For the typical call center, transfer rates are everything.
That’s because high rates are a sure sign that callers are being shifted to multiple agents and their issues are taking too long to resolve. To achieve the minimal transfer rates that result in greater customer satisfaction, a call center team must coalesce into a community of problem solvers dedicated to cultivating a culture of operational excellence and continuous process improvement.
Our online Lean Six Sigma training makes it easy for organizations to master process improvement and get results. By empowering call center agents to problem solve, GoLeanSixSigma.com’s courses enabled one call center to significantly reduce a lackluster call transfer rate, quickly boost call resolutions, and completely transform its culture.
Summary
The Problem
When the call center for a technology leader in the business equipment and supplies industry experienced transfer rates well above 20%, something had to change. Customer satisfaction rates were rapidly trending in the wrong direction, and the call center agents were feeling frustrated and helpless.
As Senior Director of Continuous Improvement, Melanie Losey leads the CI Program Management Organization within the Technology Solutions area of the business. She decided to launch a Call Transfer Rate project as a strategic effort to improve the customer experience.
The goal of the project? To address widespread customer dissatisfaction with basic help desk services and enable clients to extend their business.
The Discovery
While the process improvement team already had a sense of what was driving the problems, they had no voice or means to resolve them. With Lean Six Sigma, they found their voice and were able to improve the process.
“Typically, a call center is a data-rich environment,” Melanie remembered. “We did a Pareto of the transfer types and identified the top issues. Then we tracked the transfers backwards, following the trail of the call.”
The team identified numerous areas for improvement, including outdated prompts that directed clients to the wrong help desk and a failure to address the top call issues in agent training.
The Solution
In the past, the team’s focus would have been on getting a new phone system or technology instead of looking at the process and root causes. But the insights gleaned from their Lean Six Sigma training empowered members to identify simple solutions that didn’t require major systems or technology upgrades.
Because they couldn’t shut down operations to implement the new agent training protocols, the team opted to stage a multi-phase rollout, starting with a small cohort of agents from one area. Before moving on, they studied the results and lessons learned from the first training phase and repeated the process across the entire call center. This deliberate approach allowed the team to hone their solutions as the rollout progressed.
“In the past, we had great solutions, but they were not fully adopted because they were not implemented effectively,” Melanie remembered.
The Results
Call transfer rates quickly fell into the mid-teens, resulting in an overall improvement of about 30%. There was also an immediate reduction in agent frustration and a significant improvement in client satisfaction.
But the most significant impact was on the call center’s overall culture. Instead of immediately jumping to the expensive “technology solutions” of the past, the team now relies on data to discover where best to direct their problem-solving efforts. This more focused approach allows the team to quickly identify the root causes of issues, and often results in much different solutions than anticipated at the launch of a project.
“We leveraged the approach and best practices from this team,” Melanie recalls. “We’re getting better and better at the cycle time of these projects as people become more familiar with the Lean Six Sigma approach. Also, we now understand it’s worth the time investment to fix problems we couldn’t solve in the past.”
Isn’t It Time to Get Control of Your Process Problems?
By getting control of its process problems, the call center was able to implement simple solutions, reduce waste and quickly deliver measurable results.
If your processes need improving, GoLeanSixSigma.com is standing by to transform your team into problem-solving superstars uniquely capable of building an authentic culture of operational excellence and continuous process improvement.
If you’re ready to finally achieve real results, sign up for a free trial with us today.