Delay guarantee planning of call-back options in time-varying service systems

Many service centers offer a “call-back” option, in which customers entering the queue are informed of the anticipated (online) wait and can choose to wait either online or off-line till an agent contacts them. We show that such a policy has the potential of both improving service performance and server utilization, by balancing the load between overloaded and underloaded periods. However, our analysis suggests that companies need not offer that service at all times, and that the delay guarantees proposed should be planned according to the anticipated load throughout the day. In order to optimize the operation of such a system, we develop an Iterative Simulation Algorithm to determine what delay guarantees the company should offer in a time-varying environment. Those guarantees depend on service level targets the company wishes to provide and the delay sensitivity of the online vs. off-line customers.