David Preece, Pre-Sales Consultant at QStory, and 28-year veteran of the contact centre planning industry, shares his thoughts following discussions at The Forum’s #RaisingStandards 2025 conference.
It’s finally happening. The back office is getting the attention it deserves. Whether at industry events or in leadership conversations, more people are recognising that it’s time to apply the same thinking and principles to back office that are given to frontline teams.
We all know that the back office is absolutely critical to customer experience overall. However, for far too long, it’s been seen as a bit of a black hole, a place where data goes to hide. True workloads are a mystery and productivity is, at best, a rough guess. This lack of clarity isn’t just frustrating (although it is that), it has a direct impact on customers, agents, and bottom lines.
The Back Office Data Gap
The truth is, without the right tool, no one is really sure what is happening in their back office environment.
Most operations run on the assumption that occupancy is generally at the same level as front office environments, or even higher. These figures are usually based on the assumed time it takes to complete tasks, rather than real data. Calculations typically use Standard Unit Times – averages for how long each type of task should take – to infer productivity. If you do x pieces of work, and we think it takes y seconds to do each one, and you took z hours to do it, then your occupancy must be a%.
Yes, but what if it actually takes p seconds to do each one? What does that do to your maths?
Unlike calls and chats which we can measure in precision, in the back office, the same level of insight simply hasn’t been possible because the data hasn’t existed.
This lack of visibility is precisely what fuels the constant debates about rightsizing, with analysts actually estimating that the occupancy of back office environments to be closer to 60%. Without data, no one truly knows.
So, how about a tool that confirms whether the estimated average time to complete a task is closer to the real average? You’d then be able to understand what demand you have in your queues, so that you can allocate work more accurately, increase support during peak backlogs, and effectively rightsize your back office department going forward. Providing excellent customer experiences and preventing channel-shift in escalations.
Introducing QStory’s Work Item Manager
Enter QStory’s Back Office platform, at the heart of which is our Work Item Manager, functioning as a pseudo “Back Office ACD”.
The Work Item Manager provides a queue of tasks for agents. When an agent selects a task, the AHT clock starts, and stops upon completion or pauses if needed. This provides definitive, real-time data on task duration. Team Leaders will be able to identify agents who may require more training or problematic types of work which need process improvement. The key thing is that your business will know where you need to focus attention and work, rather than simply guessing.
This data-driven approach of Work Item Manager delivers tangible benefits:
- Agents receive the same benefits that their front office counterparts can already get through QStory. From gaining visibility of schedules and personal performance KPIs to booking annual leave, changing breaks and lunches, swapping shifts or flexing sections of their shift through a self-service app. Bringing all of the things people love about QStory – engagement, autonomy and flexibility – to your back office teams.
- Team Leaders can achieve the same level of visibility as front office counterparts, enabling them to actively monitor team workloads and manage adherence – a metric that has traditionally been masked in the back office.
- Planning Analysts gain a real-time view of incoming volumes and AHTs, informing more accurate forecasting.
Together, the capabilities offered by QStory’s Back Office platform create a more transparent and empowered back office environment, where agents have greater control over their schedule, leaders can manage performance with confidence, and planners can make smarter, data-driven decisions based on facts, not estimates.
See how Work Item Manager can bring clarity and control to your back office — get in touch today to schedule a short demo with our team.