Capture the key considerations for each potential cost
reduction. You can use a table like the example shown in Figure 2
to record your thoughts and observations for
each potential cost reduction initiative. The
Controlling the Cost of Call Center Operations toolkit provides
templates and specific considerations for each of the 52 cost reduction
initiatives identified by the Cost Reduction Framework.
|
Initiative:
________________________________________________________________________
|
|
Considerations |
Assessment |
Notes |
| Accountability |
|
|
| Applicable to your business |
|
|
| Complexity of solution |
|
|
| Time to implement |
|
|
| Impact on service quality |
|
|
| Cost savings impact |
|
|
| Cost of solution |
|
|
| Ability to measure success |
|
|
| Impact on service quality |
|
|
| Return on investment |
|
|
| Other effects |
|
|
Figure 2 - Example selection criteria table
© Prosci and Centerserve
Threshold criteria
Once you have documented the implications of each initiative, you
will need to narrow your long list of potential projects down to a short
list by setting threshold criteria. These are also called "go/no
go criteria" or "show
stoppers."
Show stoppers are characteristics that will make or break an initiative.
Example criteria could be:
-
ROI - Initiatives must
have ROI of more than 15%.
-
Time - Initiatives must
have a payback period of less than 12 months.
-
Cost - Initiatives must
be less than $500K in the implementation cost in the first year.
-
Strategy - Initiatives
must be directly aligned with a given business or call center
strategy.
-
Customer - Initiatives
must result in positive impact on customer relationships.
These examples and others that may be unique to your situation can be
used as a "GO" or "NO
GO" decision that will result in a shorter list of
initiatives to consider.
Prioritizing and moving forward
Given a final short list of activities that have survived the
threshold criteria, you can
rank
these initiatives with a simple scoring process. Begin by creating
a spreadsheet like the table in Figure 3. Your potential projects
will be listed in the first column, with your selection criteria in the
first row. For each project, rank on a
scale of 1 to 5 each criteria (1 being the worst score, 5
being the best). Note that each criteria item also has a separate
weighting factor. In some
cases, it is useful to use a non-linear weighting approach. For
example, 1, 3, or 10. This non-linear weighting scale allows some
criteria to play a dominating role in the final scoring.
In the spreadsheet model you have created, you can add up the
total score (multiply the rank for
each criteria by the weighting factor) for each potential project, and
the result is a ranking of the best projects for your call center.
The
Controlling the Cost of Call Center Operations toolkit includes
spreadsheets to assist in the ranking and prioritization of your
selected initiatives.
| |
Time to implement |
Cost
to implement |
Total cost
savings |
Return on investment |
Customer
impact |
Total
(sum of score * weighting factor) |
|
Criteria weight |
1 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
|
| New email system |
2 |
3 |
1 |
5 |
2 |
30 |
| Update IVR |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
14 |
| Use part-time agents |
2 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
2 |
23 |
| New desktop software |
3 |
4 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
51 |
Figure 3 - Example prioritization matrix
In this example, the "new desktop software" ranks the
highest, and "update IVR" ranks the lowest. You can use this
technique for just a few projects or for ranking 50 projects.
The most important aspects of this type of process are:
-
Get agreement
on the criteria early in the process.
-
Decide for each criteria what results in a
score of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 and be
consistent across all projects.
-
Agree in advance what the relative
weighting of criteria will be.
With the completion of the ranking exercise,
Module 1,
and
Module 2
of this tutorial series, you should have a strong starting point for
reducing the cost of your call center operations. For complete
information, including checklists for examining all cost components and
six worksheets on CD-ROM to facilitate the prioritization and selection
processes, see the
Controlling the Cost of Call Center Operations toolkit.
|
