Improve cost-effectiveness by utilizing forecasting service in Dynamics 365 Customer Service.

Predict and manage support needs with forecasting in Dynamics 365 Customer Service 

Forecast reports offer a structured way to predict support needs for your organization, using historical data as a basis. They'll help streamline your operations, boosting efficiency and lowering costs while preserving a positive customer experience. 

You can use forecast reports to plan staffing levels and other resource allocation based on predicted case and conversation volumes, as well as predicted agent demand for conversations.  

Learn more: Maximize efficiency with forecasting in Dynamics 365 Customer Service - Microsoft Dynamics 365 Blog 
 
Key feature functionalities  

Incorporating Service-Level Metrics  

The feature considers operational metrics such as service level, shrinkage, and concurrency when forecasting agent demand. By considering these factors, organizations can ensure that the agent ability forecast aligns with service level agreements and operational constraints, maximizing efficiency and customer satisfaction.  

Auto-Detection of Holidays  

Our forecasting model uses historical traffic patterns to automatically find holidays, resulting in more precise predictions. This functionality helps organizations adjust their operations according to holiday-related changes in service demand across various regions, guaranteeing the best service levels despite fluctuations in customer activity during holidays.  

• Compare your service volume and agent demand forecasts against actual performance data. This can help you evaluate the accuracy of your forecasts and show areas for improvement. 

How it works 

1. Open the Customer Service admin center and select Insights > Report settings. 
   

    

    

• To enable the case forecasting report, find the Case forecasting row, select Manage, and then toggle Enable case forecasting. 

• To enable the agent forecasting for conversation report, find the Agent forecasting for conversation row, select Manage, and then toggle Enable agent ability forecasting. 

• Customize your reports by setting a refresh schedule, changing the time zone, specifying a start date for historical data, or choosing seasonality options. 

Tips and tricks 

• Larger historical data sets, especially those that include data for every day in the set, can result in more correct forecasts. 

• Extending the historical range of your data set may also increase prediction accuracy, as it allows the forecast model to capture more patterns and variations over time. 

• Forecast accuracy tends to be higher for the near future than for distant dates. 
   

Requirements: You need customer service license in Dynamics 365 Customer Service to access Forecast Service functionality. 

Availability 

This feature is available now to all Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Service users.  

Feedback 

We want to hear from you! Please feel free to share your feedback with Dynamics customer support https://successhub.crm.dynamics.com.  You can access the feedback link only if you meet the above requirements mentioned in the Requirements section.