Saddled with capital-and labor-intensive call centers, companies have spent
the last decade struggling with cumbersome infrastructures that often defy
attempts to rapidly scale operations with customer demand. Initial remedies,
such as outsourcing, proved challenging, given their emphasis on cost-reduction
at the expense of service quality.
Acting on these key experiences, companies are now experimenting with
efficiency-focused programs that, although rooted in cost reduction, integrate
well with marketing objectives like increasing revenues and retention rates.
The result is a change in the economics of customer contact and interaction
through improved operations, labor outsourcing and sustained revenues.
The Fundamentals
Call center efficiencies
can be realized through a complete approach that:
- Eliminates calls at the source
- Invests in first call resolution
- Improves self-service capabilities.
The case for efficiency is compelling. The average firm with $500 million
annual customer interaction costs can reap up to $1 million per year in savings
by shaving just one second off each customer call.¹
If you're looking to boost efficiency, start by eliminating calls at the
source. On the sales side, this implies doing a better job of targeting
customers so fewer outbound calls result in more individual sales at a lower
cost. On the service side, this implies simplifying everything, from the
product offering to customer communication. Clarity of communications reduces
the number and kinds of questions that prompt billing and service calls.
Another powerful tool for boosting efficiency is one-touch call resolution.
Solve a customer's problem on the first call. Immediate issue resolution
creates improved operational efficiency and increased customer satisfaction.
Fewer calls decrease operational pressure, while successful call conclusions
minimize the risk of customer attrition.
The last point is to improve self-service capabilities without eroding
customer loyalty. Differentiating offerings based on customer value forces
lower value customers to use a self-serve option such as an automated phone
tree, while higher value customers still enjoy personal interaction with an
operator. For example, high profit and high potential Charles Schwab clients
never wait longer than 15 seconds for their calls to be answered.²
Methods for amplifying the self-serve approach include increasing the
number of functions available, adopting new technologies that allow for
different kinds of transactions, such as natural language queries versus menu
trees, and heightening self-service levels for lower value customers.
Leading retailers who have successfully implemented programs like this now
find that up to 40 percent of sales come from self-serve checkout systems.³ At
Office Depot, for example, voice recognition systems have slashed phone
interaction costs by 87 percent, with the unexpected benefit of larger average
orders than those placed with operators.
Norwegian-based telecommunications provider Telenor Mobil worked with
Accenture to design a system that segments clients based on their user profile
and usage patterns. When customers log on to the Telenor Mobil web site, the
system now delivers personalized advice and sales leads tailored to the
customer. Outsourcing Options
In the past, companies simply handed-off control and responsibility of a call center infrastructure to the outsourced vendor and compensated them on a pay-per-call basis. While that drove volume,
it did so with little regard for customer satisfaction. With time has come
maturity, and improved outsourcing models are more focused on a partnership
mentality and metrics that reward quality as well as quantity.
As a result, attention to quality has begun to permeate the international
call centers of countries such as India, China and the Philippines, along with
a deeper understanding of issues such as the cost to serve customers. Jupiter
Media Metrix research suggests that transferring call center operations to
qualified international contact centers can eliminate up to 30 percent of costs
associated with in-house operations. Transforming the Future
For optimal
results, consider transformational change, a process that reconfigures the
customer interaction system from end to end. It improves operational efficiency
and reduces costs by calibrating sales and service levels to better match
customer value. It deploys new technologies like voice recognition to cut call
times and boost order size.
Transformational change explores new systems and factors-in customer
insights that touch on every aspect of customer contact. It combines new
customer treatment strategies, more flexible investment options and creative
operating models to deliver more targeted, impactful customer sales and service
interactions.
AT&T Consumer opted for transformational change when it announced a
$2.6 billion program designed to overhaul sales and customer care offerings
over a five-year horizon. The projected result: a breathtaking 50 percent
reduction in customer relationship management costs. Dialing Up Results
Sometimes results are a
simple matter of setting expectations. In the case of call centers cost, Datamonitor discovered that a paltry one-third of companies in their study expected call centers to make a profit. Even fewer, just one-fourth, expected call centers to
generate revenues.
Transformational change represents the next level of customer service
evolution where efficiency is the key and quality comes a close second.
Regardless of the scale or complexity of the call center operation, a holistic
approach will greatly strengthen program impact, making for more efficient and
effective use of capital and other resources.
About the Author: Robert Wollan is a partner in the
Accenture Customer Relationship Management service line and leads the company's
global Customer Contact Transformation offering.
Talk to someone
about this topic ¹Robert E. Wollan and Paul F. Nunes, "Toward a
customer meritocracy," Outlook 2002, Number 2, Accenture, page 35
²Ibid.
page 38
³ibid. page 38
ibid. page
38
“Telenor Connects with Its Customers,” June 2002 Access article,
Accenture.
ibid. page 39
ibid.
page 37
ibid. page 36 To
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