Best-in-class
call centers: Scorecards for success
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How does your call center stack up?
The first step toward delivering world-class customer
service in today's environment is to separate the different
components that contribute to a successful call center and
evaluate your performance in each area. This series
will focus on the Contact Center Model, which breaks the
call center into its five key components - Strategy,
Processes, Technology, Human Resources and Facilities.
Each section will include a short scorecard to evaluate your
current call center performance.
Module 1: The Contact
Center Model
Module 2: Strategy
Module 3: Processes
Module 4: Technology
Module 5: Human
Resources
Module 6: Facilities
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If
you don't see the penguin, it's not Centerserve. |
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Click here to download tutorial as PDF
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Module 3: Processes
This tutorial
continues our evaluation of the Contact Center Model and
provides a scorecard for examining the second component, Processes.
Context
The Contact Center Model,
shown in Figure 1, illustrates the importance of strategy in the overall
health and success of a call center. To learn more about the
Contact Center Model, see
Module 1 of
this tutorial series.
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Figure 1 - Prosci's Contact Center Model
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Processes
Without clear processes, customer contact would lack a clear
path of resolution. The core of your call center operation
are your business processes, including:
-
why and how customers will contact you
- how your agents handle
customer interactions
- how your call center handles
day-to-day business
transactions and operations
- how you manage your call center
staff and scheduling
Impact of call center strategy
Before you can take an in-depth look at your call center processes,
you need to
understand the
role
that the call center plays in the success of your organization.
Your business strategy is the critical starting point for planning a
call center, and a necessary prerequisite to optimizing the performance
of your call center. To learn more about call center business
strategy planning, see Module 2
of this tutorial series.
Evaluate yourself on the following questions. All questions
are on a 1 - 5 scale, with 5 being the highest score and 1 being the lowest score. For
each statement, circle the appropriate score for your call center.
1. Our
business processes, including hiring, training, quality monitoring, workforce
management, performance management, systems maintenance and disaster recovery, are
well-documented and up-to-date.
1 2 3 4
5
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2. Our contact routing and
contact handling processes are well-documented and up-to-date.
1 2 3 4
5
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3. We have
performance measures assigned to each business process and each customer contact
process and data are collected and analyzed on a regular basis to indicate our current
performance levels and trends. Continuous process improvement
methods are in place.
1 2 3 4
5
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4. We collect
customer satisfaction data and benchmark our performance against competitors
and non-competitors in order to set performance goals.
1 2 3 4
5
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Total points you received out of 20 possible = _____
Total your score for this short assessment. This score will
give you an overall indicator of the "health" of your call center
strategy:
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Score |
Rating |
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16-20 |
Excellent |
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12-15 |
Good |
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8-11 |
Fair |
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5-7 |
Poor |
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4 |
Failing |
Processes in the call center
Processes are abundant in all areas of the call center. The
table below outlines the most common call centers processes:
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Process
Component |
Description |
Contact types and volumes
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The core data that affects all of your
call center processes is why and how customers contact
your center. You should have a solid understanding
of the following information:
-
Why customers are contacting your center
(order-taking, sales activities, billing,
collections, technical support, etc.)
-
How customers are contacting your center (phone,
email, web chat, fax, postal mail)
-
How often customer are contacting your center
(contact volume)
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Contact routing
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Contact routing is the process of
getting the customer to an appropriate agent for
assistance. Centers should
customize routing on
business and customer needs. |
Customer contact processes
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Call centers should
detail how each type
of contact will be handled
to ensure that your customers
are handled effectively and efficiently. |
Workforce management processes
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To manage an efficient call center, it
is critical to accurately forecast the quantity of work
to be done and to schedule the right number of agents to
complete the work. Overstaffing is bad for the
budget and understaffing results in poor customer
service and frustrated employees. |
Productivity and performance reports
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The best call centers have established
goals based on business needs
that everyone works
toward. Reports provide managers with information
on performance and productivity so they can see
how individuals and groups are meeting those goals.
Armed with this data, managers and supervisors can make
decisions and run the call center more efficiently in
the short and long term. |
Quality monitoring program
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Quality monitoring is the
process of observing an agent's interactions
with a customer (via telephone call, email,
text chat, web call, fax) and providing feedback based
upon predefined criteria of an evaluation form or
scorecard. Every contact center needs a quality monitoring
program to understand how it is performing. Scores
indicate not only how an individual agent handles
contacts, but also provide insights on the performance
of other areas of the organization, such as training,
technology, tools and processes. |
Contact center policies
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You must also design an
administrative framework to ensure the
smooth-functioning of your contact center that
addresses:
- the
policies that your center follows
- the
administrative procedures you have in place
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Internal and external communication
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Communication must be
considered at both internal and external levels:
-
internal audiences include call center team,
management, IT, Human Resources and other relevant
departments
-
external audiences
include partners and
suppliers, vendor support and of course, customers
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Operations, administration and maintenance (OA&M) plans
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Call center technology is an
essential part of the center's operations. This
technology needs constant care and attention to assure
ongoing service delivery. The OA&M plan details:
- who the user will contact and when for
system
support
-
who will perform each OA&M task and
how often
-
escalation and communication procedures for
technical problem resolution
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Disaster recovery planning
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You must be prepared to
handle customer contacts in the event of a
business
disruption. Examples of a business disruption can
include weather events, natural disasters, fire,
computer system crashes, illness, epidemic or labor
strikes. It is essential to have on hand a
well-documented and up-to-date business continuity plan
so that everyone is aware of what to do when an event
occurs. |
How effective are your call center processes?
Think about the process from the
table above that has the greatest impact
on your call center operation. Then ask yourself the follow
questions:
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Is the process well-defined?
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Is the process well-documented?
-
Is the process in-control?
If you answered "no" or "maybe" to any of the three questions, you
need to take a deeper look at the process to determine how to make it as
effective as possible. The
Call
Center Planning and Design Toolkit contains a
Master Planning Guide to lead you
through the process evaluation and redesign. This toolkit
addresses call center processes with checklists
and guidelines to make certain that all critical process
elements are present.
The 2007 Call Center Best Practices Reports
from Centerserve will be released in March 2007 and contain an
entire report dedicated to business processes in the call
center.
Email Us for additional information.
Summary
This tutorial focused on the important components of call center
business processes and how to determine if they are relevant and
efficient for your organization.
The
Call
Center Planning and Design Toolkit contains a
Master Planning Guide to lead you
through the process of reassessing your strategy. It will help
you identify the areas for improvement, and it gives you detailed
steps on how to evaluate each identified area. The toolkit
provides step-by-step instructions, templates and checklists for
developing your own specific Contact Center Model - including your
strategy, processes, technology, human resources and facilities. Key
aspects of the
Call
Center Planning and Design Toolkit include:
- a comprehensive planning checklist and design guidelines for
successfully setting up a new call center or redesigning your existing call center
- the approach and tools to help you create a contact center strategy
and manage the implementation effectively
Find out more about the Planning and Design Toolkit by visiting the webpage, emailing callcenters@prosci.com or by calling 970-203-9332
to speak with an analyst.
Coming up...
The next tutorial in this series will provide a
scorecard for evaluating technology in your call center.
Recommended
resources:
This tutorial
provided information from Prosci's
Call Center Planning and Design
Toolkit. This toolkit can be used for starting or
reengineering call center operations for improved performance.
More information on this and other call center products can be found
in our Bookstore.
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Call Center Planning and
Design Toolkit |
A comprehensive guide to call center
strategy, planning and design;
an excellent resource for new contact center
start-ups, existing call center
improvement and future planning with detailed
templates and planning roadmaps. |
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Best Practices Reports |
Over 240 call centers from around the world share
how they have improved service quality, productivity and
customer satisfaction. This report shares
lessons learned by
call center managers regarding their
most effective management
practices. |
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Call Center Business
Performance Packages |
Find a call center package to meet your needs and
save 20-25% off the
list price. |
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