8 best call center scheduling software in 2023

Scheduling a call center is a lot like bailing out a ship in troubled waters. There’s a high volume of calls constantly flowing into your business — and if you don’t assign enough agents to manage them, the number of frustrated customers builds up. Your best chance at keeping your business afloat is to answer calls more efficiently but, on days where there’s wave after wave, your team won’t be able to keep the flood at bay.
And it’s hard to predict when you’ll get a surge of calls or lose an employee ‘overboard’ and need extra cover.
All this means you can easily end up spending hours creating and amending timetables to keep your customers satisfied and avoid overloading staff.
That might be why you’re considering an app to make scheduling more efficient, maintain the necessary staffing levels, and achieve a high standard of customer service. Our article outlines the best call center scheduling software solutions based on their features, pricing, and customer reviews to help you make that decision.







Run a better team with smarter scheduling.
Optimize your schedule and keep your team in sync with Homebase.



Simplify scheduling














Why do call centers need scheduling software?
Before we look at our selection of scheduling solutions and their features, let’s clarify what problems a call center manager might be trying to solve with them:

Maintaining sufficient staffing levels: Call centers often get nonstop calls, and agents can only handle one at a time. That means it’s crucial to predict the number of staff you’ll need so customers won’t be kept waiting for too long.

Accounting for availability: You probably have some early morning and evening hours to fill. Perhaps you even have night shifts to consider. As these hours are more likely to coincide with your team’s personal commitments, like family time and social events, you have to stay on top of their availability to prevent clashes and potential no-shows.
Allocating shifts based on expertise: Agents often specialize in different business areas, for example, setting up a new account, organizing repairs, or granting refunds. But when you need to take different roles into account when scheduling, it adds an extra layer of complexity to the task.
Spreading out undesirable shifts: Answering calls is mentally demanding. On top of that, call center hours often extend from the early morning into the middle of the night. To avoid burnout and maintain satisfaction, you have to make sure nobody gets too many long, busy, or inconvenient shifts in a row.
Hiring the right candidates: Effective scheduling starts with recruitment. You need to find candidates whose availability matches the hours you’re trying to fill. Otherwise, you’ll find nobody’s free when you need to cover a shift.

Key features to look for in call center scheduling software
All scheduling platforms are different, but should ideally have the following:

Forecasting tools: The key to steady profit, high customer satisfaction, and happy employees is consistent staffing levels. And instead of poring over old spreadsheets, you can use predictive tools to estimate how many employees you need and analytics to show your labor-to-sales ratios.

Auto-population features: There’s no longer any need to drag and drop shifts into employee timetables . Platforms like Homebase can help you automatically create instant, foolproof schedules based on your team’s availability, preferences, and roles.

Templates: When you have a schedule that works for your team, you can save and reuse it as many times as you like with Homebase. Or you can use it as the basis for a new timetable and just make a few tweaks.
Self-scheduling tools: To give staff more autonomy over their hours, it’s ideal if you can let them arrange their own swaps and covers. All you have to do is approve.

The ability to claim open shifts: This is a win-win for employees looking to earn some extra cash and managers who need to cover absences or undesirable shifts fast. You simply publish the hours you need to fill and team members can claim them. 
Chat capabilities: You need robust communication tools to coordinate swaps, send reminders, and approve claims for open shifts. The best scheduling software has built-in messaging features so you can dive straight into a chat with team members right in the app.
Team availability management: Making sure you’ve got enough people to fill long work days can be tough. If you do it manually, you have to constantly check who’s free and willing to work in the evenings. Availability tools can save you time by letting team members update their free hours and notifying you when they’ve made the changes.
A mobile app : Team members can have access to their schedules no matter where they are which means you can make adjustments to shifts without worrying about whether they get seen.

The breakdown: Top 8 call center scheduling software solutions
Here’s an overview of the call center scheduling software we think you should consider for your business:
1. Homebase: Best all-in-one solution
2. Shiftboard: Best for scheduling on-call employees
3. Connecteam: Best for categorizing teams
4. Humanity: Best for schedule visibility
5. Sling: Best for organizing early and late shifts
6. Deputy: Best for customizable settings
7. TixTime: Best for visualizing labor demand
8. Soon: Best for in-depth feedback
1. Homebase : Best all-in-one solution
Create employee schedules more efficiently and accurately with Homebase.
Homebase has a range of user-friendly tools to make scheduling more efficient while bearing in mind your labor demands and team availability.
Our range of scheduling tools gives you multiple ways to create speedy, error-free timetables. We have auto-scheduling features based on roles, departments, and availability — which you can collect easily by having your team update their free hours as they change. There’s also the option to save your best schedules as templates and simply retrieve them from the library with one click.
If you’ve made a couple of tweaks to automated or template schedules, there’s no need to worry about conflicts either. Homebase spots clashes and alerts you before you hit ‘publish’. 
Easily spot schedule conflicts with Homebase’s scheduling and team availability tools.
Employees also have the power to swap, find cover, or volunteer for extra hours with Homebase. This reduces scenarios where you have to call around to find free staff at peak call times or have staff hop on calls they’re not trained for.
While self-scheduling tools are useful, you’ll save more time if fewer swaps and covers were necessary in the first place. That’s why Homebase has robust hiring features so you hire candidates with availability that matches your call center hours. You can create job posts with the shift patterns from your template library and list them across hundreds of job sites to get the right candidates for the job. 
Best of all, we have forecasting tools that analyze your historical labor data to suggest how many staff members you really need at work. Combined with our chat and shift feedback tools, you can develop a near-perfect understanding of how many roles you need for each shift. That means you won’t risk understaffing, putting teams under pressure, and lowering your standard of customer care.
Top features

Schedules auto-populate based on roles, availability, and labor needs
Reusable templates that are saved within an easily accessible library
The ability for team members to claim open shifts
Simple, effective employee self-scheduling tools
Team communication app that can be used on desktop and mobile
Shortcut to find cover for no shows
Team availability management tools to easily collect times when employees can work
Hiring and onboarding features
Built-in time tracking, payroll , and HR and compliance features

Pros and cons
Pros