Page 96 - Lean six sigma demystified

Chapter 2 Lean Demy S tifie D 75

Get the idea? If you can answer the customer’s question fully and com-
pletely the first time, they won’t call back and they’ll be more satisfied. One of
the problems, of course, is diagnosing their problem correctly to begin with. To
do that, see my KnowWare ezine on the metamodel questions.

Use Call Center Insights

Because call centers are the front line for customer complaints and problems,
they are often ground zero for mistakes, errors, defects, and delays that affect
customers. As such, call centers are an ideal source point for improvement data.
Call centers can’t fix the problems, but they can create the improvement stories
to drive improvement in the rest of the company.
I worked with one wireless phone company. They had 300,000 calls a month
from 600,000 customers. That’s one call for every two customers. You can’t
make money if you’re spending $6 to $9 on your call center for every two
customers.
What were they calling about? Billing. No bills. Incorrect bills. Improperly
posted payments. At the time the company had a 17% error rate on service
orders to install or remove cell phone service. These errors translated into
delayed bills, overbilling, late payment charges that had to be adjusted.
Using transactional Six Sigma, we were able to drop the error rate from
17% to 3%, saving $250,000 a month in the order correction process and a
substantial drop in call center volume. This wasn’t the only issue driving traf-
fic to the call center, but it was a big piece. And the carnage and costs associ-
ated with an incorrect order far exceeded the $250,000 a month in corrections,
but it was difficult to measure the full impact of customer churn, adjust-
ments, calls, and so on.

Here’s My Point

Your call center can have have two big impacts on customer satisfaction.

1. Correctly diagnose and answer the customer’s question right the first time
(measured by call backs within 48 hours).
2. Track and measure the type and cost of customer complaints, requests,
and so on as input to the improvement process for the rest of the com-
pany. The call center is also a great place to get fresh ideas for product
enhancements and innovations.

Isn’t it time to start leveraging the value of your call center?