New Quality Assurance Standards for the BPO Industry ... · Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO 2...

1Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO

New Quality Assurance Standards for the

BPO Industry – Carrot or Stick?

Keryn HouseCEO

ContactinGauteng

7 June 2007


Contents

� South Africa’s call centres serve a significant domestic market, in

addition to a growing international market.

� Bad experiences with call centres can damage the brand of a

company and lose customers.

� South Africa has taken a stand in working with the industry and

SABS to create a new set of standards for the call centre and BPO

(business process outsourcing) sector.

� Keryn will expand on the benefits and challenges of these standards

for the industry, and the international and local implications of the

quality initiative on job creation, profitability and brand equity


Brand Damage?

Overall

score

(not an

average)

Edgars Fashion Hotline 19 seconds 4,5/5 4,5/5 4/5 4/5

Woolworths 10 seconds 4/5 4/5 4/5 4/5

McCarthy Call-a-car 13sec 5/5 5/5 5/5 5/5

DHL 17sec 5/5 5/5 5/5 5/5

Fedex 1 minute; 10 seconds 2/5 4/5 5/5 3/5

FNB 30 seconds; 1 minute 3,5/5 3/5 4/5 4/5

Go Banking 35 seconds 3,5/5 4/5 5/5 4/5

Dial-Direct 15sec 5/5 4/5 4/5 4,5/5

1LifeDirect 40sec 4/5 4/5 4/5 4/5

Multichoice 4 min 30 sec 3/5 5/5 4/5 2,5/5

Autopage 1 minute 1/5 4/5 4/5 2/5

Virgin Mobile 30sec 0/5 5/5 5/5 3/5

Not answering call: 45min

(2nd time around) 10sec

Telkom 45 seconds 1/5 2,5/5 2,5/5 1/5

TelkomInternet 7 minutes 23 seconds 2,5/5 3/5 3/5 2/5

Joburg Connect

Time taken to get through greetings:

30 seconds Time taken to answer call:

45 seconds 2/5 0/5 1/5 1/5

13sec

Time taken to respond to urgent

escalation: 63 hours

Source:

www.fin24.co.za

Colour

code

SA call centre score card

Courtesy

of agentTime taken to answer call

First

Impression

Ability to

answer query

Vodacom 0/5 5/5 5/5 1/5

SA Revenue Service 4/5 0/5 4/5 1/5

25 May 07


The tip of the “iceberg” (Positioning) drives the execution of all the brand elements,

including those that are not “visible”.

Companies must manage all the brand elements (or risk lack of credibility in their market)

Source: Harvard Business Review, adapted by Perry and Associates & CiG.

Brand Name

Advertising & Promotions

Logo’s or Emblems

Brand Identity Products / Services

Internal & External Environments

External & Internal Communications

Training & Development

Information & Knowledge Management

Perceived Quality

HRCRM

Brand ValuesIT / E-Commerce

Business Process

Investor Liaison

Brand Loyalty

Brand Assets

“Brand”

Target Segment

Positioning

Benefits

Substantiation

Exe

cuti

on

Positioning

Tangible Expression

Internal Resources

Str

ateg

y/P

olic

y

Call Centre?


What are the Standards?

‘The Standards’ are a framework of management

principles, practices and processes for BPO – and

they require that specific ‘performance metrics’

are measured…

…Until published they are called ‘A Recommended

Practice’ (ARP-99)…

…Once published they will become official

standards called ‘TC-99’


A working group of industry representatives has been working on these standards for almost 2 years, supported by the Business Trust and the dti

Source: www.sabs.co.za


Benefits of Adopting the Standards

�Your basic guide to running a good BPO operation

�A marketing competitive edge for your company

�Operational success – bottom line impact!

�Benchmarking of your operation

�Management information

�Industry information

�Agreed definitions of performance measures

�Avoiding ‘school fees’


Challenges of Adopting the Standards

�Unconscious vs Conscious incompetence?

�Investment in time, expertise, training and

infrastructure

�Shortly, anyone will be able to buy the ARP (draft

standards) online from SABS at a minimal fee.

So best start now!


Example of ARP-99 Metrics: Inbound Performance

95%60%70%85%90%90%Non Fatal Error Accuracy

97%40%65%85%80%70%Fatal Error Accuracy

10%15%20%2%0%0%Attrition

10%29%15%10%8%5%Absenteeism

180s90s190s185s175s180sAHT

Max 80%88%66%75%68%65%Occupancy

-25001100180012001000Volume

3%45%30%25%10%5%Abandonment Rate

70/3047%68%62%75%80%Service level

TargetMAMFebJan

Source: Industry working group


Implications for the Local BPO Industry

�Raising the image of the sector to the South

African consumer – Too often we hear the man on

the street say (often on air): “I hate call centres”

�Raising the profile of the sector in the economy* as

a quality value-add to efficiency and job creation

�Growing the pie for all in outsourcing – including

executive buy-in

* BPO is a strategic sector for SA, and part of ASGISA


India:� Expanding to Tier 2 &

Tier 3 cities� Managed analytics and

build service

Southeast Asia:� Investments in Malaysia and Thailand� Competitive rates to U.S., Japan and

Australia� Centrally located in Asia/Pacific

Canada:� Less labor arbitrage� Still good fit for U.S.

Ireland:� Financial services� High tech� Strong service levels� Less cost-effective

Philippines:� Customer care� Retention focus, less

extension

Eastern Europe:� Language skills ahead of written skills� Fear of geopolitical instability in region� Increasing expansion by key suppliers

China:� Language constraints for English� Cultural constraints for Japanese and

South Korean customers

Pros and Cons of Primary (and Emerging) Offshore Contact Centre Locations: Note South Africa still does not feature per Gartner…

Latin America:� Mexico offers cultural and language affinity for

U.S. Hispanic market� Proximity to U.S., improving English skills� Expansion by leading providers� Good for CRM and BPO, too

Source: Gartner Summit 2007, Dallas


Implications for the International BPO Industry

�South Africa has only recently started attracting

international attention as a BPO destination - the

dti launched the new BPO investment incentives

in March 2007 (‘GAS’)

�ISO has expressed interest in these standards as

there is no international BPO standard

13Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPOSource: SA BPO Value Proposition 2006

Our market positioning is one of a low cost but quality destination –these standards are an integral part of our differentiator from

competitor countries…

“South Africa

is also a very

attractive location

for us”

Pramod Bhasin

CEO, GenpactC O S T

Q U

A L

I T

Y

Cost-basedoffshore

India, Philippines,Jamaica and

Malaysia

Onshore USA, UK and

The Netherlands

Value basedoffshore

South Africa

South Africa:

- A fair balance

between cost and quality

- An excellent

nearshore option

for Europe

due to time zone


City of Johannesburg –Committed to BPO & Call

Centres

…And from a regional perspective, City of Joburg’s BPO incentives are world class…

1. BPO Skills Incentive (BTEC from Edexcel)2. BPO Inner City Precinct Incentive

Note these regional incentives are in addition to the national BPO incentives


A closer look at the province of Gauteng and the City of Johannesburg

Gauteng province has 3 of the 6 metropolitan areas of South Africa - Johannesburg,

Pretoria and Ekurhuleni (Johannesburg International Airport). 60% of SA BPO

operations are in Joburg Metro.

Key: Numbers indicate number of call centres in 2005 research by GEDA

CiG believes that these new industry standards will demonstrate Gauteng’s quality offering in a way we have never done before…and they will raise our game even further


Thank you

[email protected]

New Quality Assurance Standards for the BPO Industry ... · Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO 2...

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