Developing Best In Class Call Centre Management: from Strategy to Implementation
Prior to becoming part of Santander, Abbey announced a fundamental change to its Group strategy and structure in 2003. Now a single company, focused purely on UK personal financial services, their goal was to deliver a new and compelling proposition to customers who do not feel well served by the banking industry.
Abbey recognised that an important aspect of achieving this vision was to transform their current call centre performance and capability. A new strategy for call centres, comprising multi-site sales and customer service functions was needed.
CCL were invited to support Abbey to develop this strategy, including the detailed operating model and business case for investment. Abbey wanted to understand what constitutes ‘Best in Class’ for their market sector, how their call centres were performing in relation to this benchmark, and what was required to achieve competitive advantage.
CCL were chosen for this work (ahead of two of the largest consultancy companies) because of our proven methodologies and track record in the above areas, and our extensive know-how of what other companies are doing.
The initial assignment included:
- Defining a unifying set of objectives for sales and service divisions which would create consistency for the operations, the project and the customer experience
- Defining Best In Class call centre metrics, benchmarks and working practices for Abbey, given the wider group strategy and the external competitive environment
- Evaluation of current operations (the ‘As Is’) in all areas to define ‘the gap’, the requirements for closing the gap and the target operating model
- Definition and selection of the best strategic option
- Production of a detailed business case reflecting the return on investment in people, processes and technology of the chosen strategic option
- Definition of and plan for achieving quick wins
The diagram below outlines the work stages involved in the assignment
The chosen strategic option for achieving Best In Class focused on developing the capability and skill of call centre managers, so that they could drive through changes in the use of new IT tolls, operational working practices, processes, HR practices, and skills and behaviours, supported by a team of experts. These changes will in turn deliver improved operational performance, optimised unit cost effectiveness, reduced staff attrition, increased sales, and an improved customer experience.
Following Board approval of the strategy, CCL were invited to support Abbey to complete a detailed implementation plan, including the definition of the required programme methodologies and governance needed to deliver the changes. A particular feature of the plan was that each key activity was directly linked to the metrics in the strategy and business case, making the plan ‘output’ as opposed to ‘activity’ driven.
The quick wins recommendations were implemented resulting in the targeted improvements service indicators including wait times and average handling times being achieved.
CCL then supported Abbey with the detailed design and implementation of specific aspects of the strategy through transferring know-how to Abbey Managers in the operations and with the Change Programme Team.