CX & Support Metrics

Forecast Accuracy

Definition

Forecast accuracy measures how close a support team's predicted contact volume (or workload) was to the volume that actually arrived, expressed as a percentage that shows how reliable the forecast was.

Also known as: volume forecast accuracydemand forecast accuracy

How to calculate it

A common approach is: accuracy = 100% − |forecast − actual| ÷ actual × 100 (the complement of percentage error). If you forecast 1,000 tickets and 1,100 arrive, the error is 100 ÷ 1,100 ≈ 9%, so accuracy is about 91%.

Teams also track it with error metrics like MAPE (mean absolute percentage error) across many intervals, since a forecast can look accurate in total while being wrong at specific hours of the day.

Why it matters

Everything downstream depends on the forecast. Accurate forecasts let you staff to demand — protecting service levels without overstaffing — while inaccurate ones cause either long queues (understaffed) or wasted payroll (overstaffed). It's the foundation the whole scheduling process rests on.

Frequently asked

What is a good forecast accuracy?

Many workforce management teams aim for 90%+ at the daily or weekly level. Accuracy at finer intervals (per half-hour) is harder and naturally lower, but more useful for scheduling.

Why forecast at the interval level, not just the day?

Because staffing happens by interval. A daily forecast can be perfect while morning is understaffed and afternoon overstaffed — interval-level accuracy is what actually protects service levels.

Related terms

Ticket Volume

Ticket volume is the total number of support requests received over a given period, across all channels a team handles..

Schedule Adherence

Schedule adherence is a workforce management metric that measures how closely agents follow their assigned schedules — being available for work (on calls, chats, or tickets) during the times they're scheduled to be..

Shrinkage

Shrinkage is a workforce management metric that captures the percentage of paid agent time not spent handling customer contacts — including breaks, meetings, training, absenteeism, and other non-productive activities..

Service Level

Service level is the percentage of contacts answered within a defined target time, most often expressed as an "X/Y" goal — for example, answering 80% of calls or chats within 20 seconds..

Contact Rate

Contact rate is the number of support contacts a business receives relative to its customer base or transaction volume — a measure of how often customers need to reach out for help..

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