[Rakesh Bhambani]

Greetings Chris,

You are at the perfect place for discussing problems of the kind you have. All of us here learn a lot from each other. Did you get to read some of the other postings here?

First, do not expect a quick fix to your problems on forums since generally you can only provide limited information and the responses will also therefore be very broad in nature and may not be in perfect sync with your situation.

I feel you should gear up your call center to handle all problems of Level 1. You can define the parameters of Level 1 yourself but will have to define them very clearly. You have to also structure your knowledge assets very effectively so that all answers are available and also available easily and speedily. The easier you make this, the more prone your agents will be to use this. Do your agents also have an incentive scheme that encourages them to work in tandem with your business rules?

When you say, “perhaps not educated enough”, that worries me. Are you hiring the right people for the job? Or even worse, after hiring them, are you providing the right tools and training to them?

So my tips to you are-
· Hire the right people
· Give them the right information resources and training
· Provide them with incentives to work the way the company wants to work
· Keep raising the bar so that they handle most of the Level 1 contacts (Level 1 should constantly grow to encompass more and more) and your specialists can focus on more difficult tasks and premium customers.

If you have sufficient volumes, also consider outsourcing this activity.