Occupancy is the percentage of an agent's logged-in time that is spent handling customer interactions or completing related work, rather than waiting for the next call.
| Example: For example, if an agent is available for 60 minutes and spends 45 minutes actively engaged, their occupancy rate is 75%. |
It is one of the most important workforce and productivity metrics because it indicates how efficiently agent time is being utilized.
Why Occupancy Matters
High occupancy can:
- Improve staffing efficiency.
- Reduce idle time.
- Lower operational costs.
However, if it remains too high:
- Agents become fatigued.
- Customer interactions may become rushed.
- Average Handle Time (AHT) can increase.
- First Call Resolution (FCR) may decline.
- Employee turnover may rise.
Low occupancy may indicate:
- Overstaffing.
- Reduced productivity.
- Higher labor costs.
Factors That Affect Occupancy
- Incoming call volume
- Number of available agents
- Average Handle Time (AHT)
- After-Call Work duration
- Routing strategy
- Peak business hours
- Omnichannel workloads (calls, SMS, chat, email)
How Phone Systems Help Improve Occupancy
VoiceStack can optimize occupancy by:
- Intelligent call routing to distribute calls evenly.
- Skills-based routing to send calls to the best-qualified agent.
- AI call summarization to reduce After Call Work.
- Workforce management tools that forecast demand and schedule staffing appropriately.
- Real-time dashboards showing occupancy by agent, queue, and location.
- Queue callbacks and virtual hold to smooth spikes in call volume.
In summary, occupancy measures how much of an agent's available time is spent actively handling customer interactions and related work. It is a key operational metric for balancing productivity, service quality, and agent well-being in phone systems and contact centers.
Support
Need further help? Contact uk.support@voicestack.com or call +44 161 524 2575.