November, Call Centre Improvement

Transcription

1 November, 2010 Call Centre Improvement

2 The Homebase call centre handles customer service and sales enquiries for a range of products sold in store, online and in the catalogues. Homebase wanted to look at how to improve the level of customer service being delivered as well as seeking to gain efficiency savings in the furniture, bedroom and bathroom call centre team. Kinetic were asked to review the performance of this team in order to identify, qualify and quantify any possible improvement opportunities. Page 2 Overview Homebase is the second largest home improvement retailer in the UK serving over 70 million customers per year through its stores and online shopping channel. The Homebase call centre handles customer service and sales enquiries for a range of products including those that are directly delivered from the supplier. To add to the complexity the deliveries are made through a range of third-party distribution companies as well as Homebase s own delivery vans. Therefore, for the call centre this creates complex and lengthy processes in order to resolve customer issues. In order to determine if there were better ways of working, Kinetic conducted a review of the call centre with the aim of identifying areas for improvement and then making recommendations on how to deliver the benefits as quickly as possible. Two key objectives were set i.e. to be able to handle more customer calls effectively and efficiently whilst improving the level of customer service.

3 Approach Kinetic utilised a tried-and-tested three stage approach using the unique X-centric methodology and toolkit in order to deliver the project: UNDERSTAND the set-up of the call centre operation including the customer journey and working practices of the call centre CAPTURE and ANALYSE information using the X-centric C 3 Channelyser tool in order to determine what tasks are being performed and how long each takes together with the effectiveness and cost of conducting each of the different call centre activities DEFINE, document and present the findings and recommendations This work involved both Kinetic consultants and Homebase personnel monitoring a variety of randomly selected agents. Observations were conducted over a 5 day period using the C 3 Channelyser tool in order to understand and quantify the work agents were undertaking. This information was then analysed in order to identify and quantify the scale of improvement opportunities in working i.e. not only agents but also management and supporting functions. Throughout the project Kinetic worked closely with the Homebase team to clearly understand the issues and gain buy-in at the earliest opportunity for the recommendations. By using this approach it was possible to quickly determine a number of Quick Win recommendations that could be implemented by the Homebase team themselves. Furthermore, Kinetic identified a number of medium-long term recommendations covering: Company policies that generate customer complaints or reduce customer satisfaction Call routeing to ensure calls get the right destination more often Call handling Eradicating and minimising irritant processes Simplifying complex processes Automating repetitive processes Customer ownership and issue resolution Operational management including supporting functions e.g. workforce planning Performance management including agent utilisation and targets that drive behaviours Quality Management Overall Customer Satisfaction Information management to better understand performance Technology improvements Cultural issues Kinetic and Homebase personnel used the X-centric toolkit in order to rapidly gather and quantify the operational data so that recommendations could be made within the space of 2 weeks Page 3

4 Benefits Summary Within a 2 week period Kinetic were able to identify a number of opportunities for improvement. As a result a number of initiatives were proposed that would enable Homebase to increase both efficiency and effectiveness whilst improving the customer experience both in the short, medium and long term. This means that, after implementing the recommendations, Homebase will be able to handle more calls with the same number of people. The recommendations ranged from: Changing a number of call handling working practices e.g. from simple call control through to more complex processes Changing off-phone working practices e.g. removing the need for writing copious amounts of notes about the call Proposed new measures for agent performance management including First Time Resolution Proposed new measures for Customer Satisfaction Proposed changes to operational management practices including people development Proposed changes to Quality Management Proposed technology changes Proposed changes to working practices outside of the Call Centre itself Changes to customer handling and company policies As a result, Homebase were able to start implementing the recommendations themselves in order to realise the potential benefits i.e.: An efficiency saving of 16-20% in the first instance depending on the functional areas i.e. reduced costs of over 90,000 from the Quick Wins alone A further 40-47% saving through further work i.e. medium-long term recommendations Increasing customer satisfaction Increasing the quality of the call Increasing the effectiveness of the call centre agents Reducing hand-offs to other areas by up-skilling and providing authorisation for agent to take ownership of the customer issues Page 4

5 Kinetic is an independent consultancy specialising in helping clients to deliver change and transformation programmes and world-class omni-channel customer experiences. Founded in 2001, Kinetic has become known within the Contact Centre and CRM industry for its dynamic and innovative but practical approach, in delivering measurable benefit for its clients. We guarantee to deliver an ROI for our clients Our promise is to meet or exceed your expectations, on time, to budget and to quality by ensuring the most appropriate skills are used to meet your needs Our consultants always work closely with our client s teams in order to enhance, support and integrate with existing change activities Our consultants have been involved in a wide range of client projects. These cover both strategy and operations and within these areas we provide expertise to tackle business issues concerning people, process, location, environment, technology selection and procurement, consolidation, change and programme management. Kinetic s unique approach has benefited many clients across a variety of market sectors. To date we have worked with 3, Argos Direct, Axa, Balfour Beatty, Boots, Brakes, British Airways, Broadsystem, Catalyst Housing, Comet, Compaq, DaimlerChryslerMercedesBenz, Dixons Stores Group, Dreams, Equion, Europcar, Eurostar, G4S, Halfords, Hiscox, Homebase, Intercontinental Hotels, Irwin Mitchell, Jockey Club Racecourses, Lloyds Banking Group, Morphy Richards, National Express, NFU Mutual, O 2, Office Depot, RAC, Regus, RIAS, Safeway, Sainsbury s, Screwfix Direct, Sitel Corporation, sit-up.tv, Six Continents, Talk Talk, Telegraph Group, Thus, TSC, Virgin Mobile, Vodafone, Which? and Woolworths. If you would like more information on Kinetic then please call us.