In a contact center, accurately forecasting the expected volume of calls, emails, and messages is crucial for optimizing staffing levels. By anticipating contact volume and converting it into staffing requirements, you can ensure that you have the right number of agents with the necessary skills to handle customer inquiries promptly and efficiently.
Let's dive into the details of how forecasting works with Dialpad WFM.
Who can use this
Dialpad WFM is available to all Dialpad users.
Contact your Customer Success Manager to discuss adding Dialpad WFM to your plan.
What is a forecast?
WFM forecasting is a process used in contact centers to predict the future volume of incoming contacts, such as calls, emails, or chats. By analyzing historical data and identifying trends and patterns, forecasting tools help organizations anticipate the number of interactions they will receive and plan accordingly.
Dialpad's forecasting models analyze your historical data to estimate the number of interactions your team will receive in the next 12 months. Our granular 15-minute forecasting intervals allow for even greater precision when optimizing staffing and ensuring you have the right number of agents online at all times.
How Dialpad WFM forecasts
Dialpad WFM integrates with Dialpad and 9 other CRM or Customer Service Platforms to access data on the volume and frequency of customer calls, emails and messages. Once the integration is set-up, Dialpad WFM will download 24 months of historical data from the system to use for forecasting.
Then, an admin needs to split the pool of data from your integrated system into queues to represent the different Contact Centers, inboxes, queues or channels that your team staffs and serves.
Once queues are created, Dialpad WFM will run the historical time-series data through a machine-learning algorithm to forecast the inbound volume of contacts each queue is expected to receive in each 15 minute interval of every day for the next 12 months.
This inbound volume forecast is then combined with the targets and productivity assumptions in each queue’s settings to produce a coverage requirement, i.e. the number of agents you need to staff to meet your target First Response Time SLA for the forecasted volume.
Dialpad WFM continuously collects new contact data from your integrated CRM and CS platforms every day. Each night, the new data is fed into the machine-learning algorithm to continue improving and extending your forecasts.
Note
If a fractional number of contacts are predicted for an interval (e.g. 1.3) the system will round this to the nearest whole number.
If the number of contacts predicted for an interval is between 0 and 1 (e.g. 0.4), it will be rounded it up to 1 before generating a staffing requirement.
Set up queues
By organizing your calls, emails, or messages into queues, you can accurately forecast the expected contact volume and required staffing for each queue. This allows you to optimize staffing levels and ensures your team is equipped to handle the expected workload.
Queues can be organized based on various criteria, including:
Channel: Group contacts by communication channel (e.g., phone, email, chat).
Team Structure: Categorize contacts based on your team's structure (e.g., sales, support, or language-specific teams).
Customer Segment: Segment contacts based on customer type or priority level.
For Dialpad
Your Dialpad WFM account will be automatically integrated with your Dialpad account, and each of your Voice Contact Centers will be already added as queues.
Navigate to Forecast > Queues.
If there are any Contact Centers that aren’t relevant to your team, you can delete them by selecting the trash icon
.
Review the coverage requirement inputs and operating times of each queue to ensure they accurately reflect how the Contact Center is managed. Refer to this article for a detailed guide.
That’s it! You’re ready to go.
For other integrations
You can integrate 10 different CRM or customer service platforms with Dialpad WFM, allowing you to forecast, schedule and monitor agent performance across all channels.
First, you need to integrate your CRM or customer service platforms. View this article for step-by-step guides for each integration.
Next, you need to create queues that represent each of the inboxes, queues or channels that your team staffs and serves. Refer to this article for a detailed guide.
You’ve now set up all of your systems and you’re ready to forecast.
Viewing your forecasts
To view your forecasts, head to Dialpad WFM.
Select Forecasts > Dedicated queue staffing
Tip
You can change the date, forecast granularity (e.g., 15-minute, hourly, daily) and timezone of your data. Dialpad WFM now displays forecasts in 15 minute intervals by default.
Here, you’ll see two graphs displaying agent coverage and contact volumes.
The Inbound Contacts graph displays your forecasted contact volume, including any adjustments. It also displays the total forecasted contacts for the selected time period.
For the current day, you'll also see live actual call volumes, giving you more context when comparing forecasted and actual performance throughout the day.
The Coverage Required graph displays how many agents you’ll need per hour to meet your SLAs (including shrinkage).
You'll also see the total and peak agent counts during the selected time period.
Forecast breakdown
By default, all of your queues will be combined into one requirement.
Select breakdown by queue to view the forecasted contact volumes and coverage requirement by queue.
Hover over the charts to view the count per queue, per interval..png)
Compare against previous periods
Comparing forecasts with actual contact volumes helps you understand trends and review forecast accuracy.
For example, compare today's live call volume with previous days to see how demand has changed or identify unexpected spikes.
Actuals comparison is turned on by default. If needed, you can turn it off.
When viewing today, you'll see the actual live contact volumes alongside your forecast. A Live badge and the Current Internal line indicate the current data.
When viewing a past date, you'll see the actual contact volume and the number of agents needed for that period.
Adjusting a forecast
While forecasting predicts expected contact volumes, real-world events can affect your actual workload.
For example, a product launch, promotion, or unexpected issue may cause contact volumes to rise or fall.
Dialpad lets you manually adjust forecasts when these changes occur.
Read this Help Center article to learn how to adjust a forecast.
Frequently asked questions
How up-to-date is the forecast data?
Actual data appears shortly after Dialpad receives and processes it. Live actual call volumes may take up to 5 minutes to appear.
Does the staffing requirement update automatically in real time?
No. Staffing requirements don't automatically update when new actual call volumes are received.
If actual demand changes during the day, adjust the forecast for the affected period to update your staffing plan.
How much training data is used?
Forecasts use the previous 12 weeks of historical data to predict the next 52 weeks (12 months).
If you want to change this setting, contact your Customer Success Manager.
Can I change the forecast granularity?
Forecasts are generated in 15-minute intervals by default.
If your contact volumes are low, hourly forecasting may provide more reliable results. Contact your Customer Success Manager to change the forecast granularity.
Note
The granularity setting applies to your entire account and can't be configured for individual queues or integrations.
Why does the forecast show 0 agents when I'm receiving contacts?
Very low contact volumes may still result in a staffing requirement of 0 agents, depending on your queue settings.
This happens because staffing requirements are calculated from rounded contact volumes and your queue configuration.