NEWS

More customers connected means more revenue generated for leading Australian contact center - 6 March 2009

BRISBANE - Touchbase has completed the implementation of a nationwide contact solution for one of Australia’s leading Debt Management companies.

The Debt Management Company works with major Australian and international banks, financial institutions, insurance houses, large corporations, public utilities and governments. In doing this the Debt Management Company places a great deal of importance on ethical standards and compliance with laws and regulations. Its strategic aim is to achieve success by quickly solving its customers’ financial problems through receivables management, purchasing and contingent collections. It is therefore paramount to its business that it can both easily contact its customers or have its customers easily contact its people. Once this is achieved its internal information systems need to be effectively utilized by both the company and its customers.

Following a successful tender response Touchbase worked with its client to define the exact requirements of a contact center environment to ensure it could deliver specific business outcomes. Once a Solution Overview Document had been produced and validated, as part of the DESIGN engagement, the project had to be implemented within four months so that the Debt Management Company could transition smoothly to its new HQ.

The delivery of the communication environment was staged across nine locations, run side-by-side, culminating in the fluid transition to the HQ; all within the planned timescales. During the DELIVER service the focus was on carrying out the requirements of the design with speed, efficiency and accuracy. The DESIGN identified, for example, that call abandonment could be improved by the new system. Now that the new contact center environment is in place the average call abandonment rate across the nine locations has dropped from 7.64% to 4.29%. Together with this other impressive business outcomes have been produced such as:

• Productivity increases of up to 20% in some divisions
• If new business increases demand, calls can be overflowed to a unit that can be trained quickly and effectively
• Same interface and usability for remote agents and hence same experience for customers
• Ability to understand results of collection calls and individual collection techniques and styles
• Focus on quality vs. quantity
• Minimal technical downtime
• Blended communication environment
• Customizable solution that can grow and migrate as the Debt Management Company needs
• Lower future capital investment

The Debt Management Company was able to continue to deliver consistent service to its customers during the implementation of this solution. Now the solution improves on this service by enabling the routing of certain customers according to certain attributes. If for instance a contact from its institutional customer base calls - an interaction potentially integral to its business - the number is recognized and routed directly to the appropriate agent who is prepared to take the call with a screen-pop of pertinent information. Through the Cisco Agent Desktop agents have one point of focus for their interactions with their customers. Also attracting, retaining and developing talent is becoming easier for the Debt Management Company due to the ease in operation for the agents of this system.

Through the reporting and analysis function of this solution the Debt Management Company now has the answers to such questions as; How much time are agents, singularly and collectively, spending dealing with customers? What medium are customers using to contact the Debt Management Company and how effectively are they managed across the enterprise? Where are there significant bottlenecks in the organization from a communications perspective? This type of query is now reported on, providing executives with the knowledge to make informed decisions to drive better interaction with its various types of customers. As people make up the vast proportion of ongoing fixed cost in the contact center the solution is running with optimum personnel levels. Due to the consolidation of the system waste has been significantly reduced. With more control over headcount and resources this solution provides a number of cost savings. Through the visibility of agent activity and effectiveness the executive team can move around resource to create the optimum operational environment for the contact center on an on-going basis.

Now the contact center environment has been delivered, the Debt Management Company’s vision can be implemented quickly and effectively to the contact center. As this vision evolves in coming years the contact center can easily adapt to this due to its centralized management and consistent platform across disparate locations. This application of strategy and tactical needs to the contact center environment is strengthened by the OPTIMIZE service which the Debt Management Company is using from Touchbase on an ongoing basis.

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