Call center operations hurdle such issues as expected response time and resolution from different clients every day. When crunch time comes when clients are ready to pull out because they are not happy with the service, most companies do two things: layoff the unproductive ones and hire new people, or hire more people to manage the calls.
More often than not, these solutions, albeit commonly practiced, do not really dig into the root cause of the problem. They just work around the variable that clients are unhappy because of response and resoluton time, thus they are quick to conclude that they need to increase their workforce.
There is however a more effective way to improve call-center operations. An iSixSigma article discusses how Lean Six Sigma can do the trick.
Analysis
In the course of doing a basic process analysis, the Lean Six Sigma expert discovered:
- The majority of calls that could not be resolved on the first call required some research by the service representatives.
- The service representatives were primarily judged on whether they were available to answer. This limited the time they could devote to research open issues. As a result, many calls that could not be resolved right away were often never resolved.
- Customers whose inquiries were not answered within a few days would call back. This increased the call volume, inflated the numbers of calls that could not be resolved on the first call, and led to multiple entries in the computer system for the same problem.
… Baseline data showed that the company was falling far short of its goal, achieving only a 50 percent first-call resolution rate and 62 percent five-day resolution rate.
Related Story: iSixSigma Blogosphere, “Contact Center Process Owner v. HQ Process Owner”
*Photo from Stock.Xchng
