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GOOD PRACTICE GUIDELINES FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF CONTACT CENTRES

SECTION 3: BUILDING THE OPERATIONAL MODEL

In building the operational model, a key decision is what activity to service through the contact centre. There are many ways of approaching this. The answers to these questions should help:

• What services currently receive a low customer satisfaction rating and does the volume and application of these services support a contact centre approach?
• What call handling groups already exist within your organisation and is there an opportunity to extend the work?
• What services share similar customer clusters, e.g.:
  • benefits and housing?
  • planning and environmental health?
  • arts, tourism and leisure services?
• What services can be deemed suitable against these criteria: volume, pattern, call drivers, first-call resolution capability, system and work-flow requirements, knowledge and skill set needs?

Building the operational model requires competence in the following components of the contact centre.

Systems:

• Technology.
• Telephony.
• Management Information Systems (MIS) (work patterns and forecasting).
• Reporting.
• Integration of all channels.

Human resources:

• Recruitment to ensure the person is right for the contact centre and the centre is right for the individual.
• Training to ensure all staff are managed to the highest levels.
• Information (88.3% of contact centres have regular team meetings).
• Staff management and development (personal development plans).
• Making staff aware of their input into the achievement of company goals through Personal Development Plans (PDPs) (empowerment).
• Retention methods, multi-skilling, escalation processes.
• Culture, etc.

Processes:

• Documentation of all internal and external processes.
• Regular audits and evaluations.
• Educating and informing all relevant parties.
• Working to accepted industry standards, frameworks and methods.

Measurement:

All key aspects of the operation should be measurable.

• Establish definitions of success and communicate these to relevant parties.
• Establish tools of measurement.
• Examine processes rigorously and re-evaluate.
• Ensure common understanding and buy-in.
• Ensure all service level agreements are measurable.
• Understand the value contribution of each process and contact.
• Understand, and act on, the customer experience.

Devising your customer access strategy:

A cohesive customer access strategy is essential. As contact channels grow, customer expectations evolve and services become more complicated, from the customer's and the organisation's perspective. Any access strategy must support integration and consistency across channels. This is challenging, as channels have often been developed independently, without focused management and integration.

In deciding an appropriate access strategy, consideration should be given to:

• customer preference: all research suggests the telephone is the preferred medium, with electronic channels on the increase;
• cost versus value: the need to demonstrate clear value to both the customer and the organisation; and
• capability to support the services.

Service level objectives should be established for each type of access in terms of response times and workflow procedures. This will allow performance to be measured for each access area.

Within your access strategy, you should develop a telephone numbering strategy. This opens up areas for debate, for example a single number or multiple numbers, freephone or paid. Opting for a single number raises other questions: How will the operation support a single numbering strategy in other words will all staff be multi-skilled? Will Interactive Voice Response (IVR) be used in a front-end capacity for intelligent routing of calls to appropriate specialists?

Whatever decision is taken, it is critical that the number(s) is clear and is logically communicated to the customer.

Note that communication strategies that increase awareness of the telephone numbers and services may well enhance the level of customer demand and the centre will need to be resourced accordingly.

Opening hours:

It is widely accepted that contact centres extend normal opening hours. Extended hours of operation increase resource requirements in terms of shift length, supervision levels and staff numbers. Most contact centres in the UK operate 8 am-8 pm, seven days a week.

Any consideration of 24-hour opening should be made against customer demand and associated cost. But customer demand is moving towards 24-hour access and it may be inevitable to service this demand at some stage. You may wish to consider merging out-of-hours activity with neighbouring organisations to achieve greater economies of scale and efficiencies.

Location:

The location of your contact centre is a major decision. In choosing where to site it, bear in mind current and future needs. In assessing a location, these factors, with relevant weightings, should be taken into account:

• Workforce availability and suitability.
• Accessibility in terms of transport and travel infrastructure.
• Labour costs.
• Property costs and availability.
• Associated amenities.

Ergonomics and centre layout:

Occupational health and safety issues are key components in designing an effective workplace. The physical environment of a contact centre has a direct impact on staff satisfaction and performance, so the design must achieve the best balance between technical needs and the social needs of staff. Important considerations include:

• Workstation: Is it ergonomically designed? Are chairs adjustable? Is there enough space? Will there be a partition screen and will it allow eye contact? How well positioned are the keyboard, computer screen and turret?
• Desk layout: Does it support a balance between privacy and teamwork? Will the team manager sit near the team?
• Temperature: Can it be adjusted? Is there air conditioning?
• Sound: Will sound-absorbing fabric materials be used?
• Lighting: Will it be artificial or natural? Will there be glare on the computer screen?
• Breakout and rest areas: Are there enough such areas, located away from desks? Do they support staff socialisation?
• Training and meeting rooms: Are there sufficient training and meeting rooms? Do they contain all the necessary equipment?

Structure:

Developing an effective structure for growth is critical to a contact centre's success. Here are some guiding principles:

• It should be robust, flexible and dynamic.
• It should be modular in approach and allow for integration of additional services over time.
• It should allow for career development.
• It should be customer-focused.

There are typical roles within a contact centre:

• Team leader: Responsible for managing and developing advisers. This is a key role within the centre, with a focus on coaching and motivating the team. Generally, the ratio is about 12 advisers to one team leader.
• Contact centre manager: This is a demanding and skilled job, with overall responsibility for the centre. It requires good people management skills, business acumen, technical knowledge, marketing insight and political savvy!

As contact centres grow, the tendency is to move towards specialist roles for example:

• Management information analyst: Responsible for delivering actionable information through the proactive analysis and reporting of performance and customer demand.
• Forecasting and resourcing analyst: Responsible for forecasting activity and providing the necessary scheduling of resources.
• Call traffic manager: Responsible for the effective distribution of call traffic across the centre to ensure that service level and productivity targets are achieved.
• Account manager: The interface and communication link between the contact centre and the organisation to ensure smooth and effective customer contact.
• Quality analyst: Responsible for monitoring quality of customer interactions (written and spoken).

In developing the structure, you should consider these points:

• To what extent will advisers be multi-skilled and work across all media within the contact centre?
• How much empowerment will they have?
• To what extent will teamwork be valued?
• What opportunity is there for career progression?
• Where will support for technology and telephony come from?
• What interface with front and back office is required?

Sizing and shift patterns:

The customer-facing nature of contact centre work requires a dynamic and flexible approach to shift patterns. Normal 9 am - 5 pm, Monday - Friday arrangements, with a one-hour lunch break, are not appropriate. More and more customers are demanding access to services outside traditional opening hours and the contact centre requires to be resourced accordingly.

A variety of shift combinations is recommended, including full-time and part-time staff, with allowance made for breaks, holidays, sickness, training, etc. Calculating the number of staff to meet demand can be a complicated process and requires an understanding of these variables:

• The type and frequency of customer demand across all channels to be serviced in the contact centre.
• Opening hours.
• Staff shifts and patterns.
• The estimated time needed to handle each customer contact, including any associated administration.

Recommendations for the management of shifts:

• Keep the variety of shift patterns to a minimum.
• Consider the scope for two people to job-share with joint responsibility for covering designated shifts.
• Ensure that there is management cover for all shifts, including quiet and unsociable ones.
• Avoid insisting that all staff must rotate shifts.
• Reward your people for flexibility.

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