Articles

 AI & Lean Strategies for Maximum Performing

Contact Centres - Blog

The Contact Centre Operations Audit

Part #3

The Contact Center Operations Audit - Part #3/3

A Blueprint Guide toBenchmark, Enhance Service Delivery & Realize Cost Savings All At Once.


This is the final segment of a three-part series. The first part described the objectives of the Call Centre Operations Audit value of the output. This second part addressed the steps required for conducting an Audit and the things to look for. This final segment focuses on results by industry, benchmarking and outcomes.


The Call Centre Operations Audit 

 The Key to Operational Excellence - Recap


In the first segment, we introduced the concept of the Audit. We addressed the purpose, scope, it’s value and the method for executing.

  

We identified that the Audit process was like taking a picture of your operations. It requires that an immense amount of information is captured and then organized such that nothing is missed; including the various inter-dependencies, redundancies or synergies.


Diverse Results…

It is designed to produce results in the following 3 ways:


1.  Isolated Focus - Benchmarking

At a macro level, the Audit  deliberately provides a “balanced” picture of all aspects of the operations including over 30 Key Business Drivers (KBD);


When organizations look at results, there is a tendency to isolate specific areas and focus solely on those rather than the balanced picture. This causes some significant issues when making decisions based on these results.


Firstly, opportunities that are identified within isolated functional areas could easily create redundant work in other places thus creating short-lived gains and longer term costs. It follows therefore that other opportunities for revenue enhancement or new efficiencies could be missed entirely simply by limiting the focus to one or two areas.


Secondly, the inter-dependencies and support activity between functional areas are completely ignored with this approach making seemingly positive results much less than they may appear. This leads to significant ambiguity when benchmarking results or building a business case.

Benchmarking call centres is problematic at best and should be taken as only a rough guide because it misses the macro perspective for revenue, efficiency or service gains.


A call centre with impressive metrics could very easily

be disguising an inefficient operation...


Of those companies included in a benchmarking study, systems could be programmed differently, metrics defined in unique ways….all to create an illusion of service excellence.


A few more examples of what to watch for when comparing results include:


2.  Balanced Approach

This refers to the macro perspective which takes all aspects of the operations (including over 30 Key Business Drivers (KBD)) into consideration. This is the intended approach of the Audit because by looking at everything together (and not isolating specific areas), important inter-dependencies and synergies emerge.


This approach is highly powerful because it can accurately assign quantifiable measures and costs to each and every customer contact (ie.  phone, fax, email etc.). Now that this information is available, one can actually manage and/or improve the business.


3. Leverage Approach

Call Center management must understand the financial impact of operating decisions they make each and every day. While there is traditionally a strong emphasis on customer impact analysis, financial concerns are often side-stepped. What some organizations are beginning to understand is that careful financial analysis as applied to their operations will not only provide a basis for

quantifying customer impact, but will bring clarity to even the most complex business decisions they might face.  


Existing inter-dependencies and the nature of the linkages between functional areas will quickly reveal opportunities for both efficiency gains and possibly incremental revenue. These opportunities will begin to take a very detailed and tactical form such that a measurable gain can be identified in terms of service, time and cost particularly when the  overall impact on the cost per contact is illustrated. Each opportunity therefore, can be easily cost justified in a way that cannot be disputed in any way.


Applying financial principles to operating decisions is necessary for companies to grow and compete effectively. For Call Center management, this approach supports financial justification because one can easily demonstrate a Return on Investment and Payback Period. The logical conclusion therefore, is that by assessing a call center operation with a model that incorporates a financial analysis the better able one will be at managing

Profitability.


Comparative Results - Observations

Benchmarking companies (even in the same industry) can be misleading at the best of times. One must be sure that they are truly comparing “apples-to-apples” in terms of the definitions, calculations, contact type, contact reasons etc. However, from the countless number of Audits performed across multiple industries we are able to make the following observations; See Figure A below.

  


As a rule of thumb, internal operations should function at approximately 10% below what an external agency would charge them to perform the same function. In almost all of the contact centers audited however, most operated with significantly higher costs. Given that the largest efficiency gains come from one or two common areas (ie. workflow), it wouldn’t take much to realize the short-term gains noted above.


The initial time and investment to embrace an audit process is nominal when compared to the substantial gains that could be generated.


Eric Young
President
Tele-Centre Assist Inc.
www.telecentreassist.com


Figure A