The economy is in decline, jobless numbers and unemployment are growing and companies are being asked to cut costs operate more efficiently. Call centre managers, used to “doing more with less” are now being asked to “do more with none”. Where can a manager turn in their efforts to improve the efficiency and reduce the operating costs in their call or contact center?
There are a number of cost centers within a contact center, including: labour, technology, service costs and overhead. In this article we examine the opportunities to save costs on telecommunications expenses. Telecommunications costs are one of the most significant cost areas in any contact center after labour. Telecommunications is also the second highest non-operating expense for the average Fortune 1000 firm. This cost includes local and/or long distance service fees, lines, circuits and features.
Telephone usage and service invoices always appear to be written in some arcane language regardless of the company issuing them. Instead of words and descriptions that can be understood telephone companies (telco’s) instead employ codes like ARX-325 to describe an off premise extension or tie line. The very language and structure of the invoices make them unintelligible to mere mortals. Some Telephone companies issue separate invoice for services and for equipment, which doubles the confusion. As a result few companies can genuinely verify if there invoices are correct and accurate.
In reality all companies should check their phone bills. Most telco invoices are inaccurate, often 30% of the charges are incorrect, and in some organizations the figure is even higher.
So in examining your phone bills the first place you need to start is with an inventory of the phone lines and circuits that you have installed and are using. If you receive separate equipment and services billing then the equipment invoice is the best place to start. Make a list of all of the lines and/or circuits, T1’s, PRI’s and equipment. For each line list the features or service that should be associated with the line/circuit. Look at the lines and circuits that show usage. If there is no usage on a line or circuit and you don’t understand why, then investigate. It is not uncommon for lines that have been removed to still be on the invoice, complete with the features and services that were associated with that line.
Usage, long distance, toll free charges are generally easy to identify as they show activity and likely someone is already reconciling these activities. Long distance fees may be significantly less today than they were a decade ago, but you need to track and reconcile activity to ensure that you are getting what you paid for. More difficult to identify are feature fees that are only a few bucks time. These fees add up and quickly. Check your contract, and see what the rates are supposed to be charged. Are these the rates you are paying?
Back billing or billing for services outside of the period of the bill happens. While not often it happens enough that it can come as a nasty surprise. Some jurisdictions and tariffs allow for back billing of up to 7 years. Telcos have to charge or recharge based on bills they themselves get from other carriers. Or they find something for which they forgot to bill or in very rare cases where they overbilled. This gives some leeway to you for going back through the bills and finding where you were overcharged. One case we know of got credit for 5 years of charge for circuits billed but not installed, in another case a refund for more than 3 years of circuits billed but not installed. These two situations resulted in the organizations receiving refunds of more than $500,000 and over $100,000. This also explained why the center was always experiencing a blockage problem.
Another area where charges can sometimes be found is for past Yellow Page ads you may have run. Compare the markets and locations where you believe the ads are to run and ensure they are. Also check markets where you advertised in past and see if the ads are still running or if you are paying for ads you don’t want or don’t have.
Analyzing your phone bills is something you can do, but there are also companies that will do this for you, generally for 50% of the saving they find.
Paying for services you don’t receive is just one way that organizations can pay too much for telecom. Many companies pay above market rates for services. Ask for prices from at least three providers for all of your telecom services. Check with your friends and acquaintances in the trade. There is almost certainly a lower price to be had. Almost as bad a paying too much for services is buying more services than you require. Most companies poorly configure their requirements and are motivated to ‘make sure they are up’ and the person responsible for telecom is often severely criticized for any ‘down time’. The motivation isn’t to ‘buy right’, but it is to ‘play it safe’. This contributes to an environment that results in over buying and overpaying.
Employees expect 100% up time all the time. Of course employees can also represent a source of inappropriate telecom usage. Most people have made a long distance calls from their companies. Some have made personal long distance calls and a small few regularly make extensive use of the company’s telephones to call friends and relatives half way around the world. A single call is not likely to break the bank. Hundreds or thousands of such calls will represent a significant expense. Worse, if the abuse is significant and on-going, it can actually blend into the business activity and mask the abuse. Implement Call Accounting and Best Available Routing selection. This way the phone system will route the call to its destination at the lowest possible cost and track who is making these calls. This technology is available on most telephone systems though a surprisingly small number of organizations actually employ them. Your use of these applications can be limited to employing account codes for staff long distance or up to blocking access to locations where you do not have business contacts. This approach will minimize potential costs should your system be compromised.
But internal threats are not the only ones your telephony systems may face. IP telephony systems are designed for remote access and to support remote workers. The remote workers access the IP telephony system through a login and password process. When a company access port is identified it is a relatively simple task to crack most 4 or 5 digit passwords. Once access has been secured hundreds of thousand of dollars of long distance costs can be incurred in calls to exotic locations. There have actually been reports of a black market in compromised phone systems that can be used for ‘free’ long distance. The telco can and will demand payment for these charges. So change your voicemail logins frequently and don’t use simple logins and passwords.
Telecom costs can be challenging to manage given the nature of the invoices and codes they contain. This complexity can also mean that savings are there to find. All you need to do is just dig.
Showing posts with label telecommunications. Show all posts
Showing posts with label telecommunications. Show all posts
Friday, May 15, 2009
Thursday, January 29, 2009
IQPC Call Center Summit- Review
Call Center Summit in Orlando just wrapped up and it was a bit of a disappointment. Attendance was about 150poeple (down by about 20% I am told from last year) with 15 or so exhibitors (also down from last year).
The show was O.K. a lot of recycled content and too little original material, but that is normal for most shows. A couple of very good sessions on on 'Maintaining Control in a Virtual Contact Center Environment', by Prem Uppaluru of Transera. The completeness of the Transera solution for integrated management of numerous disparate outsource centers is quite impressive. If you employ multiple outsource agencies with multiple locations you really should look into this solution to improve management and reduce costs.
The session by Steve Sullivan of CIT on 'Optimizing Contact Center Resources During Tough Times' was really mislabeled as it focused almost entirely on outbound IVR as a cost effective tool to improve communications and preempt inbound calls. While Steve's focus was from the collections industry the information has application to every contact center operator.
As with most shows of this kind there were too many commercials thinly veiled as presentations, too many "look at me I'm smart" case studies and the show management itself had some challenges with technology, a guide that didn't identify session rooms, incorrect titles and associated speakers and a keynote that turned into a webinar.
Personally, I don't think the show was worth the cost $2500 to attend, but as they say "you only need one idea you can use to pay for the conference"
The show was O.K. a lot of recycled content and too little original material, but that is normal for most shows. A couple of very good sessions on on 'Maintaining Control in a Virtual Contact Center Environment', by Prem Uppaluru of Transera. The completeness of the Transera solution for integrated management of numerous disparate outsource centers is quite impressive. If you employ multiple outsource agencies with multiple locations you really should look into this solution to improve management and reduce costs.
The session by Steve Sullivan of CIT on 'Optimizing Contact Center Resources During Tough Times' was really mislabeled as it focused almost entirely on outbound IVR as a cost effective tool to improve communications and preempt inbound calls. While Steve's focus was from the collections industry the information has application to every contact center operator.
As with most shows of this kind there were too many commercials thinly veiled as presentations, too many "look at me I'm smart" case studies and the show management itself had some challenges with technology, a guide that didn't identify session rooms, incorrect titles and associated speakers and a keynote that turned into a webinar.
Personally, I don't think the show was worth the cost $2500 to attend, but as they say "you only need one idea you can use to pay for the conference"
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
IP Telephony RFP template available
Lots of folks are looking to upgrade their phone systems and many are intimidated by the process. Well we have helped many companies select a new phone or call center system and we have developed a pretty darn good RFP template that ypou can use to request quotes anproposals from vendors. Its free just ask us for it.
Follow this link for more information
http://www.thetaylorreachgroup.com/news.php?item=20071031_095534.txt
Follow this link for more information
http://www.thetaylorreachgroup.com/news.php?item=20071031_095534.txt
Monday, August 6, 2007
Don't buy a phone system until you read this
The folowing press release represents a great opportunity for any company in Canada considering a new telephone system. I have worked on numerous telephony RFP's and have been consistently impressed with the ShoreTel syste. Quite frankly it is the only pure IP telephone system designed from the ground up. Superior architecture, lower total cost of ownership and the highest customer satisfaction, make ShoreTel a must to review before you purchase any new telephone system.
For Immediate Release
Press Contacts:
Peter Proulx – CEO – 716-629-3099
IP Telephony, Network Services Company expands to Canada
Peter Proulx, CEO PremCom Corporation, a Buffalo, NY Reseller and Integrator of Enterprise IP Telephony Solutions and Network Services announced today the establishment of a new Toronto office.
“Our new office will allow us to expand our reach and service base beyond New York State”, said Proulx, “and allow us to offer Canadian customers the best IP telephony and network services solutions available.” PremCom sells ShoreTel IP Phone Systems, ShoreTel is the fastest growing IP PBX Company worldwide and the leader in customer satisfaction.
“We are excited about PremCom’s expansion into the Canadian market.”, said Peter Agricola, Northeast Area Sales Manager for ShoreTel, “PremCom has a proven track record for successful deployment of complex and large Enterprise IP phones systems. They have a proven track record with installations worldwide.”
Proulx also announced that PremCom has retained the telephony centric consulting firm: The Taylor Reach Group Inc. (TRG) to assist and support the new office launch. Colin Taylor the CEO of TRG said, “The establishment of a PremCom office in Toronto represents a giant step in terms of IP telephony options to Canadian companies.
PremCom is one of the leading ShoreTel partners and can now offer ShoreTel solutions to Canadian customers.”
The Toronto office is located at 19 Mercer St. Suite 300 in downtown Toronto. You can reach PremCom Canada at 416-979-2130. You can visit PremCom on the web at www.premcom.com. More information regarding ShoreTel can be found at www.shoretel.com . Immediate inquiries regarding PremCom services may be directed to Colin Taylor at the above number or at 416-276-9068.
About PremCom:
PremCom is an award winning provider of ShoreTel Voice over IP Telephone Systems. Established in 1992, PremCom is a single source provider for the design, installation and support of Communication and Data Networks, allowing organizations to optimize their information systems. PremCom has clients and installations across the USA and internationally. PremCom is a complete network services company providing VoIP Phone Systems, Network Servers, Network Communications Equipment and Cabling Infrastructure. PremCom is the Official Telephone Service Provider for the NHL Buffalo Sabres. www.premcom.com – 1-800-886-9267 – 85 Northpointe Pkwy. – Amherst, NY 14228
About The Taylor Reach Group, Inc.:
The Taylor Reach Group Inc. (TRG) was established in 2001 to assist companies and organizations improve their corporate and contact center services by focusing on telephone centric interactions. TRG award winning approach has assisted numerous companies such as Republic Services, Mercedes-Benz and Habitat for Humanity to improve their phone centric sales and service capabilities.
About ShoreTel, Inc.
ShoreTel is the fastest growing IP PBX Company worldwide and the leader in customer satisfaction. The company has shipped its groundbreaking solutions since 1998 and continues to outpace the rapidly expanding VoIP market with technological advances and sales that are doubling year over year. ShoreTel voice systems are designed to make businesses smarter, setting new standards for usability and manageability while reducing telecommunications costs. A uniquely distributed architecture extends enterprise-class voice services to every office and outpost, keeping employees fully connected wherever they go. A select, worldwide group of channel partners provide top-notch service and support. For more information, visit http://www.shoretel.com/ or call 1-877-80SHORE.
For more information about PremCom please contact:
Peter Proulx at (716) 691-0791.
For more information about TRG please contact:
Colin Taylor at (416) 276 9068
For Immediate Release
Press Contacts:
Peter Proulx – CEO – 716-629-3099
IP Telephony, Network Services Company expands to Canada
Peter Proulx, CEO PremCom Corporation, a Buffalo, NY Reseller and Integrator of Enterprise IP Telephony Solutions and Network Services announced today the establishment of a new Toronto office.
“Our new office will allow us to expand our reach and service base beyond New York State”, said Proulx, “and allow us to offer Canadian customers the best IP telephony and network services solutions available.” PremCom sells ShoreTel IP Phone Systems, ShoreTel is the fastest growing IP PBX Company worldwide and the leader in customer satisfaction.
“We are excited about PremCom’s expansion into the Canadian market.”, said Peter Agricola, Northeast Area Sales Manager for ShoreTel, “PremCom has a proven track record for successful deployment of complex and large Enterprise IP phones systems. They have a proven track record with installations worldwide.”
Proulx also announced that PremCom has retained the telephony centric consulting firm: The Taylor Reach Group Inc. (TRG) to assist and support the new office launch. Colin Taylor the CEO of TRG said, “The establishment of a PremCom office in Toronto represents a giant step in terms of IP telephony options to Canadian companies.
PremCom is one of the leading ShoreTel partners and can now offer ShoreTel solutions to Canadian customers.”
The Toronto office is located at 19 Mercer St. Suite 300 in downtown Toronto. You can reach PremCom Canada at 416-979-2130. You can visit PremCom on the web at www.premcom.com. More information regarding ShoreTel can be found at www.shoretel.com . Immediate inquiries regarding PremCom services may be directed to Colin Taylor at the above number or at 416-276-9068.
About PremCom:
About The Taylor Reach Group, Inc.:
The Taylor Reach Group Inc. (TRG) was established in 2001 to assist companies and organizations improve their corporate and contact center services by focusing on telephone centric interactions. TRG award winning approach has assisted numerous companies such as Republic Services, Mercedes-Benz and Habitat for Humanity to improve their phone centric sales and service capabilities.
About ShoreTel, Inc.
ShoreTel is the fastest growing IP PBX Company worldwide and the leader in customer satisfaction. The company has shipped its groundbreaking solutions since 1998 and continues to outpace the rapidly expanding VoIP market with technological advances and sales that are doubling year over year. ShoreTel voice systems are designed to make businesses smarter, setting new standards for usability and manageability while reducing telecommunications costs. A uniquely distributed architecture extends enterprise-class voice services to every office and outpost, keeping employees fully connected wherever they go. A select, worldwide group of channel partners provide top-notch service and support. For more information, visit http://www.shoretel.com/ or call 1-877-80SHORE.
For more information about PremCom please contact:
Peter Proulx at (716) 691-0791.
For more information about TRG please contact:
Colin Taylor at (416) 276 9068
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Outsourcing, Offshoring Truth or Consequences Part 2
Outsourcing, Off-Shoring: Truth and Consequences-Part 2
In our last article we examined offshore outsourcing the costs the real and perceived benefits and the steps an organization should take before embarking on an outsource and/or offshore venture.
In this article we focus on how an organization should best move forward to ensure that their outsourcing or offshoring venture will succeed and not be mentioned in the ever growing list of companies that failed in this exercise.
There is a lot of common steps and activities that need to be taken regardless of whether the service will be provided domestically, in a ‘near shore’ location (Canada) or offshore. We first examine the steps and activities that apply to all locations and then look at those that are location specific.
Following this activity checklist can prevent lots of pain and suffering for both the organization and the outsource partner. This is an essential step in building a successful outsource relationship.
The first questions you need to ask are the ones we discussed in the previous article…
Are your service transactions a one-off or are they part of a broader on-going customer relationship?
What are the risks to the customer relationship associated with off-shoring?
· From the companies perspective?
· From the customers perspective?
Can these risks be mitigated?
Are we willing to accept these risks and the worst case scenario to save approximately 15%?
Have we optimized our existing internal operational model?
· Is our technology the best possible to support the delivery of service?
· Do we have the right people with the right skills delivering service today?
· Do we have the appropriate training and development in place to grow and develop our staff to deliver ever improving service?
· Are our operational metrics aligned with the goals and objectives of the company?
Do we have the resources and appropriate knowledge internally to source, implement and manage an outsource provider?
Do we possess a network and IT infrastructure that can support extension to an outsource provider?
If your answer is ‘No’ to any of these questions then you will be creating problems for yourself by moving forward with outsourcing until you can answer “yes’ to each.
Assessing the Outsourcer:
Now with your ‘yes’ answers in hand you are ready to move forward to source an outsource partner, as you move forward keep in mind that all outsourcers you speak with want your business and will regale you with how wonderful they are. The first qualification area we will address in terms of qualifying potential outsource partners is Experience.
Experience:
Take all statements related to experience and knowledge with a grain of salt. Ask the vendor specific questions related to their experience such as;
o Which companies in my vertical have they worked with?
o Are they still working with these companies? (and if not, why not)
o Can they provide reference contacts at these firms?
Based on their answers you may have to ask yourself if you want to work with an experienced firm or if you want to be a guinea pig?
Of course even if the outsourcer has experience in your vertical it doesn’t mean that they are good at it or even that this is a core competency. You will want to ask them:
o What percentage of their business (in terms of dollars, minutes or seats) is in the same vertical as you operate in?
o What types of services they have provided to that vertical? (they may have experience in publishing but if they have only handled inbound change of address requests this isn’t terribly relevant if you are looking to outsource outbound renewals)
o What awards or recognition they have received for their work in the sector? Of course they could do very good work and have received no awards or recognition, but if they have received awards etc., then you can know that some third party assessed their work or submission and felt that it had merit.
Staffing:
It is essential that you understand the staff who will be working on your project. After all it is these people who will be interacting with your customers. It is based on this interaction that your customers will judge your company[1]. You need to know the following:
· What the skills and competencies they look for when hiring staff? Be wary of anyone that only or primarily looks for call/contact center experience as this often just hires someone else’s’ problems.
· How do they test for these Skills & Competencies? The tests should be objective and independent of the interviewers’ subjective opinion. Ask to see these tests.
· What is their annual staff turnover and how is this calculated? Turnover is the percentage of staff that leaves the center each year. This can include ‘turnover’ those that leave the organization and ‘churnover’ those that leave the contact center but are still with the company. Turnover should include staff from the first day they are on the job. Be wary of companies who don’t include ‘churnover’ or who don’t include the training period or the first X days in their counts. These exclusions tend to occur in companies that want their turnover numbers to appear to be lower.
· Ask if you can interview and/or speak with some of their staff. You will get better insight to the staff and organization by speaking with them directly.
Training:
You need to understand how your potential outsource partner approaches staff training. Not just the product knowledge, but also the soft skills related to effective communication, active listening, sales and agent development.
Specifically you should ask:
· To see their agent training program (agree to sign an NDA if requested). This shows how they invest and equip new staff before they go on a program such as yours.
· To see any tests or assessments they complete to ensure comprehension and recall of trained knowledge?
· A training outline for a program similar in nature to yours? They should remove client identifiable elements.
· How will your training be done? Will they train all of the staff, will you train the trainer or will they expect you to train all of the staff?
Management Processes:
You need to understand how the outsource partner will manage your business. Specifically you need to understand:
· The key metrics or KPI’s they employ in managing their business from a macro level? They are in business to make money, so costs and margin certainly need to be present. They also should include metrics such as Service Levels, Quality Levels, escalations, First contact resolution, etc.
· What are the specific metrics they believe your program should be governed by? By asking this question before you provide your desired metrics will tell speak volumes about their perception of your project and requirements.
· Who will manage your business? Will they assign a project manager? Where is that manager located? Are they dedicated to your account? How will you interact with them: phone, email, face to face, instant messaging etc.? What are the response parameters you should expect? Ask them to provide a service level agreement to respond to your phone calls and emails. Ask to see a bio or resume for the project manager. Ask for references for the project manager. This person will be an extension of your company; you should be very comfortable with this person before agreeing to proceed.
· What reporting: type and frequency will they provide to you? Ask to see sample reports and ask if they can produce ‘ad-hoc’ reports and how quickly they can do so?
· Ask for a standard implementation project plan. This will show you how they manage projects and what tasks are required as well as how much time they feel should be devoted to each activity.
Technology:
Any outsourcer you partner with will need to integrate with your systems and processes. It is important to understand both their structure and knowledge levels. Specifically:
· Ask to see their Disaster Recovery Plan. If there is a problem, you want to know what will happen and when. Otherwise your own service to your customers may be compromised.
· Are their telephony and power systems redundant and to what level? Determine if they are speaking of battery back up, on-site diesel power generation or physical connection to two power stations or telco central offices.
· How do they envision connecting into your systems? How they connect and the security around the connection are going to be very important to your own IT group
Pricing:
This is often the only element that companies look at closely. Those that do this, do so at their peril. Price is always important, but it should never be the only consideration. Before you select a vendor you need to understand their pricing model and how it would apply to your project. Specifically you will want to know:
· What is the basis for their pricing model? Is it per connect minute, per talk time minute, per call, staff FTE’s etc.
· Are there discounts or price breaks based upon volumes? We know that there are economies of scale as a business grows, to what degree do they share this with their customers?
· What are the set up or establishment fees and what are these charges for? Some companies charge for training, opening a file, reporting set up, telecommunication set up, data connectivity set up etc.
· What other fees are there and when would they apply? Do their rates for example include long distance and if not what is the ‘per minute’ rate they charge you. Can the long distance or toll charges be billed directly to you by your existing carrier? Are charges for additional reports and what are these fees?
· What service level guarantees are they willing to offer? Are the service levels targets or requirements? More than one company has been burned by thinking that a target service level meant that it would be consistently achieved as apposed to something to strive for.
· What is the measurement period for the service level? There can be significant variances in actual service delivered if it is measured on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
· What penalties and recovery periods will apply when a service level is not achieved?
· What contract terms are they seeking and what benefit do you receive for a longer agreement? It is not uncommon for multi-year agreements to include rate escalation clauses. It is generally in the clients best interest to not have a blanket escalation rate but rather a increase/decrease tied to an independent measure such as ‘cost of living’ etc.
General:
Always do the following:
· Visit the contact center where your business will be completed. Seeing the site and meeting the Supervisors and staff will provide great insight into the company.
· Be concerned if they tell you they do not have a center for you today. While this can speak to growth it can also lead to delaying the project timetable if they are working out funding, have construction delays or need more clients to justify the build.
· Check references. Check a minimum of three current clients. Ask to speak with former clients as well. Find out why former clients are not still dealing with the outsourcer. Ask specifically about adherence to service levels, budgets and timeline and how easy the access was to the project manager and senior company resources.
· Do a ‘credit check’ on the company. You don’t want to risk you customers with a company that is struggling to stay afloat. If they collapse you may be down for days or even weeks.
Location specific questions:
Near Shore
Canada is the most popular near shore location for call and contact center activities. Jamaica, Mexico and Puerto Rico also host a number of contact centers. In all cases these have lower operating costs due to their location. A part of the outsource operating advantage is dollar arbitrage, The lower the exchange to the US dollar generally the lower the costs in that country. Regardless of the country you need to ask a number of questions including:
· Will the outsourcer invoice you in US dollars? This frees you from concerns over the relative exchange rates between US Dollars and the local currency.
· What taxes are charged in that country and can any of these be recovered. Local country taxes often can be applied to call and contact center services, though often you can become exempt or have the taxes refunded if you are a non resident company.
· Language skills vary from location to location based upon the educational system in that country. For US companies seeking English language services Canada often reflects the best option as Canada has an excellent educational system. It is also heavily influenced by American media.
· Culture is important in any call or contact center. All customers will employ slang, idioms expressions and phrases that are not taught in school. It is imperative that the agents representing your company can communicate effectively with your customers.
· Infrastructure can be a concern outside of Canada. Generally in Mexico and the Caribbean the telecommunication and electrical infrastructure is inferior to that seen in Canada or the US. You must ask about reliability, redundancy, failure history, recovery periods etc.
· Weather can be a concern regardless of where the center is located internally, domestically or near shore. Snow in the north, hurricanes in the south, tornadoes in the mid west all pose potential risks that need to be identified and assessed. It is interesting to note that locations with regular and significant amounts of snow loose fewer days annually to weather than locations that see small amounts or infrequent snow storms.
Offshore
There are numerous offshore locations for contact centers around the globe. They include countries such as India and the Philippines but also include countries such as;
o South Africa,
o New Zealand,
o Ireland,
o Romania,
o Poland,
o Malaysia,
o China,
o Singapore,
o The Seychelles,
o Sri Lanka,
o Pakistan,
For each of these countries you must examine all of the universal and near shore questions plus the following;
· Access, will you need a visa to get into the country? This can be a factor sourcing individuals who will work providing training and managing the vendor relationship.
· How safe is the location or how safe will your staff feel when they are there. We often forget that: India is a nuclear state that is in a constant state of near war with Pakistan or that the Philippines has an on-going guerrilla war underway and that there are semi-regular riots in the streets of Manila. All of this has a bearing on your ability to get staff to travel to these locations.
· Infrastructure in many of these countries can range from poor to very good. Often service providers operate their own private networks rather than rely on the public grid. In these cases their redundancy and Business Continuity plans take on far more significance.
· Cultural Context can be very important in countries that have little exposure to the US culture. We see a phenomena call cultural context training. This is a process designed to train staff to deal with North Americans. This can range from the ludicrous (employing a full season of the sitcom Friends to teach Indians about US culture) to good (broad cultural trainings, accent neutralization training, slang, axioms and expressions training). You cannot skimp with this aspect of your assessment as this will likely be the most obvious clue to your customer that you have offshored the center.
· Time zones also play a role in the ongoing management of an offshore vendor; you need to plan to communicate at 5, 8, and 10 hours off the normal North American clock if you wish to stay on top of your partner. Waiting till the next day often means you can’t speak to who you want to and will likely lose another day before changes or adjustments can be made. When was the last time you had an internal crisis where you had the liberty of taking 3 days to fix it?
· Due Diligence is essential before you travel overseas to meet with a potential partner. Before you go, check their references, find a local lawyer, consultant and accountant or tax planner. You will need to know the implications of establishing a contract offshore. For example the laws of what country will govern the agreement? How will judgments be enforced if any are executed? How will disputes be resolved, what are the risks to any assets you send overseas etc.
The world seems to continually become a smaller place and outsourcing and offshoring are here to stay. But with the proper preparation any company can navigate these potentially dangerous waters and develop effective and meaningful partnerships.
[1] Perdue University- 92% of consumers judge a company based upon their experience with the company’s contact center.
In our last article we examined offshore outsourcing the costs the real and perceived benefits and the steps an organization should take before embarking on an outsource and/or offshore venture.
In this article we focus on how an organization should best move forward to ensure that their outsourcing or offshoring venture will succeed and not be mentioned in the ever growing list of companies that failed in this exercise.
There is a lot of common steps and activities that need to be taken regardless of whether the service will be provided domestically, in a ‘near shore’ location (Canada) or offshore. We first examine the steps and activities that apply to all locations and then look at those that are location specific.
Following this activity checklist can prevent lots of pain and suffering for both the organization and the outsource partner. This is an essential step in building a successful outsource relationship.
The first questions you need to ask are the ones we discussed in the previous article…
Are your service transactions a one-off or are they part of a broader on-going customer relationship?
What are the risks to the customer relationship associated with off-shoring?
· From the companies perspective?
· From the customers perspective?
Can these risks be mitigated?
Are we willing to accept these risks and the worst case scenario to save approximately 15%?
Have we optimized our existing internal operational model?
· Is our technology the best possible to support the delivery of service?
· Do we have the right people with the right skills delivering service today?
· Do we have the appropriate training and development in place to grow and develop our staff to deliver ever improving service?
· Are our operational metrics aligned with the goals and objectives of the company?
Do we have the resources and appropriate knowledge internally to source, implement and manage an outsource provider?
Do we possess a network and IT infrastructure that can support extension to an outsource provider?
If your answer is ‘No’ to any of these questions then you will be creating problems for yourself by moving forward with outsourcing until you can answer “yes’ to each.
Assessing the Outsourcer:
Now with your ‘yes’ answers in hand you are ready to move forward to source an outsource partner, as you move forward keep in mind that all outsourcers you speak with want your business and will regale you with how wonderful they are. The first qualification area we will address in terms of qualifying potential outsource partners is Experience.
Experience:
Take all statements related to experience and knowledge with a grain of salt. Ask the vendor specific questions related to their experience such as;
o Which companies in my vertical have they worked with?
o Are they still working with these companies? (and if not, why not)
o Can they provide reference contacts at these firms?
Based on their answers you may have to ask yourself if you want to work with an experienced firm or if you want to be a guinea pig?
Of course even if the outsourcer has experience in your vertical it doesn’t mean that they are good at it or even that this is a core competency. You will want to ask them:
o What percentage of their business (in terms of dollars, minutes or seats) is in the same vertical as you operate in?
o What types of services they have provided to that vertical? (they may have experience in publishing but if they have only handled inbound change of address requests this isn’t terribly relevant if you are looking to outsource outbound renewals)
o What awards or recognition they have received for their work in the sector? Of course they could do very good work and have received no awards or recognition, but if they have received awards etc., then you can know that some third party assessed their work or submission and felt that it had merit.
Staffing:
It is essential that you understand the staff who will be working on your project. After all it is these people who will be interacting with your customers. It is based on this interaction that your customers will judge your company[1]. You need to know the following:
· What the skills and competencies they look for when hiring staff? Be wary of anyone that only or primarily looks for call/contact center experience as this often just hires someone else’s’ problems.
· How do they test for these Skills & Competencies? The tests should be objective and independent of the interviewers’ subjective opinion. Ask to see these tests.
· What is their annual staff turnover and how is this calculated? Turnover is the percentage of staff that leaves the center each year. This can include ‘turnover’ those that leave the organization and ‘churnover’ those that leave the contact center but are still with the company. Turnover should include staff from the first day they are on the job. Be wary of companies who don’t include ‘churnover’ or who don’t include the training period or the first X days in their counts. These exclusions tend to occur in companies that want their turnover numbers to appear to be lower.
· Ask if you can interview and/or speak with some of their staff. You will get better insight to the staff and organization by speaking with them directly.
Training:
You need to understand how your potential outsource partner approaches staff training. Not just the product knowledge, but also the soft skills related to effective communication, active listening, sales and agent development.
Specifically you should ask:
· To see their agent training program (agree to sign an NDA if requested). This shows how they invest and equip new staff before they go on a program such as yours.
· To see any tests or assessments they complete to ensure comprehension and recall of trained knowledge?
· A training outline for a program similar in nature to yours? They should remove client identifiable elements.
· How will your training be done? Will they train all of the staff, will you train the trainer or will they expect you to train all of the staff?
Management Processes:
You need to understand how the outsource partner will manage your business. Specifically you need to understand:
· The key metrics or KPI’s they employ in managing their business from a macro level? They are in business to make money, so costs and margin certainly need to be present. They also should include metrics such as Service Levels, Quality Levels, escalations, First contact resolution, etc.
· What are the specific metrics they believe your program should be governed by? By asking this question before you provide your desired metrics will tell speak volumes about their perception of your project and requirements.
· Who will manage your business? Will they assign a project manager? Where is that manager located? Are they dedicated to your account? How will you interact with them: phone, email, face to face, instant messaging etc.? What are the response parameters you should expect? Ask them to provide a service level agreement to respond to your phone calls and emails. Ask to see a bio or resume for the project manager. Ask for references for the project manager. This person will be an extension of your company; you should be very comfortable with this person before agreeing to proceed.
· What reporting: type and frequency will they provide to you? Ask to see sample reports and ask if they can produce ‘ad-hoc’ reports and how quickly they can do so?
· Ask for a standard implementation project plan. This will show you how they manage projects and what tasks are required as well as how much time they feel should be devoted to each activity.
Technology:
Any outsourcer you partner with will need to integrate with your systems and processes. It is important to understand both their structure and knowledge levels. Specifically:
· Ask to see their Disaster Recovery Plan. If there is a problem, you want to know what will happen and when. Otherwise your own service to your customers may be compromised.
· Are their telephony and power systems redundant and to what level? Determine if they are speaking of battery back up, on-site diesel power generation or physical connection to two power stations or telco central offices.
· How do they envision connecting into your systems? How they connect and the security around the connection are going to be very important to your own IT group
Pricing:
This is often the only element that companies look at closely. Those that do this, do so at their peril. Price is always important, but it should never be the only consideration. Before you select a vendor you need to understand their pricing model and how it would apply to your project. Specifically you will want to know:
· What is the basis for their pricing model? Is it per connect minute, per talk time minute, per call, staff FTE’s etc.
· Are there discounts or price breaks based upon volumes? We know that there are economies of scale as a business grows, to what degree do they share this with their customers?
· What are the set up or establishment fees and what are these charges for? Some companies charge for training, opening a file, reporting set up, telecommunication set up, data connectivity set up etc.
· What other fees are there and when would they apply? Do their rates for example include long distance and if not what is the ‘per minute’ rate they charge you. Can the long distance or toll charges be billed directly to you by your existing carrier? Are charges for additional reports and what are these fees?
· What service level guarantees are they willing to offer? Are the service levels targets or requirements? More than one company has been burned by thinking that a target service level meant that it would be consistently achieved as apposed to something to strive for.
· What is the measurement period for the service level? There can be significant variances in actual service delivered if it is measured on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
· What penalties and recovery periods will apply when a service level is not achieved?
· What contract terms are they seeking and what benefit do you receive for a longer agreement? It is not uncommon for multi-year agreements to include rate escalation clauses. It is generally in the clients best interest to not have a blanket escalation rate but rather a increase/decrease tied to an independent measure such as ‘cost of living’ etc.
General:
Always do the following:
· Visit the contact center where your business will be completed. Seeing the site and meeting the Supervisors and staff will provide great insight into the company.
· Be concerned if they tell you they do not have a center for you today. While this can speak to growth it can also lead to delaying the project timetable if they are working out funding, have construction delays or need more clients to justify the build.
· Check references. Check a minimum of three current clients. Ask to speak with former clients as well. Find out why former clients are not still dealing with the outsourcer. Ask specifically about adherence to service levels, budgets and timeline and how easy the access was to the project manager and senior company resources.
· Do a ‘credit check’ on the company. You don’t want to risk you customers with a company that is struggling to stay afloat. If they collapse you may be down for days or even weeks.
Location specific questions:
Near Shore
Canada is the most popular near shore location for call and contact center activities. Jamaica, Mexico and Puerto Rico also host a number of contact centers. In all cases these have lower operating costs due to their location. A part of the outsource operating advantage is dollar arbitrage, The lower the exchange to the US dollar generally the lower the costs in that country. Regardless of the country you need to ask a number of questions including:
· Will the outsourcer invoice you in US dollars? This frees you from concerns over the relative exchange rates between US Dollars and the local currency.
· What taxes are charged in that country and can any of these be recovered. Local country taxes often can be applied to call and contact center services, though often you can become exempt or have the taxes refunded if you are a non resident company.
· Language skills vary from location to location based upon the educational system in that country. For US companies seeking English language services Canada often reflects the best option as Canada has an excellent educational system. It is also heavily influenced by American media.
· Culture is important in any call or contact center. All customers will employ slang, idioms expressions and phrases that are not taught in school. It is imperative that the agents representing your company can communicate effectively with your customers.
· Infrastructure can be a concern outside of Canada. Generally in Mexico and the Caribbean the telecommunication and electrical infrastructure is inferior to that seen in Canada or the US. You must ask about reliability, redundancy, failure history, recovery periods etc.
· Weather can be a concern regardless of where the center is located internally, domestically or near shore. Snow in the north, hurricanes in the south, tornadoes in the mid west all pose potential risks that need to be identified and assessed. It is interesting to note that locations with regular and significant amounts of snow loose fewer days annually to weather than locations that see small amounts or infrequent snow storms.
Offshore
There are numerous offshore locations for contact centers around the globe. They include countries such as India and the Philippines but also include countries such as;
o South Africa,
o New Zealand,
o Ireland,
o Romania,
o Poland,
o Malaysia,
o China,
o Singapore,
o The Seychelles,
o Sri Lanka,
o Pakistan,
For each of these countries you must examine all of the universal and near shore questions plus the following;
· Access, will you need a visa to get into the country? This can be a factor sourcing individuals who will work providing training and managing the vendor relationship.
· How safe is the location or how safe will your staff feel when they are there. We often forget that: India is a nuclear state that is in a constant state of near war with Pakistan or that the Philippines has an on-going guerrilla war underway and that there are semi-regular riots in the streets of Manila. All of this has a bearing on your ability to get staff to travel to these locations.
· Infrastructure in many of these countries can range from poor to very good. Often service providers operate their own private networks rather than rely on the public grid. In these cases their redundancy and Business Continuity plans take on far more significance.
· Cultural Context can be very important in countries that have little exposure to the US culture. We see a phenomena call cultural context training. This is a process designed to train staff to deal with North Americans. This can range from the ludicrous (employing a full season of the sitcom Friends to teach Indians about US culture) to good (broad cultural trainings, accent neutralization training, slang, axioms and expressions training). You cannot skimp with this aspect of your assessment as this will likely be the most obvious clue to your customer that you have offshored the center.
· Time zones also play a role in the ongoing management of an offshore vendor; you need to plan to communicate at 5, 8, and 10 hours off the normal North American clock if you wish to stay on top of your partner. Waiting till the next day often means you can’t speak to who you want to and will likely lose another day before changes or adjustments can be made. When was the last time you had an internal crisis where you had the liberty of taking 3 days to fix it?
· Due Diligence is essential before you travel overseas to meet with a potential partner. Before you go, check their references, find a local lawyer, consultant and accountant or tax planner. You will need to know the implications of establishing a contract offshore. For example the laws of what country will govern the agreement? How will judgments be enforced if any are executed? How will disputes be resolved, what are the risks to any assets you send overseas etc.
The world seems to continually become a smaller place and outsourcing and offshoring are here to stay. But with the proper preparation any company can navigate these potentially dangerous waters and develop effective and meaningful partnerships.
[1] Perdue University- 92% of consumers judge a company based upon their experience with the company’s contact center.
Monday, February 12, 2007
Managing Knowledge in complex telecommunications call center environment
“In a call or contact center environment I can see two distinct types of knowledge; the knowledge that is utilized and leveraged in providing service to customers and the knowledge that is generated through the operation and execution of the call/contact center services. In the first case most call/contact center are very poorly structured and designed to manage the knowledge they utilize in providing service. In the majority of center the agent requires 3 or more windows open on their desktop to access the different systems where the information resides. I have personally seen center where agents have 15 or more windows open! According to Gardner one of the fastest growing sectors within the call/contact center, ICT space is that of agent tools and analytics. Old approaches of building in-house systems, screen scrapes and in- house intranets have helped the centers but don't solve the problem as knowledge management and maintenance cause the information to become stale or duplicated. The real solution must lie with the development and deployment of an enterprise knowledgebase. This is a single repository of organizational knowledge which is available not just to the call center, but to the broader organization. This is not and cannot simply be a call center initiative as you must engage the Subject Matter Experts and Subject Matter Owners throughout the organization. These are the individuals who can identify the current knowledge and define the review cycles approvals and work flows required to maintain this knowledge. Call and Contact centers provide data, tons of data and all of this information can become knowledge in the right hands...that is to say in the hands of someone with the detailed and in-depth knowledge of the contact center industry and who is an expert on the technologies being employed. Your call or contact center is the canary in the mine, it is your early warning system. But this only will work when you can understand the information and knowledge generated. The key elements will not always be the same for each organization and will vary based upon the companies goals, objectives and customer base. The first step in this understanding process must be Service management. This has both internal and external components. Internally it encompasses Service Level, Speed of Answer, Abandon Rate, Blockage, Handle Time, First Contact Resolution, schedule adherence and other quantitative measures. In addition we need the qualitative measures: Quality Assurance, Customer satisfaction, Employee satisfaction, Repurchase, life-time value etc. All of these metrics need to be established in a spreadsheet or database to the the key elements can be tracked and managed going forward. By employing forecasts and charting activity and shift in the KPI's over time the inter connectivity between and among these metrics becomes clear and it is possible to identify the key knowledge factors for your particular organization.
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