What do repeat requests cost you?
Billing questions, access requests, status checks: the same requests, answered by hand, all day. Put in rough numbers and see what that queue costs a year, and how much fixing it could be worth.
a year of staff time that could go to work that needs judgement
- Staff hours per month
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- Full-time people on this queue
- –
- Cost of the queue per year
- –
- …of which routine
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- Hours freed per month
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- Most you could spend on fixing it (3× rule)
- –
Full-time person = 140 productive hours a month. Estimates only; amounts in Bahamian dollars (equal to US$).
Want a second opinion on these numbers?
Send us these numbers and we’ll reply with what we would look at first, and whether it is worth measuring properly. If it isn’t, we’ll say so.
How the numbers are worked out
The calculator multiplies volume by handling time to get staff hours, prices those hours, then keeps only the routine part you would hand to a digital clerk.
Staff hours per month = requests × minutes ÷ 60
Full-time people = staff hours ÷ 140
Cost per year = staff hours × 12 × loaded hourly cost
Value freed per year = cost per year × routine share × automated share
3× ceiling = value freed per year ÷ 3
What it leaves out
- Faster answers for your customers, fewer complaints and fewer repeat contacts. These are real but hard to price, so we don’t count them.
- Peaks. A queue that spikes after each billing run needs more people at peak than the average suggests.
- The cost of running the fix. That is what the 3× margin is for.
The verdict uses simple thresholds: under B$15,000 a year freed, a project rarely makes sense; under B$60,000, start with cheap fixes; above that, the queue is worth measuring with real counts.
Questions
What counts as a “request”?
Any message that arrives and needs a person to deal with it: a call, an email, a WhatsApp message, a walk-in, a form. Count each one once, even if it takes several replies.
What should I put for loaded hourly cost?
Salary plus everything that comes with it: employer NIB, health insurance, pension, paid leave, supervision and space. A quick rule is salary per hour × 1.3. Our employee cost calculator works it out for you.
What is the 3× rule?
We only recommend building something if the first year’s savings are at least three times what it costs. The calculator turns that around: it shows the most you could spend on fixing this queue and still pass.
Is the estimate reliable?
It is only as good as the inputs. Most teams underestimate minutes per request, because follow-ups, look-ups and call-backs are invisible. Two weeks of simple tallies usually changes the picture; that is the first thing our Operations Diagnostic does.
Is my data sent anywhere?
No. Everything is calculated in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent unless you choose to use the form at the bottom of the page.
Want real numbers instead of estimates?
The Operations Diagnostic counts your actual requests for four weeks and tells you, with a business case, whether to build. If it doesn’t pass the 3× test, we say don’t.