Powerful Excel based scheduler for call center agent schedules – Workforward
This WFM scheduling software and Excel spreadsheet is designed for small call centers and helps you to create call center agent schedules.  This powerful mix between a software program and an Excel spreadsheet allows you to create and assign agent shifts (shift lengths, breaks, lunches, vacation time, team meetings, etc) to maximize call center coverage.  Save money and still hit your Service Levels by maximizing agent coverage, knowing how much PTO you can grant (preapproved or even same day), and what tim

The Scheduler


 

This powerful mix between a software program and an Excel spreadsheet allows you to assign agent shifts (shift lengths, breaks, lunches, vacation time, team meetings, etc) to maximize call center coverage.

  • Our schedule simulator lets you know when you need additional coverage, even before you generate schedules.
  • Custom shifts, you define the length and number of breaks, and let the software maximize coverage, strategically assigning break/lunch times to maximize coverage.
  • Each agent can have either a set start time each day, or you can assign a “start window” where the system will assign the start time for the day based on scheduling needs.
  • See predicted Service Levels and ASA based on current staffing levels.
  • Huge amount of customization and familiar feel due to Excel’s open source
  • Easy reporting of assigned shifts by emailing shift details to agents with a click of the button or print out for team leads and agent use.
  • Generate schedules against required agents.
  • Determine intraday adjustments based on how volumes are coming in.
  • Determine Fixed schedules or variable start times.
  • Compare actual staffing needs to forecasted.
  • Integrated Dashboard shows staffing charts and forecasted volumes vs actuals.
  • Determine length of time between breaks.
  • Can schedule queues of up to 150 agents (500 agent version available as well).

Save money and still hit your Service Levels by maximizing agent coverage, knowing how much PTO you can grant (preapproved or even same day), and what times of day you can pull agents off the phones for Team Meetings and Trainings.  Be efficient and take more calls with less agents.

Can be used for either call, email, or chat volumes.

Please note, this piece of software is based in Microsoft Excel.  You need to own Excel (sold separately) to use this file, and Outlook if you wish to automatically e-mail out shift details to agents instead of printing out a copy.

This product comes with an hour and a half long video detailing scheduling, intraday management, and how to use this product.

Upon completing item checkout, item can be downloaded immediately and/or via a link sent to your email address (up to 3 downloads according to licensing.  Please reach out to us if you need additional downloads).

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Customer Reviews

Based on 8 reviews
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This has made scheduling one of our business units really easy.
Nice and easy

provides flexibility of start times and responds really well to forecast data.

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Emily LaRusch
Great Product - Easy to Use

I'm very happy with this scheduling tool. We are a small call center and it was easy to figure out how to use the software and create schedules that will ensure compliance with our SLA's. I had a getting started question and received a very quick same-day response. I am impressed with what this tool offers at an affordable price!

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Jesse Jackson
Helping us figure it out

We were working hard to figure out the right schedule for our 24 x 7 contact center. We had no scheduled breaks and lunches. It was very difficult and time consuming for us to try and do "what if scenarios and to determine what new shifts we should add. SS Schedules has been a great addition to our staffing tools. It was intuitive to learn and with in one week of downloading the tool, we had generated a more efficient set of schedules for the team.

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Ron
I thought this would be more helpful.

I like this tool, but in my case it didn't really help that much, it still lumped all of the lunches around the noon hour and I had to adjust them manually. It actually came up with a schedule that left me under staffed for 30 minutes. On the other hand, it is a very small phone queue, only 4 agents.

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Daniel
Game Changer!

I have worked with a catalogue of high end WFMs over my 15-year career, my current employee has a smaller workforce of 90 agents, so funds at this point are limited. SS Schedules is truly amazing! It takes the most important features of a full end to end WFM & integrates it into a familiar, easy to use Excel workbook! Its added reporting within the sheet showing staffing vs actual call volumes goes above & beyond my expectation for a WFM solution in tis price range.

The aftercare support (Kory) is also outstanding – quick response’s & changes made to the scheduler that suit our business. You really have no reason to not take this product, it’s a game changer for a budget solution.

I can say using this scheduler has improved SLAs KPIs across all our customer facing areas.

Thank You

Questions & Answers

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  • Hi, Does the SS Schedules tool have the ability to create shifts automatically?

    Yes it does.  You plug in how large of a starting window you want for each agent (or go with fixed start times), and what shift type you want (customizable how long of a shift you want, # of breaks, lunch length, etc) and the system will automatically schedule all the agents to the best time of day to meet your staffing needs, as well as stagger breaks/lunches to match incoming volume demands.

  • Hello - Can each individual have edit access to add their own meetings to the schedule? Or do the managers have to do that? How is the access maintained?

    The default setting is to only allow 1 user to modify at a time (with everyone else getting a "Read Only" option).  However, you can place our system on a shared network drive and allow more than one user at the same time.  With purchase of this product, you recieve 3 licenses, but you can reach out to us about increasing your #.

    Specific to team meetings, in addition to manually added the meeting times like you suggested, you can instead input what time you want each of the team meetings for each team, and the system will automatically schedule agents for those times and adjust start times, breaks, and lunches to account for staffing needs.

  • I have multiple departments with separate staff and volumes. Can I use one purchase of these products for the multiple departments?

    Each purchase comes with 3 licenses.  If you are user for both departments, then this actually still counts for just 1 license.  But even if you have someone else scheduling for the other department, you are still able to do that as well (since this will only count as 2 of the 3 licenses).

  • Hi, I'm wondering if you can provide more information about how the scheduler determines the "required agents". Is there a forecast of calls / emails / chats etc. that we upload into the scheduler for the week? Thanks, Cathy

    The "required agents" is calculated via Erlang based on your forecasted contacts, your handle times, and your Service Level goals.  With that in mind, SS Schedules will need a forecast by half hour.  This is something you can determine yourself, or you can use our forecasting tools, SS Forecaster and SS Intervals to determine the forecast.

  • Hello, Does your SS Schedules tool have the ability to create shift rotations? Can it work with multiple workstreams with different staffing and call requirements?

    With rotating shifts, I would recommend using the product and making two templates.  You then rotate back and forth between the two templates in generating schedules.

    The scheduler is designed for one queue per template.  Granted, the queue could have multiple skills associated with it, but essentially you would want the vast majority of the agents in the queue to have all of the skills associated with the queue.

  • Hi, Guys! Ihave two questions; 1. What is the maximum size of Call Center your solution can work with? 2. Do I need internet connection when I use this solution?

    SS Schedules is available in both a 150 agent version and a 500 agent version.  If you are still small, we recommend you go with the 150 agent version initially, and then we can upgrade you to the 500 agent version when needed for the difference in price.

    An internet connection is needed to initially download the product and the training video.  However, after that, the program can be ran 100% locally on your computer without internet connections.