How to Conduct a Call Center Performance Audit: A to Z

Call centers are an important company asset, but also a very expensive one. By learning to conduct a performance audit, readers will be able to understand over fifty specific aspects of a call center that must be running smoothly in order to achieve maximum performance in both efficiency and effectiveness of handling inbound customer calls.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE SITE ASSESSMENT

Welcome. If you are an internal professional or external consultant, this book will walk you through the team requirements and tools to perform an on-site benchmark audit of a call center. There are four fundamental steps to learn:

Audit: to gather data from a dashboard of metrics used to manage a center

Assess: to observe the process and interview for performance gaps

Analyze: to diagnose the findings on a financial and feasible point-of-view

Act: to recommend core initiatives and monitor the impact of change

The site audit or assessment of a call center (hereinafter referred to as a "call center") is a comprehensive evaluation of every functional element of a call center including the people, hardware, software, standards, workflow processes, procedures, policies, operations and, of course, customer service.

Purpose

The purpose of the site assessment is to assist the manager in improving both the productivity or operational cost efficiency and the effectiveness or quality of the call center and, thereby, its perceived value to the corporation and to each customer it serves.

Opportunity

Today s call centers are under constant management pressures to do "more with less" or in call center terms, "to answer more calls, more quickly, and with fewer people." Many existing call centers were designed and implemented under conditions of limited time and money. These call centers are now looking for assistance to improve and/or re-engineer their processes in order to achieve higher productivity, amplify customer satisfaction and increase sales. In addition, many call centers were created before the value of the business information a call center can provide to an overall business was recognized. Call centers are often thought of many times as the first and sometimes only interface with a customer. If that interaction is helpful, fast and correct (a magic moment), the customer has a good feeling about a company and tends to remain loyal to the company. But when the interaction is negative (a tragic moment), the short- and long- term effects can be devastating.

In a study by Tom Peters on the impact of customer dissatisfaction, he found that twenty-six of every twenty-seven customers who have a bad experience with you, fail to report it. The principal reason they don t bother calling you is because they don t believe anything will change. Ninety-one percent of those who complain won t come back. This was found to be true whether someone was spending $2.00 or $2,000. The worst of it is that the average person who has had a bad experience tells nine to ten people; 13% of the malcontents will spread the bad word to twenty or more people.

The point is that call center managers need to know where they stand against their competition in providing world-class customer service. This is important not only for their call center, but also because the call center is now becoming one of the first indicators of how successfully the company is running, i.e., whether the customers are happy. And if a company has satisfied customers, it has a business; without satisfied customers, the company will not grow and flourish.

Considering your call center as your first line of customer contact can be a new thought in customer relationship management (CRM) for many executives. Benchmarkportal.com and Purdue University research teams have shown that by converting the raw data from call center benchmarking into business intelligence, companies can increase customer service, profitability and revenue. As a result, a call center can even transform into a profit center.

Our customer service data also shows that one can retain 82 to 95% of dissatisfied customers if complaints are resolved in a timely and thoughtful fashion. However, the goal is to not disappoint the customer in the first place. Purdue studies show that it costs five times more to go out and get a new customer than it does to maintain a customer you already have. The cost/benefit analysis of spending money on gaining new customers vs. doing a great job with the ones you already have shows that it pays to make improvements to the current system.

Audience

The audience for this book is call center consultants both internal and external to a company. Specifically, the reader might be an auditor, internal project consultant, or a business consultant/advisor. An auditor submits valid data to be used as a baseline measurement for an "as-is" starting point. The internal project consultant pulls together different departments into a unified mission for the center. The business consultant (often a third party) utilizes a peer comparison perspective to lead change and commitment toward a best-practice state. Together, this team can identify action plans of sequential steps and stages to transform its professional services into fee-based engagements with call center clients.

Deliverables

The outcomes and deliverables of the call center site assessment are:

· A benchmark of key performance indicators to identify gaps provided in a solution report

· Assess all functional elements of the center for observation review

· Make specific recommendations for call center improvement

· Draft a comprehensive and sensitive change management plan

· Calculate a return-on-investment (ROI) scenario for new expenditures