The failure of call centers
Why are call centres failing?
Leading call centre experts believe it is because of the very measures put in place to improve them.
Call centre experts Stuart Corrigan and Ron Skea have been studying poor performing contact centres for 10 years. They claim that every blue chip organisation they have studied are using metrics, measures and design that are actually causing the call centres to fail.
As Corrigan shared, “Call centre managers are taught that to optimise, call centres must manage their staff based on productivity measures (time per call, number of calls and wrap up time). What managers don’t see is the poor service and high cost associated with this design.”
The call centre experts also claimed that it’s common for up to 60% of call centre demand to be caused by a failure of the systems and processes of the organisation itself. Ron Skea explains, “when customers don’t get what they want when they call a contact centre, they inevitably end up calling back. This time they are angry and the calls take longer. When managers dump the thinking rooted in industry norms, service improves and costs fall dramatically.”
Skea saw this first hand during his time as operations director at the VELUX contact centre. During this time he stopped all the usual metrics and functional design widely espoused as industry standards. Within a two year period away from these metrics they achieved:
• 12 functional units combined into a single point of contact for all customer transactions
• One stop capability in excess of 94%
• Highest customer satisfaction ratings of all VELUX sales companies in Europe
• Employee turnover and absence rates less than half the industry norm
• Call centre agent productivity increased by 30%
• Independent research found highest levels of employee engagement of any organisation studied
• Operating costs reduced by in excess of £1,000,000
• Average wait time reduced to 8 seconds
• Overall staffing 30% lower than would have been without systems intervention
• Failure demand and waste reduced dramatically
Having proved their theories and results in call centres like VELUX, Eon, Fujitsu, Standard Life, HBOS and many others, Corrigan and Skea have now decided to release at taster of their method for free on the Vanguard Scotland website in the hopes of improving customer service for everyone.
Interested parties can sample their theory in a free seven part series available via
http://www.callcentre-
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Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
