TotalView enables us to forecast our call volumes based on historical data and then to make more informed decisions about workforce requirements,” Douglas added. Worldspan attributes savings of more than $420,000 in man-hours to forecasting improvements made possible by the TotalView system.”

Real-Time Adherence

Worldspan also uses the TotalView Real-Time Adherence feature to further enhance its service quality. Real-Time Adherence lets supervisors quickly determine what their staff is doing at any moment during the day. If service levels begin to slip due to an unexpected influx of calls, this feature helps supervisors identify agents to take out of training projects and other activities to assist with handling calls.

“With Real-Time Adherence we can see the current status of our entire operation at a glance,” Douglas said. “We believe improvements in adherence rates have a direct effect on productivity and customer service.” With the TotalView Real-Time Adherence feature, Worldspan was able to exceed its goal of 90 percent adherence with an average of 93 percent adherence for all help desk professionals.

WebStation

Worldspan attributes a large share of its improvement in adherence to the recent addition of the TotalView WebStation feature.

“WebStation helps agents manage their schedules and lets them take ownership of their adherence achievements,” Douglas said. Help desk professionals who consistently meet their performance objectives now get the first shot at premium shifts. They also have access to a wider range of training opportunities and, more importantly, help desk professionals are rewarded for their achievements, not on seniority.

Overall Results

Worldspan realized significant gains in agent productivity and reductions in labor costs as a result of implementing TotalView Workforce Management. Forecasting and scheduling improvements coupled with increased attention of help desk professionals to their schedules, have also enabled average speed of answer (ASA) time reductions of 50 percent in their operation.

For more information about Worldspan, visit www.worldspan.com.

Benefits

  • Saved more than $420,000 in labor costs
  • Reduced ASA by 50 percent
  • Achieved 93 percent schedule adherence by help desk professionals (exceeded 90 percent goal)
“TotalView enables us to forecast our call volumes based on historical data and then to make more informed decisions about workforce requirements.”
Raida Douglas - Worldspan L.P.