Telecommunications - Retail Call Centre


  BALANCING PRODUCTIVITY AND GRADE OF SERVICE

COUNTRY: Canada

PRIORITY OBJECTIVES:

The priority objectives can be summarized as the following:

  • To increase productivity over their base performance.
  • To positively impact customer experience – grade of service (GOS), average handle time (AHT), etc.

In addition, the changes needed to be sustained. A Coordinator was trained to support this objective through the implementation of the PIT Process and Internal Audits.

PVA’s RESPONSE:

These objectives were achieved through working collaboratively with the Client to:

  • Clarify roles and responsibilities and increase the levels of active supervision being performed by the Managers.
    • Managers are now spending more time actively supervising their people and less time on technical process issues and projects. They are now regularly reviewing employee work performance data, conducting 2-3 tours per day, sharing the employee’s results directly with them, and working on action plans to improve performance.

  • Increase employee participation in both reporting performance and problem solving.  
    • Employee logs are now gathering previously unreported data on departmental work activity and major variances.
    • Employees are now receiving appropriate feedback that enables them to better contribute to their team’s success.

  • Implement manual work performance standards and enhance the planning and forecasting activities for the departments.
    • Observations were used to develop performance standards, enhancements were made to the weekly scheduling process, and Master Schedules were implemented to match call volumes to hours required.

  • Enhance Management Operating Systems and KPIs to manage and measure more effectively.
    • A new weekly report was implemented that combined traditional KPIs, with some new measures, and increased the focus on some others that had not previously been regularly analyzed.

  • Focus on continuous improvement through base data development, enhanced target setting and the further development of team goals.
    • The new weekly report now provides base and target information on key indicators allowing for improved trending and decision-making.

PROJECT RESULTS:

The following improvements have been realized:

  • Increased productivity (earned hours over actual hours)
  • Increased calls / orders completed per hour worked
  • Increased levels of GOS (grade of service)
  • Decreased levels of AHT (average handle time), ASA (average speed of answer), Not ready time

PERPETUATION OF RESULTS:

In order to ensure that the above improvements are sustained the following activities were established:

  • A Coordinator was trained and certified to be responsible for maintaining all aspects of the project installation through audits and coaching.
  • A Process Improvement Team (PIT) was installed to manage improvement opportunities that will continue to be submitted by the employees.
  • The local management team is committed to sustaining all of the changes and staying the course.

PVA External Audits have begun and are scheduled to take place over an 18 month window and will further support the sustainment and evolution of the implemented changes.

CLIENT TESTIMONIAL:

“With the assistance and guidance of the PVA professionals we were able to transition the managerial environment from one which avoided dealing with the root cause of issues and did not focus on the day to day direct management of staff effectiveness into a highly engaged environment, involving a direct link between employee effort and the desired key performance indicators for the group. After 3 intense, focused months we were able to demonstrate a true productivity improvement of 25%. The development of the Management Operating System leveraging active supervision has enabled employees to focus on the direct impact they have in delivering the overall key results for the area and has turned around a complex and costly area of our business.

- Rick McMillin, Vice President Retail Sales, MTSallstream Inc.