Whenever someone mentions process optimization, I always think of Henry Ford and the Model T. Old man Ford figured out that a “well-oiled” assembly line produced superior cars at substantially lower costs than custom-built automobiles. It was a win-win scenario for the company and the customer.
The contact center can be a great place to channel the ingenuity of Henry Ford and pursue business process optimization (BPO).
The contact center is made up of labor intensive, repetitive, high volume processes. There is “low hanging fruit” that could yield payback quickly.- The contact center is a critical element for many of the organization’s internal processes. Improvements in this area could have a ripple effect in other areas.
- Most centers have complex desktops with less than ideal application integration and the associated processes. Lost seconds on every call navigating a poorly architected solution translates to a whole lot of dollars and cents.
- BPO is a way to improve service while reducing costs, breaking the historical tradeoff between better service and lower costs.
As you start the New Year with renewed commitment to excellence, assess your business processes against the following best practices:
- Processes are properly focused and designed, consistent with strategy.
- Processes are well defined, reinforced, and consistently executed for contact management as well as support functions (e.g., quality assurance, hiring, training, workforce management, technology application/support, reporting and analytics).
- Processes are designed to ensure customer expectations are met, operations are efficient and effective, and technology is leveraged appropriately; the end-to-end experience is considered, even when other departments play a role in addressing customer needs.
- The contact center uses a formal change management approach to ensure that process change is appropriately introduced, adopted, and reinforced among all affected parties.