teller scheduling and staffing tool

Retail Banking Productivity Solutions

QueFlowQueFlow

The ultimate teller scheduling tool

By: Raj N. Gaonkar


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Contents Page#

QueFlow Objective 3

Why Customer Waiting Time? 4

Teller Scheduling can be a challenge? 5

Are They Satisfied? 6

Service Quality by Branch Type 7

QueFlow Teller Scheduling Cost Optimization 8

Factors Affecting Teller Scheduling 9

Normalizing the Peak Arrivals 10

Customer Waiting Time Constraint 11

QueFlow Arrival Pattern 12

QueFlow Service Rates 13

What Information QueFlow Can Provide? 14

Case Study 15- 24

QueFlow Suggestions 25

Contact 26

Table of Contents


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• Provide bank’s management team and branch administration with a powerful and timely teller scheduling tool that delivers desired customer service at a minimal cost.

• Achieve noticeable savings in teller supervision costs through the automation of customer trend forecasting and teller scheduling. Simultaneously offer better customer service.

• Schedule right number of full/part time tellers at the right times across the entire branch network. Cross train tellers, teller supervisor and customer service reps to utilize all resources efficiently and cost-effectively.

QueFlow Objectives


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• If the customer arrival rates are controlled and the transaction times are kept

constant, there would be no waiting lines.

• In a branch environment arrival rates and transaction times change continuously

resulting in customer waiting times.

• QueFlow, which is based on Queuing Theory principles is an effective tool for

controlling customer waiting times while minimizing teller costs.

• Queuing Theory is the most commonly used statistical method for predicting

customer arrival and service patterns.

Why Customer Waiting Time?


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• Random customer arrival rates fluctuate constantly

• Transaction mix changes continuously

• Tellers are under utilized during the slow periods

• Waiting line builds up during peak arrivals

• Peak arrival periods are critical to teller scheduling

• A “user friendly” and flexible teller scheduling model is the solution

Teller Scheduling Can Be A Challenge


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$

Customer Universe

Waiting Line Teller Station

Customers Depart

Bank

Are they satisfied

Are They Satisfied?


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Branch Type A

Branch Type D

Branch Type B

Branch Type C

Customer Service QualityC

ust

omer

Foc

us

Sta

nd

ard

s Low HighL

owH

igh

Service Quality By Branch Type


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NUMBER OF TELLERS

Total Cost (per minute of waiting time)

WA

ITIN

G C

OS

TT

EL

LE

R E

XP

EN

SE

QueFlow Teller Scheduling Cost Optimization


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• Customer Population

• Customer Arrival rate

• Customer Service Rate

• Branch Queuing Discipline

• Customer Waiting Time Constraint

• Full Time & Part Time Teller Mix

Factors Affecting Teller Scheduling


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• Identify the fluctuating arrival patterns

• Shift certain customer arrivals to normalize the traffic

• Establish matching service shifts

• Cross-train branch staff to assume peak arrival work load

• Schedule back office functions during non-peaks

Normalizing The Peak Arrivals


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% customers

Waiting time (minutes )

Less than 5% of the customers wait longer than 5.5 minutes

Average Waiting Time: 2.5 minutes

Customer Waiting Time Constraint


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• Historical data from the teller transaction records

• Manual arrival counts

• Automated customer arrival counting devices

• Branch management estimates of arrival trends

QueFlow - Arrival Pattern


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• Average customer service time by customer type

– Priority customer

– Small merchant customer

– P&R Customer

• Average transaction time developed from activity benchmarks

– Check Cashing

– Mixed deposits

• Customer to Transaction Ratio

– Customer sampling

– Management Estimates

• Subject Matter Expert estimates

– Trained teller performance

– Limitations of new tellers

QueFlow – Service Rates


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• What is the forecasted arrival rate?

• What is transaction mix?

• What is the distribution of service times?

• Does a branch need a single line or multiple lines?

• What is the optimum teller utilization ratio?

• What is the recommended customer waiting time?

• How many tellers are required on the window?

• How to schedule shifts and the lunch breaks?

What Information QueFlow Can Provide?


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Big Apple Branch Network

Teller Scheduling

76 Branches

4 Branch Types

490 Tellers

Case Study


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• Branch No. 200

• Teller window service time is from 9am to 4pm

• Only consider teller window activities to generate teller requirement

• Lunch time is between 10:30 am and 2:30 pm

– FT teller gets 1 hour lunch break

– PT teller A gets 30 min lunch break

– PT teller B has no lunch break

• Current Employee Complement: 25

– Platform: 8

– Customer Service Rep: 2

– FT teller: 9

– PT teller: 6

Branch Information


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Provides an optimal teller scheduling solution for a recommended customer waiting

time constraint.

ProductFlow recommends that the customer waiting time should be linked to

customer segmentation.

Calculates an effective full time and part time teller mix that agrees with the

customer arrival pattern.

Schedules teller shifts, lunch breaks and back office functions.

Provides “On window schedules” for cross trained non-tellers.

QueFlow1 – Teller Cost Optimization


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0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

Number of Tellers

9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30Time

Required Head Scheduled Head

On Duty Schedule 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30Required Teller 7.16 7.25 6.96 6.96 6.76 6.76 6.86 6.76 9.61 9.8 8.14 8.33 10.29 10.29Scheduled Teller 8 8 8 7 7 7 7 7 10 10 9 11 11 11Waiting Time 1.65 1.1 0.91 1.14 0.91 1.83 4.5 1.37 0.72 1.74 0.96 0.44 0.53 0.6

Actual Staff: Full Time: 8 Tellers, Part TimeA: 2 Tellers, Part TimeB: 3 Tellers

QueFlow1 Suggests Full Time: 7 Tellers, Part TimeA:1 Teller, Part TimeB: 3 Tellers

QueFlow1 – Optimization Schedule


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Provides the most effective teller schedule for the existing teller staff.

Desired schedule is obtained by adjusting teller staffing level and the full time

and part time teller mix.

Lower teller staff schedule results in a higher customer waiting time.

ProductFlow recommends keeping average waiting time under 5 minutes.

QueFlow2 – Scheduling Existing Teller Staff


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0.00

2.00

4.00

6.00

8.00

10.00

12.00

14.00

Number of Tellers

9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30Time

Required Head Scheduled Head

On Duty Schedule 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 12:00 12:30 13:00 13:30 14:00 14:30 15:00 15:30Required Teller 7.16 6.58 6.22 5.75 5.41 6.31 7.23 5.95 7.94 9.54 7.38 7.33 8.24 8.51Scheduled Teller 10 10 10 9 8 10 11 10 11 13 11 11 11 11Waiting Time 0.65 0.48 0.42 0.46 0.56 0.45 0.5 0.38 0.5 0.52 0.46 0.44 0.53 0.6

Actual Staff: Full Time: 8 Tellers, Part TimeA: 2 Tellers, Part TimeB: 3 Tellers

QueFlow2 allocates existing tellers staff to minimize customer waiting time

QueFlow2 – Existing Teller Staff Scheduling


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FT PTQueFlow1 7 4 71% 1.31 $240,809.40QueFlow2 8 5 58% 0.50 $291,712.20Difference 1 1 -13% -0.81 $50,902.80

Annual Teller CostModel

Scheduled TellersWaiting TimeAvg Utilization

Branch Number – 200

Branch Name – United Nations Branch

Branch Address – 320 East 44th St. New York, NY 10017

Branch Manager – Steven Johnson

Branch Hour – Mon. to Fri. 9am to 4pm

Teller Staff – 9 full-timer; 6 part-timer

QueFlow1 vs. QueFlow2


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Branch Type Number of branches

Customer Waiting Time Distribution

Average Waiting Time

Upscale 4 Under 2 min: 90%

Over 2 min:10%

1.15 min

Merchant 11 Under 2 min: 30%

2 min- 4 min: 60%

Over 4 min: 10%

3.05 min

P & R 55 Under 2 min: 35%

2 min- 4 min: 55%

Over 4 min: 10%

2.10 min

Community 6 Under 4 min: 90%

Over 4 min: 10%

3.30 min

Waiting Time By Market Segmentation


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Branch Type Current Teller Complement

Proposed Teller Complement

Teller Difference

Upscale 41 44 (3)

Merchant 84 80 4

P & R 331 321 10

Community 34 30 4

Total 490 475 15

Teller Scheduling Across Network


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• Modify customer arrival behaviour.

• Keep resources not serving customers out of sight.

• Segment customers by customer profitability.

• Adopt a long-term perspective of customer satisfaction.

• Provide incentives to friendly tellers.

• Promote cross selling.

ProductFlow Suggestions


25Contact Us

Raj Gaonkar: President 675 Townsend Ave. #111, New Haven, CT 06512, U.S.A.

Phone: 203 467 6380

email: [email protected]

teller scheduling and staffing tool

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