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TELECOMMUNICATIONS

CALL CENTER

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Our client is one of Canada’s leading national communications providers, delivering innovative products and services to their customers in consumer and business markets across Canada. They produce approximately $1.9 billion in revenues annually. Through their national broadband network, they provide a wide range of communication solutions including high-speed Internet, wireless, digital TV, converged IP, and unified communications. The PVA project was completed within their customer call centre which represents approximately 600 employees.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS PROJECTS

Objectives

  • Improving the scheduling process to better match and balance work hours to call volumes.
  • Increasing the call center’s productivity levels over their historical performance levels.
  • Impacting positively the customer experience, specifically related to grade of service (GOS) and average handle time (AHT).
  • Clarifying roles and responsibilities of the First-Line Managers and middle Managers.
  • Enhancing the current Management Operating Systems (MOS) and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to better manage, control, and measure operational effectiveness.

Assessment Findings

  • Work Time

  • Non-effective Time

  • Customer Service Representatives (CSR’s):
    • Putting Customers on hold for up to 6-7 minutes to retrieve information resulting in Grade of Service (GOS) levels less than 50%.
    • Putting Customers on hold so that customers will “feel” that they are being helped.
    • Not controlling calls with Customers causing longer than necessary discussions.
  • Ineffective scheduling of labor resources (the number of CSR’s at work did not match the call volume profiles).
  • CSR’s were unsure about normal operating procedures and needed assistance from management.
  • Inadequate CSR knowledge as it related to Customer needs and Customer interaction skills (i.e. CSR’s would repeatedly interrupt Customers).
  • CSR’s looking for assistance where none may be available and disturbing other CSR’s in the process.
  • First-Line Managers spent a great deal of their time completing administrative activities.
  • First-Line Managers had access to on-line service indicators and CSR performance information but they were not using this information to proactively address opportunities with their CSR’s.
  • First-Line Managers generally let the level of activity follow its course, leaving the CSR’s to manage the work volumes.
  • First-Line Managers were not communicating or following-up on any expectations with regards to how long a call should take or service levels.
  • Performance issues were part of the daily work activities that took place in the area and there was no dynamic problem resolution process in place.

PVA's Response

  • Clarified roles and responsibilities of the First-Line Managers, and increased the levels of proactive supervision being performed by the First-Line Managers.
  • Analyzed the +/- Performance Analysis Report throughout the day (which matches labor hours available to call volume demand), and made scheduling adjustments as required.
  • Increased CSR participation in both reporting performance levels, and identifying and resolving operational problems.
  • Trained and coached the CSR’s on product / service “Up Selling”.
  • Implemented call performance work activity standards.
  • Trained and coached the First-Line Managers on understanding and managing the relationship between various metrics to increase overall effectiveness of the department.
  • Increased Grade of Service (GOS) levels while reducing average handling time (AHT).
  • Enhanced the planning and forecasting activities for the call centers which drove their ability to manage crewing levels according to volume profiles.
  • Identified and managed “not ready”’ time factors to increase the effectiveness of the First-Line Managers in driving improvements with through CSR’s.
  • Developed and implemented weekly reporting processes, Management Operating Systems (MOS), and Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) based on key measures such as: GOS, AHT, ASA, Total Not Ready Time, % Not Ready, and productivity (calls per hour worked and orders per hour worked).
  • Developed and implemented CSR skills training programs with a specific focus on call control and maximizing the “customer experience”.

The Results

Some significant results obtained by our Client included:

  • 26% improvement in GOS (Grade of Service).
  • 10-15% improvement in AHT (Average Handling Time).
  • 15-40% improvement in Not Ready Time.
  • 30% improvement in calls handles per hour worked.
  • 30-50% improvement in ASA (Average Speed of Answer).

Improvement in Supervisory Activities

Telecommunications Call Center Supervisory Activities

PRE-PROJECT
4% 1% 72% 1% 22%
POST-PROJECT
45% 5% 35% 0% 15%
  • Active Supervision
  • Training
  • Administration
  • Manual Work
  • Available

Improvement in Consumer Sales & Service

Telecommunications Call Center Calls / Hr (Consumer Sales & Service)

Telecommunications Call Center Grade of Service

Telecommunications Call Center Total Savings

Long Term Work Continuation

  • A Client Coordinator was trained and certified during the PVA engagement.
  • A quarterly audit program of the new Management Operating System was developed for the Coordinator.
  • PVA conducted audits over 18 months to ensure compliance to the continued utilization of the Management Operating Systems.
  • These Audits resulted in recommendations and action plans to further identify additional opportunities for improving operations.
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$1.15
+ BILLION SAVED
4.2
AVERAGE ROI
28
YEARS
580
+ ENGAGEMENTS
220
+ CLIENTS

The PVA tools empowered our front line managers, and the way they worked with our Director team to drive these changes through was quick and noticeable within a few short weeks. Again from my Support role, the opportunity gathering was a great lesson learned in combination with Director and corrective team prioritization has been a huge asset to my team and finding the greatest most cost effective win for our employees. Boosting Employee morale, in terms of a feeling of their concerns are being heard and addressed. As well, bringing additional opportunities to the forefront we have never considered before. The experiences I have had with those groups who have adopted the PVA methodology has been very effective and practical. It has been over a Year, and we continue to see the positive results from our sales manager/teams with the time they now spend with their employees and out from behind their desks.