When working for a Global BPO, I was asked to have a look at one of the campaigns which seemed to be causing some trouble.
My approach was to talk to the guys on the campaign about their perceived problems and anything which sounded like it could be driving the issues.
During the conversation I noticed that the people I was speaking to were really angry and frustrated. I asked what the cause was and this is what they said;
“The client launched a campaign and didn’t tell us so we were inundated with calls without any preparation or ramping up. This led to over 3000 calls in the queue and some customers waiting several hours to get through.”
The client seeing that they had caused some issues decided the best way was to put tight limits on the call duration. The thinking was if the calls only take 300 seconds, the number of calls taken would go up and more people would be served by the same number of agents.
To ensure this was followed the client insisted that the team leader watched all of the call durations and as the agents reached 250 seconds on a call, a coach would be dispatched to tell the agent to hang up the call and move to the next customer.
The impact was to double the number of incoming calls (if your issues is not resolved the first time, you call back). So now there were 6000 calls in the queue and every customer spoken to, was very angry with the way they perceived they had been treated.
My first move was to go and speak to the team leader to confirm what I had heard. I ended up unplugging the team leader’s computer as he would not even speak to me, he was so focused on none of the calls going over 300 secs.
I asked him to look around his operation and tell me what he saw; there were a sea of hands in the air and some very distressed looking people. The Coaches, who were supposed to answer the questions being raised, were busy getting agents to cut off their customers.
I asked the Team Lead if this looked like a good operation and he replied that he didn’t need me there criticising him.
This blind following of the rules had led him to a place where his daily actions went directly against what the business was trying to do (reduce call volume by dealing with all customers’ right first time) and there was no justification beyond “I was following orders”
The situation was rectified by removing the handling target and resetting the agent’s goal (resolve right first time). This led to an immediate 50% drop in call volumes for a 35% increase in call durations. Within one month the queue was gone and the volumes were no longer an issue.
Probably the most telling thing was when I walked into the operation after implementing the changes and received a standing ovation from the agents.