Going Beyond Silos: Revamping Telco Customer Service Operations
Contact Center Operation & Management, Corporate Strategy, Project Management
As the in-house operational, efficiency, and performance management team for Canada's largest communications provider, our focus was on the residential ICT division of the company. This division is responsible for a broad range of services, including wired and wireless telecommunications, as well as satellite and fiber-optic TV and internet services. Our assignment centered around optimizing Agent U, or offline time, for Customer Service Representatives. This entailed overseeing operations across 9 call centers in 2 provinces and streamlining efforts among 3 distinct business units.
After organizational restructuring, the division expanded substantially, integrating several departments that had previously operated autonomously. This resulted in a complex operational landscape, consisting of:
Operational Units:
- Inbound and Outbound queues for customer support, marketing, and acquisitions
- Frontline and Backoffice/Support teams
- 9 contact centers across 2 provinces
- A workforce of over 2,000 staff
The new setup led to the assignment of:
- Standardizing Agent U: Define and measure Agent U uniformly across different departments within the division
- Operational and Management Comparisons: Determine what metrics can and should be compared both from operational and management perspectives.
- Improving Offline Time: Make the offline time more structured and efficient across all departments, especially with the addition of the newly integrated units.
Why Agent U Matters: In this intricate setting, unproductive offline time—unjustified by training, coaching, or workshops—is pure cost to the business. Hence, our mission focused keenly on minimizing non-productive offline time to optimize overall operational costs and efficiency.
The integration of new departments brought with it three layers of challenges:
- Managerial:
Disparate management styles and approaches across the units.
- Procedural
Inconsistent tools and methods for tracking performance metrics.
- Cultural
The need to navigate the nuances between English and French Canadian work cultures.
- Phase 1: Aligning Stakeholders
Senior leadership’s buy-in was crucial for the project’s success. We presented a clear snapshot of the existing Agent U landscape and expected benefits. With cross-functional teams from each department, we standardized all offline requests, creating a unified RACI document as a reference for all offline activities.
- Phase 2: Code Standardization
We unified Agent U codes, reducing the list from 133 to 55, following consultations with managers across regions and departments.
- Phase 3: Data-Driven Decisions
We developed a dashboard to track “Red Coding” (keeping agents offline), thereby improving budgetary control.
Our consultative and data-driven approach yielded a unified offline activity reference, streamlined tracking methods, and enhanced budget control. Operational Expenditure (OPEX) was reduced by $1M, and productivity increased by 5%. This not only elevated the division’s operational efficiency but also harmonized its disparate units into a cohesive, high-performing entity.
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