We have almost 500 Customer Loyalty Representatives and scheduling them all in the most effective and efficient manner 24 hours a day, every day of year isn't easy. We actually have a group to handle this and who would have guessed they are called "Scheduling." There are many opportunities for cross training at Zappos and one of these is "shadowing" where you sit with a person and observe what they do. So I shadowed the Scheduling "Hot Seat" and here are some of the things I learned.

All of the schedulers take turns doing 4 hour shifts in the "Hot Seat" which has 4 computer screens. Basically the Hot Seater receives and handles all the incoming requests and changes. Some they take care of on the spot and others they reroute or "Jumbo" to the appropriate member of the scheduling group. (Alas, the origin of the term "Jumbo" seems to be lost in pre-history. I'll explain "Panda" in a future post.)

For the technically inclined, this is how the 4 computer screens are used:
1. The leftmost screen runs the RT ticket tracking system which holds the status and details of all the scheduling requests.

2. The second screen runs 2 spreadsheets - the "daily exceptions" sheet which lists changes for the current day and the "uber list" which shows every CLT Rep, who their Lead is, what their schedule is, what training events they've attended recently and other details.

3. The third screen has the standard CMS system display which tracks the status of every CLT rep on site and the overall call response stats.

4. The fourth screen is used for customized CMS displays tailored for specific situations and other auxiliary functions.

I was impressed with how everyone in Scheduling was so on the same page and could complete sentences for each other. Here's a picture of our Scheduling Team and the Hot Seat.

Starting from the left, we have Kay, Deborah, Jennifer (holding the sign), Louie, Erika, Helen (Lead), Nanette, and Peri.