Ten Agents. Three Available. Here’s Why.
November 18, 2025
Planning Without Presence Data Is Just Guessing
Here’s a scenario that might sound familiar: a contact centre with 10 agents seems adequately staffed, but calls aren’t being answered as quickly as expected. Management wonders if there’s a routing issue.
When presence states are measured, the picture becomes clear: only three agents are typically available to take calls. The other seven are marked as busy—working on contracts and paperwork that’s essential to closing new business.
The routing is working perfectly. What was missing was visibility into where resources were actually being deployed.
What Presence Really Reveals
Presence isn’t just about whether someone is “Available,” “Busy,” or “Away.” It’s about understanding where your human resources are actually working across your entire service delivery operation.
Think about your customer journey. Someone visits your website, fills out a form, receives an automated response, and then calls your contact centre. At each touchpoint, you have an opportunity to serve them well—but you need visibility into how resources are distributed across these touchpoints to plan effectively.
When you map this journey and analyse where enquiries are actually coming from—web forms, phone calls, chat, email, social media—you start to see patterns. Combined with mid-call outcome codes (those multiple outcomes captured throughout single calls we discussed last week), presence data reveals not just what’s happening, but where your team’s expertise is being applied throughout the day.
From Assumptions to Insights
Without presence visibility, planning relies on estimates. With it, you’re working with facts.
In our earlier example, presence data showed agents were doing precisely what the business needed—handling the administrative work for new and repeat sales. The organisation simply hadn’t accounted for this in their service delivery planning.
The solution became clear: either bring in additional agents for phone coverage or redistribute tasks to ensure more agents could be available during peak periods. Not a technology fix—a planning improvement informed by real data.
Planning With Intelligence
Consider a retailer handling enquiries across phone, web chat, email, and social media. Presence data reveals exactly how resources are distributed at any moment:
- Five agents handling chat sessions that run 15-20 minutes each
- Three agents on calls
- Four agents in “After Call Work” wrapping up tickets
- Two agents in training
- Three agents at lunch
- Three agents available for the next interaction
When you layer in outcome code data showing that 40% of calls require follow-up work, you can plan staffing levels that match the real demands of your operation—not just the theoretical ones.
CyCX: Presence That Powers Planning
CyCX captures presence states across all channels, giving you visibility into where your team is deployed. When combined with outcome codes, you get a complete picture: what work is being done, where resources are focused, and how to allocate them more effectively.
It’s not about monitoring. It’s about visibility that enables smarter planning.
Get in touch, and we’ll show you how presence visibility transforms service delivery planning.