From the three managers Makani, Thomas, and Cecilia, Thomas as the operation managers, feel that there is a need for more staff recruitment to improve the resolution of calls. Despite having had an informal discussion with a client who is dissatisfied with the call center services and threatens to look for another service provider. On the other hand, Cecilia feels that Thomas should reduce the number of call center agents to maximize revenues. Besides, she blames Makani for not doing well enough to forecast the clients for more revenue. Simultaneously, Makani feels that it is better to have more agents in the call center to handle the calls that go answered. Therefore, a closer examination is done, and the outcome of the call center results in evaluating how the call center is doing.
Products
The company had products ranging from television, washers and dryers, small appliances, fridges, and air conditioning. From the clients, most calls were made on air conditioning that had 322 calls. Answered calls on this product reached 317, meaning that 98.4 percent of the needs were responded to. Again from the responses to calls, not all were resolved; however, 278 were determined to make up around 91 percent of air conditioning issues resolution. About television had 317 calls, and all were answered; however, only 285 were resolved, meaning that television issues were resolved 90% this was the product that had the second-highest phone calls.
The third-highest number of calls was on fridges with 287 and 282 were answered. The answered calls 247 call issues on the refrigerator were resolved, making an 87.6% success rate on fridge issues resolution. The following product with a high number of calls is the washers/dryers with 286, and the answered were 283, accounting for about 98.9%. Nevertheless, only 246 of the received calls issues on washers and dryers were resolved to make the resolution rate reach approximately 87 %
Another product category was small appliances with 243 calls, of which 241 were answered, constituting 99% of the response rate. Contrarily, not all were closed; instead, 200 were resolved, making 82 % resolution about the small appliances issues.
Notably, the total number of calls made was 1772 inclusive unknown calls: of the available calls,15 were not answered.
Agents
The call center had Adrian, Steven, Illiya, Bianca, Judy, Hepu, Carmine, and Elizabeth. Of all the agents, the total calls placed were 1772, and they did not answer a total of 332 calls in January, creating a call center average abandonment rate of 18.85%. The abandonment rate for calls depicts the concern raised by one of the partners, Makani and Thomas, for more agents. Making their calls waiting time for some clients was extended, which lessened their chances of making purchases.
Customer satisfaction
The star ratings for the call center that determine customer satisfaction registered in January were around 3.5 out of 5, translating to 69.7%. This depicts that the call center agents’ resolution of customer issues is threatening customer retention and winning new customers.
Additionally, from the call handling times for January, the average handling time was around 3.07 minutes per customer. Besides, the average answering time for the same calls was 1.11 minutes; this means that the management needs to set expectations regarding average call duration, call waiting, and the average call answering durations to foster more customer satisfaction.
- b) Discuss at least 2 options to improve the performance of the variables/features
identified in (a).
Improving the call center’s performance needs the three managers to determine what causes the long handling time, long waiting periods, and the high rate of abandoned calls and then revise their operation standards. This will also help the management set feasible ranges of such timing parameters among other pertinent targets.
Secondly, the management can employ more agents as they have also observed a need to have more agents to attend to their customers; this will also assist in restoring the customer confidence in their business.
Additionally, managers have not had practical experience of running the calls in the call center; they need to have insight by experiencing the challenges the call center agents undergo to know when the challenges happen and how the working habits lead to the performance issues highlighted above. Upon finding the underlying issues, a plan of action for improving their performance needs to enforce that improves their skills. They can also do this by assigning excellent agents to those not doing well to help them improve their performance capabilities. They can also do this by providing reference materials and job aids to enhance the speed of response.
- c) Predict the likely outcomes of these critical variables/features for the first two weeks of
February (assuming no changes to business operations since January) and then compare
the effect of the changes discussed in (b) for the same two weeks.
Without changes in the first two weeks of February, the complaints that the operations managers received informally may be more intense. Customers may start opting to look for other service providers because their confidence with the call center has deteriorated. The call center agents, having been overworked without targets, may burn out and get fatigued, leading to absenteeism and even more inadequate service delivery. This may also lead to some of them quitting their jobs, causing more dilemmas in call centers.
- d) Identify at least one business issue which the business should further explore to improve
their business. Clearly explain your reasoning using data to support your discussion.
Justify how this would improve the business.
The managers should explore the definition of performance standards for the eight call center agents. The three managers’ sentiments depict that they do not have performance standards, which makes agents not understand what is expected from them in service delivery. Targets need to be defined. This should involve the agents in strategizing so that their points of view are factored in their operation because they have firsthand experience of the challenges that need to be addressed. The three managers also need to have a common interest in what they want to achieve by reasoning out by evaluating the challenges that face their call center. Upon setting the standards, there is a need to monitor and appraise the performance of the agents. Before doing this, the set targets must be communicated to customers, which must be enhanced by upholding consistency.
- e) Make two specific recommendations to the owners to improve the management of the
business. Briefly justify these recommendations (i.e., prescribe what should be done
and why this would be helpful, drawing on your previous predictive and descriptive
analysis). Demonstrate the benefits to the business of acting on these recommendations
Firstly, I would recommend to the management to monitor and reward hardworking agents and those registering improvements; the eight agents need to be continuously coached so that their skills are enhanced more so in communication and product features. This will immensely improve the customer service because a motivated agent is more vantage-positioned to deliver.
Next, I would recommend the three managers consult among themselves on issues they feel they need to deliberate on together to operate under a familiar voice. Reasoning from a common standpoint creates running of the business with the common understanding that creates harmony and pursuit of common interest.
Lastly, management should provide consistent feedback and reinforcement to the agents, motivating the customer service team at their call center. And where they face challenges, they need to be given attention. This will make the call center agents feel recognized and thus lower turnover rate and absenteeism. That lowers labor costs.