Question 1

What is intraday reforecasting?

Accepted Answer

Intraday reforecasting is the process of revising your daily contact volume forecast mid-day based on actual arrival patterns. The ratio method compares morning actuals to morning forecast to derive an adjustment factor applied to the remaining periods. It is the most common real-time technique in workforce management.

Question 2

When should I reforecast during the day?

Accepted Answer

Best practice is to reforecast at least twice: once after the first 2-3 hours of arrivals (enough data to detect a trend) and again at the midpoint of the day. Some centres reforecast hourly. The key trigger is when morning variance exceeds ±5% — that signals a systemic shift, not random noise.

Question 3

What is the ratio method?

Accepted Answer

The ratio method divides actual morning volume by forecasted morning volume to produce a scaling factor. That factor is then applied to the remaining forecast intervals. For example, if morning actual is 520 and morning forecast was 500, the ratio is 1.04 — so all remaining intervals are multiplied by 1.04. Accuracy is 94-97% for stable queues.

Question 4

How accurate is the ratio method for reforecasting?

Accepted Answer

The ratio method achieves 94-97% accuracy for queues with stable arrival patterns. Accuracy decreases for queues with strong afternoon spikes, campaign-driven volume, or events that affect only specific hours. In those cases, overlay adjustments or machine learning models perform better.

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