IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v57y2009i3p714-726.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

On a Data-Driven Method for Staffing Large Call Centers

Author

Listed:
  • Achal Bassamboo

    (Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208)

  • Assaf Zeevi

    (Graduate School of Business, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027)

Abstract

We consider a call center model with multiple customer classes and multiple server pools. Calls arrive randomly over time, and the instantaneous arrival rates are allowed to vary both temporally and stochastically in an arbitrary manner. The objective is to minimize the sum of personnel costs and expected abandonment penalties by selecting an appropriate staffing level for each server pool. We propose a simple and computationally tractable method for solving this problem that requires as input only a few system parameters and historical call arrival data for each customer class; in this sense the method is said to be data-driven . The efficacy of the proposed method is illustrated via numerical examples. An asymptotic analysis establishes that the prescribed staffing levels achieve near-optimal performance and characterizes the magnitude of the optimality gap.

Suggested Citation

  • Achal Bassamboo & Assaf Zeevi, 2009. "On a Data-Driven Method for Staffing Large Call Centers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(3), pages 714-726, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:57:y:2009:i:3:p:714-726
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.1080.0602
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.1080.0602
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.1080.0602?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Athanassios N. Avramidis & Alexandre Deslauriers & Pierre L'Ecuyer, 2004. "Modeling Daily Arrivals to a Telephone Call Center," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 50(7), pages 896-908, July.
    2. Shlomo Halfin & Ward Whitt, 1981. "Heavy-Traffic Limits for Queues with Many Exponential Servers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 29(3), pages 567-588, June.
    3. J. Michael Harrison & Assaf Zeevi, 2004. "Dynamic Scheduling of a Multiclass Queue in the Halfin-Whitt Heavy Traffic Regime," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(2), pages 243-257, April.
    4. Itay Gurvich & Mor Armony & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2008. "Service-Level Differentiation in Call Centers with Fully Flexible Servers," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 279-294, February.
    5. Rodney B. Wallace & Ward Whitt, 2005. "A Staffing Algorithm for Call Centers with Skill-Based Routing," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 7(4), pages 276-294, August.
    6. Lawrence Brown & Noah Gans & Avishai Mandelbaum & Anat Sakov & Haipeng Shen & Sergey Zeltyn & Linda Zhao, 2005. "Statistical Analysis of a Telephone Call Center: A Queueing-Science Perspective," Journal of the American Statistical Association, American Statistical Association, vol. 100, pages 36-50, March.
    7. Zohar Feldman & Avishai Mandelbaum & William A. Massey & Ward Whitt, 2008. "Staffing of Time-Varying Queues to Achieve Time-Stable Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 324-338, February.
    8. Sem Borst & Avi Mandelbaum & Martin I. Reiman, 2004. "Dimensioning Large Call Centers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 52(1), pages 17-34, February.
    9. Mehmet Tolga Cezik & Pierre L'Ecuyer, 2008. "Staffing Multiskill Call Centers via Linear Programming and Simulation," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(2), pages 310-323, February.
    10. Garrett van Ryzin & Jeff McGill, 2000. "Revenue Management Without Forecasting or Optimization: An Adaptive Algorithm for Determining Airline Seat Protection Levels," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(6), pages 760-775, June.
    11. Achal Bassamboo & J. Michael Harrison & Assaf Zeevi, 2006. "Design and Control of a Large Call Center: Asymptotic Analysis of an LP-Based Method," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(3), pages 419-435, June.
    12. Noah Gans & Ger Koole & Avishai Mandelbaum, 2003. "Telephone Call Centers: Tutorial, Review, and Research Prospects," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 5(2), pages 79-141, September.
    13. J. Michael Harrison & Assaf Zeevi, 2005. "A Method for Staffing Large Call Centers Based on Stochastic Fluid Models," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 20-36, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bertsimas, Dimitris & Doan, Xuan Vinh, 2010. "Robust and data-driven approaches to call centers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(2), pages 1072-1085, December.
    2. Soonhui Lee & Tito Homem-de-Mello & Anton Kleywegt, 2012. "Newsvendor-type models with decision-dependent uncertainty," Mathematical Methods of Operations Research, Springer;Gesellschaft für Operations Research (GOR);Nederlands Genootschap voor Besliskunde (NGB), vol. 76(2), pages 189-221, October.
    3. Eugene Furman & Adam Diamant & Murat Kristal, 2021. "Customer Acquisition and Retention: A Fluid Approach for Staffing," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(11), pages 4236-4257, November.
    4. Kinshuk Jerath & Anuj Kumar & Serguei Netessine, 2015. "An Information Stock Model of Customer Behavior in Multichannel Customer Support Services," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(3), pages 368-383, July.
    5. Wang, Xiaoping & Zhao, Yunliang & Sun, Peng & Wang, Xiaobin, 2013. "An analysis on convergence of data-driven approach to ship lock scheduling," Mathematics and Computers in Simulation (MATCOM), Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 31-38.
    6. Song-Hee Kim & Ward Whitt, 2014. "Are Call Center and Hospital Arrivals Well Modeled by Nonhomogeneous Poisson Processes?," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 16(3), pages 464-480, July.
    7. Jose A. Guajardo & Morris A. Cohen, 2018. "Service Differentiation and Operating Segments: A Framework and an Application to After-Sales Services," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 20(3), pages 440-454, July.
    8. Defraeye, Mieke & Van Nieuwenhuyse, Inneke, 2016. "Staffing and scheduling under nonstationary demand for service: A literature review," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 4-25.
    9. Heemskerk, M. & Mandjes, M. & Mathijsen, B., 2022. "Staffing for many-server systems facing non-standard arrival processes," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 296(3), pages 900-913.
    10. Noah Gans & Haipeng Shen & Yong-Pin Zhou & Nikolay Korolev & Alan McCord & Herbert Ristock, 2015. "Parametric Forecasting and Stochastic Programming Models for Call-Center Workforce Scheduling," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 17(4), pages 571-588, October.
    11. Kraus, Mathias & Feuerriegel, Stefan & Oztekin, Asil, 2020. "Deep learning in business analytics and operations research: Models, applications and managerial implications," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 281(3), pages 628-641.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Eugene Furman & Adam Diamant & Murat Kristal, 2021. "Customer Acquisition and Retention: A Fluid Approach for Staffing," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 30(11), pages 4236-4257, November.
    2. Achal Bassamboo & Ramandeep S. Randhawa & Assaf Zeevi, 2010. "Capacity Sizing Under Parameter Uncertainty: Safety Staffing Principles Revisited," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(10), pages 1668-1686, October.
    3. Merve Bodur & James R. Luedtke, 2017. "Mixed-Integer Rounding Enhanced Benders Decomposition for Multiclass Service-System Staffing and Scheduling with Arrival Rate Uncertainty," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 63(7), pages 2073-2091, July.
    4. Noah Gans & Yong-Pin Zhou, 2007. "Call-Routing Schemes for Call-Center Outsourcing," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(1), pages 33-50, May.
    5. Opher Baron & Joseph Milner, 2009. "Staffing to Maximize Profit for Call Centers with Alternate Service-Level Agreements," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(3), pages 685-700, June.
    6. Achal Bassamboo & J. Michael Harrison & Assaf Zeevi, 2006. "Design and Control of a Large Call Center: Asymptotic Analysis of an LP-Based Method," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 54(3), pages 419-435, June.
    7. Defraeye, Mieke & Van Nieuwenhuyse, Inneke, 2016. "Staffing and scheduling under nonstationary demand for service: A literature review," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 4-25.
    8. Tolga Tezcan & J. G. Dai, 2010. "Dynamic Control of N -Systems with Many Servers: Asymptotic Optimality of a Static Priority Policy in Heavy Traffic," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 58(1), pages 94-110, February.
    9. Avishai Mandelbaum & Petar Momčilović, 2008. "Queues with Many Servers: The Virtual Waiting-Time Process in the QED Regime," Mathematics of Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 33(3), pages 561-586, August.
    10. Noa Zychlinski, 2023. "Applications of fluid models in service operations management," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 103(1), pages 161-185, February.
    11. Avishai Mandelbaum & Sergey Zeltyn, 2009. "Staffing Many-Server Queues with Impatient Customers: Constraint Satisfaction in Call Centers," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(5), pages 1189-1205, October.
    12. Itay Gurvich & Mor Armony & Constantinos Maglaras, 2009. "Cross-Selling in a Call Center with a Heterogeneous Customer Population," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 57(2), pages 299-313, April.
    13. Itai Gurvich & James Luedtke & Tolga Tezcan, 2010. "Staffing Call Centers with Uncertain Demand Forecasts: A Chance-Constrained Optimization Approach," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 56(7), pages 1093-1115, July.
    14. Francis de Véricourt & Otis B. Jennings, 2008. "Dimensioning Large-Scale Membership Services," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 56(1), pages 173-187, February.
    15. Ward Whitt, 2006. "Staffing a Call Center with Uncertain Arrival Rate and Absenteeism," Production and Operations Management, Production and Operations Management Society, vol. 15(1), pages 88-102, March.
    16. Ta, Thuy Anh & Chan, Wyean & Bastin, Fabian & L’Ecuyer, Pierre, 2021. "A simulation-based decomposition approach for two-stage staffing optimization in call centers under arrival rate uncertainty," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 293(3), pages 966-979.
    17. Dongyuan Zhan & Amy R. Ward, 2014. "Threshold Routing to Trade Off Waiting and Call Resolution in Call Centers," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 16(2), pages 220-237, May.
    18. Guodong Pang & Ward Whitt, 2009. "Service Interruptions in Large-Scale Service Systems," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 55(9), pages 1499-1512, September.
    19. Jouini, Oualid & Pot, Auke & Koole, Ger & Dallery, Yves, 2010. "Online scheduling policies for multiclass call centers with impatient customers," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 207(1), pages 258-268, November.
    20. Ying Chen & John J. Hasenbein, 2017. "Staffing large-scale service systems with distributional uncertainty," Queueing Systems: Theory and Applications, Springer, vol. 87(1), pages 55-79, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:57:y:2009:i:3:p:714-726. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.