Why Call Centres Fail

The First 18 Months are critical.In this Study 64 Call Centres had ceased operation and been disbanded

Why?

The 3 distinct Phases of a Call Centre’s life :

• I. Operational Phase ( 6-12 months)• II. Expansion Phase (12-18 months)• III. Integration Phase ( + 18 months)

Initial 6-12 Months …

• No or little People Management skills

• Cost/Benefit ; no or poor documentation

• Lack of Process Mapping/ Focus on Automation & IT

• Design Senior to Customer Needs

• Too much emphasis in product and service design and not enough on improvement

• Neglecting investments in capital and human resources

• Failing to establish good internal communications• Failing to consider customer wants and needs

Mission/Strategy/Tactics

StrategyStrategy TacticsTacticsMissionMission

How does mission, strategies and tactics relate todecision making and distinctive competencies?

Strategy

• Strategies– Plans for achieving organizational goals

• Mission– The reason for existence for an organization

• Mission Statement– Answers the question “What business are we in?”

• Goals– Provide detail and scope of mission

• Tactics– The methods and actions taken to accomplish strategies

Mission

Goals

Organizational Strategies

Functional Goals

Finance Strategies

MarketingStrategies

OperationsStrategies

Tactics Tactics Tactics

Operatingprocedures

Operatingprocedures

Operatingprocedures

Planning and Decision Making

Operations Strategy

• Operations strategy – The approach, consistent with organization strategy, that is used to guide the operations function.

Quality Strategies

• Quality-based strategies– Focuses on maintaining or

improving the quality of an organization’s products or services

– Quality at the source

• Time-based strategies– Focuses on reduction of time

needed to accomplish tasks

Time-based Strategies

JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN

Planning

Processing

Changeover On time!

Designing

Delivery

Productivity

• Productivity– A measure of the effective use of resources, usually expressed as the ratio of

output to input• Productivity ratios are used for

– Planning workforce requirements– Scheduling equipment– Financial analysis

Productivity GrowthProductivity Growth

Productivity Growth =

Current Period Productivity – Previous Period ProductivityPrevious Period Productivity

Factors Affecting Productivity

Capital Quality

Technology Management

Other Factors Affecting Productivity

• Standardization• Quality• Use of Internet• Searching for lost or misplaced items• New workers• Safety• Shortage of IT workers• Layoffs• Labor turnover• Design of the workspace• Incentive plans that reward productivity

Expansion Phase (12-18 months)

• False Benchmarks

The TARP 1997 Teleservice Benchmark Studies have got it right and spent considerable time with the report-sponsors to define Outcomes which reflects, not so much the number of calls or the length of calls, but rather how the call influenced the caller to interact with the company. This is major breakthrough and will help influence Call Centre Managers align their Call Centre activities to the business purpose of the organization paying the bills.

Expansion Phase (12-18 months)Coaching Culture Call Centre

• Motivate staff to Increase Potential• People Management is the Key• Continuous development of Work Processes &

Purpose of Job• Management involved with Work Situation

Key Ingredients of Coaching Culture

• Monitoring• Appraisal of skills and performance• Coaching to improve identified barriers to

communication & relationship building

Summary of Failures

• Benchmarks not Focused on Outcomes• Planning inadequate in Scope and long Term

Needs• Lack of Call Centre People Management Know

How• Call Centre Purpose unaligned to Organizational

Purpose