Call Center Properties: Part 2 - Reliability and Reactiveness

This is the second in a three part series focusing on what we believe are the 6 core properties of a call center and how they relate to call center operations. The concepts are derived from process modeling used in the design of real-time systems such as aircraft control systems, manufacturing and computer processing. Given that call centers operate in the real-time environment, these concepts apply equally to call center operations.

The six core properties of call centers are:

Part 1:

• on-time environment
• concurrency

Part 2:

• reliability
• reactiveness

Part 3:

• dynamic resource allocation
• distributed environment

Reliability

One of the key aspects of buying a car is that you want it to be reliable. After the new car has sat out in the rain all night, you expect that car to start in the morning. Without giving it a thought, you expect the car to be reliable.

Because you call center is a communication hub between your products and services and your customers, reliability in the call center is a core property for successful call center operations. Many events happen concurrently (see Core Property #2), reliability and concurrency go hand in hand. The reliability of the operation is reflected in ensuring that sufficient agents are available to handle the expected call volumes. Reliability is reflected in the ‘up-time’ of your core systems. The multitude of voice, telephony and data systems you use need to be reliable so that agents can not only connect with the customer but also conduct the transaction with a profitable outcome. When evaluating new systems, make sure that you have done due diligence on the reliability question in your purchasing decisions.

Reliability is reflected in your agent’s ability to talk to 30, 50 or 100 customers or more a day! You must ensure that agents are reliably handling customer contact after customer contact. How reliable is your operation? One of the most important factors in developing new business processes within your call center is to design the processes to be reliable. To work when they should as they should. To deliver the results to the agents who then can deliver them to the customers.

Learn about your operation: Do a ‘reliability audit’! Evaluate the weakness within your operating environment, itemize the unreliable components and work through a plan to improve reliability whether it is your recruiting process, your phone systems, data systems or your agent training program or whatever else your audit reveals. Hint: include the voice-of-the-customer in the audit. Ask customers if they experienced reliability problems in doing business with your call center.

Reactiveness

The Marketing Department did it again! Bless their hearts! They ‘forgot’ to advise the call center that the new promotion running in 86 newspapers across the country (which lists a single 800 number on it - yours!) began running this morning. You were expecting a relatively normal call volume day and now you are seeing the queues build. Wait times are beginning to soar to the moon and you still haven’t heard from Marketing! This scenario is very typical and it highlights the next Core Property: Reactiveness.

Have a defined plan in place to enable you to respond to the unexpected. To look like a star even when the Marketing department informs you 3 days AFTER the marketing campaign began. It may seem like a contradiction in terms but be proactive about your reactiveness. Develop a plan, a simple plan, that will allow you to quickly and easily react to the unexpected. It may mean that you equip back office staff with ACD telephone sets so that they can log into queues and answer calls (even if it takes them twice as long as a regular agent); it could mean that you establish a contract with an outsourcer who can quickly respond to calls that are deflected from your operation to theirs for handling; it could mean that you do nothing more than play a message that advises the customer that ‘today is a bad-hair day’; it could mean you get the Manager of Marketing to come down and answer calls (hold it - now that would be a plan!).

Call center operations function in the “on-time world”, being proactive about your reactiveness will ensure near stardom for you and likely your team getting the bonuses for achieving your sales objectives! After all, the customer doesn’t care at all that Marketing didn’t tell you — again! Customers want service and they want it now! Build a plan that will allow you to ‘grow’ your staff to meet the unexpected. To be able to be responsive to anything. (By the way - Marketing launched a ‘free-for-a-month’ deal in all of the national papers starting today! Oh yes, and you heard it first from CallCenterOps.com and not the Marketing Manager!)

Posted: January 21st, 2007 under Operations.
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