Case Studies
Consulting
New Call Centre Build
Performance Improvement
Interim Management
Outsourcing
Customer Experience
Consulting
Our client is one of the UK's leading providers of hosted solutions supporting small to medium sized business and home users. They provide a wide range of technical service from single mail boxes to hosted domains, broadband connectivity and electronic archiving and storage. To support their customers, 24 x 7 technical support is provided by a dedicated team responding to phone calls and e-mail logged enquiries.
Orchid Consulting were asked to assist our client to develop best practice call centre processes and procedures. Our client has aggressive development plans and product launches and saw the requirement to enhance their ability to support and service customers in a more structured manner.
The initial focus for Orchid Consulting was on understanding the volume of work being handled by the team across a number of different call queues and media types. Once this was understood and historical data amassed, Orchid was able to right size the team and improve their ability to handle calls and investigate and close incidents. The optimum team size was based on staff being split by skill and technical competence between Level 1, 2 and 3 Agents. Agents were then put in place and trained under a new training curriculum that was developed; the curriculum allowed staff to become productive quicker. Within a week they were able to take calls on two complex queues and this knowledge was built upon at a speed suited to the technical ability of the individual staff members. To add to Agent productivity and focus on the right areas, Role Profiles for all Agents and Team Leaders in the department were revised and targets tied into to real deliverables that reflected departmental objectives and personal development. There is now a matrix of individual performance identifying exactly who is over and under performing and in which specific area. The Team Leaders were then coached extensively on how to read the data and how to effectively address individual performance issues and motivate high performers.
During the engagement with Orchid there was an overall increase in the number of calls being handled by the Service Desk, a 25% increase in three months and a 9% drop in lost calls over the same time. The period also saw an 11% improvement in the number of calls being resolved within Service Level and a First Time Fix improvement of 14%. As this trend is based on analysing information and changing behaviours in a pragmatic manner, the indicators are that performance improvements will continue to be made.
The focus for the second part of the engagement was around bedding in the behaviours and practices that resulted in the improvement and backing this up with qualitative measures. This included a focus on individual call quality, monitored by listening in to calls. The quality monitoring process was thoroughly reviewed and the call assessment sheet revised. The revision included splitting the call assessment between process adherence, technical understanding and customer service. This split allowed us to target Agent feedback on specific areas of performance. The customer service portion also linked into a revision of a customer survey sent out to customers who logged a call. The survey asked for specific feedback on the Agent who took the call, their technical ability and overall impact. This again provided specific areas of improvement to target for each Agent and was fed into their performance summary.
Overall the engagement with Orchid provided our client with performance improvements that could be tracked back to Agent level, this means that they were tangible, sustainable and repeatable. In addition, methodology was reviewed to embed some essential Contact Centre best practice and structures developed and implemented to allow our client to maintain the momentum.
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New Call Centre Build
The brief to Orchid was to design, build, and launch a brand new, state of the art Call Centre.
We began with an analysis of the business to understand the volumes, data flows and functional requirements. We then worked on the documentation and mapping of the existing business processes. From this a detailed business case and statement of requirements was produced outlining the facilities and capabilities required, and working under PRINCE2 methodology a detailed programme management structure and project plan was put in place
The procurement process was applied to the major areas such as ACD, Dialer, Agent Applications, CTI, IVR, Voice Recording and Carrier Selection. It included initial evaluation of suppliers, assessment of capabilities for each component, short listing of preferred suppliers, production of tender documents, receipt and analysis of proposals, clarification of costings and specifications, and selection of primary supplier.
Development of the Operating Model began by working with our client to understand their values and objectives. In conjunction with the business analysis, we then developed an operational structure, management plan, forecasting model, and a recruitment and training plan. After receiving final go ahead, Orchid ensured all hardware, operational and people functions of the project were managed through build and testing to implementation and handover to the business.
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Performance Improvement
We were retained by a national healthcare and advice service, to provide consultancy and interim management cover, with the specific objective of tackling a number of long standing performance and management issues within the site, and bringing these to resolution prior to a permanent appointment into the post.
The primary role of the Orchid Consultant was to lead, coach and develop the team of supervisors, giving the department more focus, direction and leadership, whilst operating in a heavily political and unionised environment.
We introduced more relevant management reporting and daily performance reports. This was essential to ensure the measurement and resolution of particular issues at the site such as login logout times, not ready times, wrap up times, short calls, average call lengths, calls per hour, productivity and the site abandon rate.
We ensured that basic performance management tools were used consistently and in line with the agreed procedures. These included a structured appraisal format, personal development plans, one to one’s, call monitoring and call auditing schedule, and attendance monitoring. Orchid also worked to ensure that short term sickness was managed effectively and in line with policy, and implemented return to work interviews.
Orchid also addressed workforce management issues within the site, and worked on remodeling shift patterns, evening, nights and weekend rostering, and more accurate call forecasting. In addition, we defined and scoped the sites requirements for the implementation of new national rostering and call forecasting software.
Orchid worked on the recruitment of additional staff at all grades, including development of person specifications, job grading, telephone interviewing, short listing, and assessment centres.
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Interim Management
Our Client, a major telecoms network asked the Orchid Interim Manager to manage one of their Customer Management Centre’s following the departure of the previous management team until internal successors had been appointed. The primary role was to coach and develop the team leaders, giving the department more clarity, focus and leadership.
The Orchid Interim Manager introduced basic performance management techniques including personal development plans, structured appraisal format, one to one schedule, attendance monitoring, sickness return to work interviews and exit interviews. We also designed and delivered a disciplinary skills and procedures workshop.
We ensured more productive of by the CSA’s of the agent application and other operating systems, closely monitoring agent utilisation enabling us to reduce wrap-up time and delivering an overall reduction in call handling time of 110 seconds.
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Outsourcing
Orchid were asked to assist our client in the tender process for the selection of an outsourced contact centre for a major part of their business.
We began by working with our client to understand the critical factors for them, and by scoping the project, their requirements, and the metrics. After a pre-qualification of the general market place, we designed a confidentiality and non disclosure agreement. We then produced the Invitation to Tender document, which was distributed to an initial shortlist of suppliers.
These tender documents were evaluated and scored under our exclusive evaluation and appraisal system, and a formal shortlist was defined. A series of site visits followed, where each aspect of the supplier’s proposal was tested. Finally, a summit was held to agree on the successful tender.
Orchid were then instructed to begin contract negotiation, define the terms of engagement, and develop the migration plan. We successfully managed the implementation of the service to the new supplier, and were retained to provide ongoing account management for our client.
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Customer Experience
Our Client, a newly launched UK Mobile Telephone Network, asked Orchid to design and implement a Customer Experience Programme providing measurements and benchmarks for the entire operation. This included the design, implementation and delivery of a Customer Satisfaction Survey, and the design and implementation and ongoing tracking of a Customer Experience Scorecard. We also produced customer lifecycle process maps, and a raft of measurement points for each process. We conducted analysis of their competitors’ customer satisfaction, and established internal benchmarks against these.
Orchid also implemented various operational improvements to positively impact the business model, including the set up and management a dedicated escalations and complaint handling team. This improved the overall performance of the organisation to a ‘right first time’ culture, and ensured a minimal level of outstanding unresolved cases at all times. We produced new staffing models and working practices, resulting in major advances across all service levels and significant reduction in costs.
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