How Many Agents Do You Need?
Volume times handle time, divided by the hours an agent has. The third number is where most plans go wrong.
How many support agents do you need?
Merging duplicates is the only capacity increase that arrives the same week you turn it on.
Stop paying for duplicatesProductive hours are not working hours
A full-time agent does not deliver 160 ticket hours a month. Meetings, training, breaks, admin, holiday and sickness all come out first.
Around 120 productive hours is a realistic planning figure. Plan on 160 and you will be understaffed every month while wondering why the model said otherwise.
The cheapest headcount is the headcount you free up
Set the duplicate rate and watch the second number in the results. That gap is the fraction of your team currently occupied by tickets that duplicate other tickets.
At 6,000 tickets a month, eleven minutes handle time and a 12% duplicate rate, roughly one agent of capacity is spent on work that produces nothing. Hiring that agent costs a salary. Removing the duplicates costs a fraction of one.
Frequently asked questions
What handle time should I use?+
Your own median from helpdesk reporting, not the average, because a few very long tickets skew the mean badly.
Should I staff for peak or average?+
Staff close to average and plan explicitly for peaks with overtime, part-time cover or deferring non-urgent work. Staffing for peak means paying for idle capacity all year.
Free up capacity before you hire
Duplicate merging returns headcount in the same week you turn it on, and no interview is required.
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