CallCentreVoice Topic Any ideas on Reducing wait times / increasing customer experience ?

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Stuart McElney on 30/11/2004 14:57:03.
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Stuart McElney
Resource Manager
Banking/Stockbroking Sector

8 posts
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Any ideas on Reducing wait times / increasing customer experience ?  [30/11/2004 14:57:03]

All,

I am currently looking at ways we can reduce our customer wait times during unexpected call peaks and increasing our customer experience without recruiting more heads.

Has anyone else carried out similar projects / analysis? We currently utilise Queuebuster for a few of our skillsets during surge periods.

BACKGROUND INFO
Our call centre handles 4,000-7,000 calls per day MON - FRI 07:30-20:30. We are also opened for reduced hours on SAT & SUN. Our business is market driven and we experience a pretty consistent daily callflow pattern. However, we also experience surges of market driven volume sporadically throughout our core business hours (08:00-16:30).

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Darryl Beckford
Contact Centre Consultant
DarrylBeckford Limited

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Any ideas on Reducing wait times / increasing customer experience ?  [30/11/2004 15:41:16]

Hi Stuart,

I seem to remember there was a thread on queuebuster a few weeks ago, it might be worth your while searching for it.

I did some work on a project just like this last summer.

My simplified conclusion was you need to do one of the following:

1) Reduce number of calls
Can you reduce complaints? Can you resolve more calls first time? Can you change publicity schedules?

2) Reduce average call length
Is there any part of the call that can be left out? Can you improve systems so the agents have information they need quicker? Can agents be better trained?

3) Increase agents
Not possible in this case.

4) Handle some calls without live agents
This is often seen as the easiest solution but you must approach it with care. Ensure that any automated system adds value for the customer - else they're going to be angered by it. Implement this by analysis of call types and seeing what can be improved by automation.

Regards,
Darryl Beckford
www.darrylbeckford.co.uk

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Rob Worth
Lean Process Consultant
Worth Solutions Limited

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Normal variation perhaps?  [30/11/2004 15:47:39]

Have you done a capability calculation on your data. i.e. used Statistical Process Control charts to calculate the upper and lower control limits on the number of your incoming calls? You might find that it is normal variation. Otherwise you have probably have special causes making the spikes appear.

If the causes are special you need to elimiate the causes quickly.

If it just normal variation then you need to reduce the variation by finding the root causes of the variation in your system.

Note, the two above things are very different. Special causes are one-offs which can be eliminated, common causes require a change to your system of doing things.

The other thing to look at is demand. How much is made up of failure demand, demand caused by failures in the work your company does? Change the system to eliminate the failures and so reduce the failure demand which will increase your capacity to deal with any spikes with no increase in headcount.

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Stuart McElney
Resource Manager
Banking/Stockbroking Sector

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Keep the replies coming  [1/12/2004 08:07:44]

Thanks for the replies so far.
Our call surges are generally caused by market driven factors that we can't plan for.

We currently have a structured contingency plan that covers several stages of risk. The first stage of the plan involves:-
**Re-optimising staffing.
**Re-prioritising skill distributions to manage wait times.
**Re-scheduling non-demand tasks.
**Resource from outbound teams redeployed for short periods.
**Staff from non-demand departments logging on.
**Working lunches (agents get a shorter lunch / lunch provided + paid OT).

If the callfow is sustained we then implement further contingency measures.

I would be very interested in responses from companies that deal with similar short term unexpected peaks.

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Recruitment?  [1/12/2004 09:18:05]

Whilst I appreciate the questioners need not to recruit further, all things being equal and given the wide remit of other processes and policies that are being questioned then recruitment policy ought to be scrutinised also.

There is a fundamental assumption that this is correct and that the agent sitting in that seat is the 'optimum' person that could be recruited. However this questioner is questioning the basic remit of the role and how it functions, new and more varied skills may now play a bigger part than assumed.

Darryl mentioned one could 'train agents better', I agree with this however as a trainer this is significantly impacted by the quality of the workforce recruited. Poor quality letter writing can be trained but its so much more effective to recruit staff who can write letters accurately in the first place.

So I'm not advocating employing new staff I'm simply saying one needs to question this assumption that this process is sound together with all the other processes and policies mentioned.

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John Clark
Architect and Guru
CallCentreVoice

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Attracting the right people...  [1/2/2005 09:13:51]

"Darryl mentioned one could 'train agents better', I agree with this however as a trainer this is significantly impacted by the quality of the workforce recruited. Poor quality letter writing can be trained but its so much more effective to recruit staff who can write letters accurately in the first place."

That's a good point. Would you propose some kind of written 'essay' or similar within the recruitment process? Once upon a time I had to write an essay during a graduate recruiting run, and I recall feeling that others seemed to be horrified at the prospect, whilst I felt reasonably fine about it.

My concern would be that there is no direct correlation between natural writing ability and effectiveness in the workplace assuming that the role does not carry a heavy emphasis toward the written word.

Also, as you'll no doubt know, we have to be willing to accommodate people whose writing capabilities are masked by such things as dyslexia - we can't be seen to discriminate, you know.

John

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Attracting the right people...  [1/2/2005 09:32:16]

>>>Would you propose some kind of written 'essay' or similar within the recruitment process?

Mnay call centre roles require numeracy and literacy as competencies with the emphasis placed upon the accuracy and speed of the agent. This is easily measured at recruitment stage with comprehension, typing and speed exercises exercises. As the assessor is measuring speed and accuracy any disability can be judged holistically.

Getting back to the original question any slowness in agents skills, verbally, navigatio wise, problem solving, writing etc is bound to impact call length.
Any agent with poor problem solving skills or weak drive or motivation may be prone to decreasing the customer experience.

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John Clark
Architect and Guru
CallCentreVoice

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A little off-topic but good...  [1/2/2005 10:18:48]

check this link out. Not quite on-topic but a useful insight into the big corporate boasts of 'only employing the best' and how unworkable that actually is. I thought you'd enjoy it.

John

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John Clark
Architect and Guru
CallCentreVoice

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More off-topic  [1/2/2005 10:35:13]

Apologies for this, I'm on a roll...

Some challenging technical interview questions, but not as you'd imagine.

Very interesting.

John

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Best is whatever you say it is  [1/2/2005 10:35:35]

Interesting article although I think theres a flaw within its premise, ie. that all emplloyers are recruiting the 'best' and their definition of what constitutes 'the best' is exactly the same as everyone elses. Its not. I've worked with many recruiting managers who all claimed they had superb selction and interview techiniques to enable them to find 'the best' (sic. my definiton THEIR BEST AS DEFINED BY THEM) when compared with other employers their techniques were often lacking.
Best is whatever's best for your particular purposes and thats what I think the article misses.

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Julian Dixon
MI Capability Manager
Vertex DataScience Ltd

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The Best is.......  [1/2/2005 10:43:13]

Usually based on the best I can get for "£x.xx per hour.

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Dave Appleby
Resource Analyst
Healthcare Insurance

1448 posts
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Lateral exercises  [1/2/2005 11:02:40]

In reply to John I love these kind of puzzles.

New topic HERE

DaveA



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