Missed opportunity estimates and reports
Estimate missed chats, potential sales and staffing needs from visitor demand and observed handling patterns.
What it is
Missed Opportunities estimates chat demand you could have served if more capacity had been available. It combines visitor traffic, chat activity, operator availability and recorded sales to estimate missed chats, missed sales and Revenue Lost. It also recommends operator capacity and availability time for the estimated demand.
Who uses it and why
- Supervisors compare demand with available operator capacity and identify hours where additional coverage might help.
- Administrators review commercial assumptions, staffing, chat limits and coverage with their teams.
Where to find it
Open Reports › Live Chat › Missed Opportunities with the Reports role. For subsite analysis, use Reports › Live Chat › Missed Opportunities(Subsite Restricted). Your assigned reporting access limits the data you can see.
For the dashboard, open Service Overview › Missed Opportunities. This tab requires the Manager or Developer role, with reporting and the WFM dashboard enabled for your website.
How it works
- Select your reporting period and channel, or select subsites in the subsite-restricted report.
- Choose hourly, daily or weekly grouping and whether to include offline opportunities, then select Apply Filters.
- Compare recorded activity with the estimated and recommended columns. In the dashboard, select a date and channel to explore the hourly pattern.
INSIDE calculates the estimates for each hour:
- It estimates Missed Opportunity Visitors from unique visitors and the proportion of traffic recorded as potential missed opportunities, capped at 100%.
- It applies observed chat take-up, also capped at 100%, to estimate Missed Chats.
- It multiplies rounded missed chats by the conversion rate to estimate Missed Sales, then multiplies rounded missed sales by average order value to calculate Revenue Lost. The calculated conversion rate uses chat and sales evidence from the sales attribution period.
- It uses chats already handled plus estimated missed chats, average handling time and concurrency to recommend operator capacity and availability time. Staffing calculations use at least one concurrent handling slot.
When an hour has effectively no operator availability, INSIDE can use daily averages for chat take-up, handling time and concurrency. An hour without sales can use the day's average order value. Sparse activity can therefore make estimates depend heavily on daily averages.
Daily and weekly results add the hourly estimates. FTE Operators expresses equivalent availability time, so a recommendation is not simply a count of people to schedule simultaneously.
Configure it
Ask Powerfront to turn on Enable Reports and Enable WFM Dashboard for your website. These switches make reporting and the WFM dashboard available. Powerfront manages them and can confirm your website's current setup. Someone with the Settings or Manager role can manage account roles and reporting access at Settings › Account › Operators.
Choose the period, grouping and available scope filters in the historical report. In the dashboard:
- Offline Opportunities starts off. Turn it on to include hours with effectively no recorded operator capacity in the displayed rows and totals.
- Essential Columns starts on and reduces the number of displayed columns. Turn it off to inspect the fuller set of inputs and estimates.
- Override Conversion Rate starts off. Turn it on to use the Conversion Rate slider instead of the calculated rate. The slider initially shows 10% and spans 0% to 100%; the 10% assumption only applies when the override is on.
These selections change your analysis. They do not change recorded purchases, sales attribution credit, operator schedules or chat limits. Turn off Override Conversion Rate to return to the calculated conversion rate.
Sales attribution, website currency, operator exclusions and regional settings affect the inputs or their presentation. Review those settings when comparing results across periods or accounts. Use the available report or dashboard downloads to review and share your selected estimates.
Permissions
| Permission | Lets you |
|---|---|
| Reports | Open the historical Missed Opportunities reports, subject to report availability and assigned data restrictions. |
| Manager | Access the Missed Opportunities dashboard when reporting and the WFM dashboard are enabled. |
| Developer | Access the Missed Opportunities dashboard when reporting and the WFM dashboard are enabled. |
Limits and good to know
- Missed chats, missed sales, Revenue Lost and staffing recommendations are estimates. They do not record actual abandoned purchases or guarantee results from adding staff.
- The offline threshold is 0.005 FTE. Excluding offline opportunities changes which hours contribute to the result.
- Daily and weekly FTE aggregation uses an eight-hour workday. Weeks start on Monday.
- INSIDE rounds missed visitors, chats and sales during calculation, then sums interval estimates. Recalculating from displayed totals can produce a different answer.
- Sparse traffic, no sales or very little operator availability can make estimates less useful. Review the inputs as well as the revenue figure.
- The historical report excludes intervals beyond the available reporting data.
- Channel and subsite restrictions can make your report cover a smaller part of the business than a colleague's report.
Depends on and works with
+1 more · this feature uses
- Report downloads and email sharingEnhances
Report and dashboard downloads support further review and sharing of the selected estimates.
View all connections as a list
This feature uses
- Admin settings and feature switches · managed by PowerfrontConfigured by
Powerfront manages reporting and WFM dashboard enablement.
- Roles and permissionsConfigured by
Report and dashboard access depend on operator roles.
- Website, channel and subsite accessConfigured by
Assigned channel and subsite access restricts report data; requested subsites are limited to permitted reporting subsites.
- Sales attribution to conversations and operatorsConfigured by
Sales attribution settings affect the conversion evidence and sales values used in estimates.
- Purchase currencies and conversionConfigured by
Website currency settings determine the money used for order value and revenue estimates.
- Report selection and filtersRequires
Provides the historical reporting workspace and its date, grouping, channel and subsite filters.
- Reports data and metric definitionsConfigured by
Operator exclusions and regional settings affect the inputs used for estimates.
- Service Overview dashboardConfigured by
Service Overview provides the dashboard, whose offline-opportunity and conversion-rate controls change the estimates; compare them with workforce monitoring.
- Report downloads and email sharingEnhances
Report and dashboard downloads support further review and sharing of the selected estimates.
Used by
- Service Overview dashboardEnhances
Missed Opportunities compares observed capacity with estimated additional demand, staffing and opportunity estimates.
FAQ and troubleshooting
Why is there no data for hours when nobody was available?
Turn on Offline Opportunities in the dashboard, or include offline opportunities in the historical report. Estimates for these hours can use daily averages where operator capacity is missing.
Does Revenue Lost mean customers definitely would have bought?
No. INSIDE applies observed or assumed conversion and average order value to estimated missed chats. Use it as a planning estimate.
Does a recommendation of two FTE mean two operators online all day?
No. FTE measures equivalent availability time. The recommendation accounts for handling duration and concurrent chats. Review the hourly pattern and the eight-hour aggregation assumption when planning shifts.
Why did changing Conversion Rate change missed revenue?
With Override Conversion Rate on, INSIDE uses your chosen rate to estimate missed sales and revenue. Recorded sales remain the same. Turn the override off to return to the calculated rate.
Why doesn't my calculation from the totals match?
INSIDE rounds at intermediate stages and sums hourly estimates. It does not apply one conversion rate and order value to the full displayed visitor total.
Why does my colleague see different results?
Compare the date, grouping, channel, subsite selection and offline-opportunity option, plus any dashboard conversion override. Your assigned reporting restrictions may also differ.
Why can't I see the Missed Opportunities dashboard tab?
The tab needs the Manager or Developer role, plus enabled reporting and the WFM dashboard. Someone with Settings or Manager can review your account roles. Ask Powerfront to check website enablement.