NEWS

$5.3M potential return identified for global technology services company's contact center - 12 May 2009

DENVER, CO - Touchbase has completed a 6 week DISCOVER engagement for one of the world’s leading technology services companies. Amongst its customers are the world’s largest telecom companies, telecom carriers, internet service providers and cable companies.

The service focused on analyzing the current capabilities of its contact center and recommending initiatives to improve certain areas and increase overall performance. The contact center is populated with 700 technicians who take inbound calls from, and make outbound calls to, customers and field engineers. The DISCOVER service sought to detail the current effectiveness of the contact center and recommend clear paths to improving this in order to deliver specific business outcomes.

The Touchbase team (DISCOVER Analyst, Project Manager and Client Manager) undertook interviews with team leaders through to technicians in order to gather qualitative information and worked with the Contact Center and Finance Management teams to gather data around the systems in place and the financial aspects of the contact center. This data was then analyzed to assess the impact that it was having on the business using Touchbase’s unique system to quantify existing business process issues in order to conservatively estimate financial impacts. The following are a selection of some of the issues and opportunities uncovered:

Technicians require 1-2 minutes per inbound call to identify caller and determine reason for call
• 20-60 additional seconds per inbound call
• $500K+ unnecessary time annually

Additional contact channels (e.g. web chat), aside from phone and portal, are not utilized
• 60-90 additional seconds per inbound call
• $1.25M+ additional cost of call handling annually

Productive non-phone activities are not measured and tracked (other than tickets/technical work)
• Limited visibility regarding the efficiency and effectiveness of ticket resolution
• $700K+ potential efficiency loss annually

In total (including other issues and opportunities not identified above) the estimated total financial impact of the current contact center environment is estimated at over $5.3M. With the issues and impacts identified, Touchbase recommended improvement initiatives around applying modern technology to fix problems and capitalize on the opportunities to deliver up to $5.3M annually after initiatives have been implemented. Clear and concise recommendations were put forward, after a 6 week engagement, through a series of update meetings culminating in an executive presentation and report. Some of the initiatives recommended, together with a priority roadmap for these, were as follows:

Customer identification, routing & screen-pop - Effectively segments customers, balances calls, and delivers each contact to the best resource first time:
• Customer Impact (out of 10) = 7.5
• 3 Year ROI = 259%
• Complexity (out of 10) = 3.0
• Payback (in months) = 10.9

Outbound notification of ticket resolution - Alleviates high-value Tier 2+ personnel performing lower-value functions:
• Customer Impact (out of 10) = 8.0
• 3 Year ROI = 196%
• Complexity (out of 10) = 5.5
• Payback (in months) = 10.9

Web chat - Provides additional options for customer contact
• Customer Impact (out of 10) = 9.0
• 3 Year ROI = 750%
• Complexity (out of 10) = 4.0
• Payback (in months) = 7.5

Enable IVR customer self-service - Provides additional contact channels and self-service capabilities
• Customer Impact (out of 10) = 6.0
• 3 Year ROI = -5%
• Complexity (out of 10) = 7.0
• Payback (in months) = 47.5

Aligned to the Technology Services Company position as owners and operators of one of the world’s largest communications and internet backbones, is the need to offer its customers a world-leading service. Touchbase has helped it to; identify where its 700 person contact center may be falling short of this need; analyze where this can be bettered and; recommend a clear vision to improve efficiency and productivity of technicians. This was done with the ultimate focus on how technicians can serve the customer more quickly and effectively, improving both their own experience and, importantly, the customers’.

Touchbase found that customers calling into the contact center would be waiting one to two minutes whilst a technician identified the caller and determined the reason for the call. By utilizing a computer telephony interface customer interaction time could be cut by 20 to 60 seconds thus removing a level of frustration of both the technician and the customer. In addition to this, with the recommended provision of web chat, the customer would have more options in how they contact the technology services company, and the technician’s experience in dealing with customers would have more variety. This is an example of the many ways technology can improve the experience for both customers and technicians.

The major output of this service was the conservative estimate that the technology services company could save $5.3M annually if it was to adopt the sequenced projects that Touchbase recommends. This sequenced approach would have a very positive impact on cash-flow and allow subsequential projects to be financed by the ongoing savings. The DESIGN engagement to produce a solution overview document detailing the precise roadmap and technologies needed to deliver on these opportunities is underway.

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