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MASTER THE MULTI-SITE CONTACT CENTER: A MANAGEMENT MODEL THAT WORKSIn today’s flatter, more global environment, price and product are no longer enough to keep the connected consumer loyal to a brand. New value has been placed on customer–facing initiatives like service, engagement, and experience. While the contact center has always been an important interface between companies and customers, it’s now more valuable than ever, as enterprises are competing on, and differentiating themselves by the customer experience they provide. An increasing number of multinational organizations are trying to ensure positive service experiences and strengthen customer engagement by launching multi-site support centers – literally to get closer to their customers.

The growth of support site locations has largely been organic, driven by the needs of a specific geography or business unit. Companies have been investing as needed and often without a larger strategic integration plan, focusing instead on meeting local demands. At a point, however, leaders realize that there are efficiencies to be gained by standardizing operations and processes across multiple sites.

In addition to the more obvious customer-facing value of multiple support sites, there are also a number of internal benefits:

• Global labor arbitrage has allowed the allocation of work across geographies

• Advances in technology have enabled cloud computing solutions, or “call centers in the cloud”, which negate the need for expensive on-site infrastructure

• Distributed service models can optimize service to end-users by offering a platform that balances native language communication with cultural, regulatory, and internal organizational requirements

As businesses work to coordinate and support multiple sites, they also encounter a number of significant challenges:

• Teams focus on localized delivery problems and often drift from a common process model

• Regional regulations drive site specialization, creating performance variation

• Various levels of expensive oversight are necessary to ensure work is performed as intended across sites

• Balancing client in-country field office prerogatives with central office efficiencies is difficult

• Orchestrating operational processes site-by-site becomes less effective with every new center addition

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Many brands are choosing to outsource the management of these contact centers, taking into consideration a more effective process to hire quality staff, develop training curricula, conduct performance management, create reports and build infrastructure, and navigate local labor laws, all while consistently providing high-performance customer service. Leaders are finding that they can organize more quickly and efficiently by relying on partners who specialize in this area.

In this whitepaper, we will show how one global automotive manufacturer successfully developed and deployed their multi-site contact center strategy with HP as their outsourced partner, and describe the following eight key recommendations for multi-site management success as developed by ICMI and HP:

1 CREATE AND INNOVATE THROUGH A STRATEGIC ROADMAP

2 FORMALIZE PROCESSES & CONDUCT BUSINESS MANAGEMENT REVIEWS

3 ESTABLISH SHARED SERVICES

4 BUILD A PROGRAM MANAGEMENT OFFICE

5 IMPLEMENT A PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

6 LINK BEST PRACTICES

7 OPTIMIZE REPORTING

8 CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVE & ENHANCE

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CASE STUDYMore than twenty years ago, a leading global automotive manufacturer began to grow their customer centers in Europe. They gradually developed an array of local customer-service and dealer-support operations, each with its own distinct processes and information systems to support them. As its business grew and more functions and sites were added, there was a continuing requirement for integration of customer assistance, marketing assistance, retailer assistance and technical assistance. Their success became overwhelming.

The manufacturer realized that a centralized approach to customer relationship management would not only improve the quality of service the company offered; it would also reduce costs by introducing economies of scale. They turned to HP for help developing a comprehensive customer-service platform for their entire European operation, resulting in multi-site centers serving more than 25 countries and languages.

Together, HP and the automotive manufacturer worked to design a new model to optimize customer and dealer support in Europe. The goal was to integrate people, processes, and technologies into a common delivery model that delivered a consistent brand image across all markets. This was especially important as the program expanded to support multiple languages and CRM programs. A major priority was ensuring that the new solution maintained the manufacturer’s cultural synergy with consumers and retailers. It was imperative that customers never felt that they were “outsourced”.

Within six months, the manufacturer and HP had built a virtual contact center model. They integrated all HP and manufacturer sites into a single enterprise, unified by processes that accommodated regional differences and languages. Under the Vendor Process Management Organization (VPMO), HP now manages all core functions across the customer service provider platform, including training, quality, WFM and knowledge management for the 11 locations. The team also optimized support processes such as recruiting, training, transaction management, invoicing and human resources through continuous process improvement methods to industry-best standards.

To complete the overall support structure, HP created the Dealer Assistance Center (DAC) and the Customer Assistance Center (CAC). The former assists dealers with all aspects of their after-sales business and provides tech-nical support and guidance on product-related issues. The latter ensures that the customer experience strength-ens loyalty to the automotive brand

Vendor Process Management Organization (VPMO)Business Support division responsible for managing the enterprises’ programs with ECCC.

Support TeamHR & Recruitment

Training & Development

Workforce Management

Transaction Monitoring

Process Improvement

Knowledge Management

IT, Infrastructure & Telephony

Command Center & Real Time Operations

Data Analysis & Reporting

Innovation

Project Management

Program Management Office

Dealer Assistance Center (DAC)

Warranty Electronic Parts

Catalog (EPC)

Parts & Accessories

Technical

Customer Assistance Center (CAC)

Executive Support (EST)

Resolutions

Inquiries

Social Media

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RESULTS:The virtual call center solution extended the manufacturer’s service coverage to enhance local customer service operations. The implementation of service excellence strategies not only achieved targeted cost savings, but also positioned the manufacturer to support expansion into the growing automotive markets of Eastern Europe. They are utilizing HP’s “plug and play” features of the virtual contact center solution to seamlessly integrate new sites and nameplates into the enterprise. Operational processes and technology have been designed to allow the manufacturer to quickly ramp up its operations without ramping up its technology investment.

Today, customers in over 25 European nations receive first-level problem resolution through virtual networked contact centers. Each year, more than 2.6 million inbound and outbound calls are processed by 450 agents across eight channels.

Customer satisfaction scores have gone up by almost 50%, while the top box improvement rose by a full 22 points!

While this specific case study showcases the success of an automotive manufacturer, the value can be achieved by any brand or vertical through a partnership with a trusted multi-site BPO, like HP.

As mentioned earlier, many organizations choose a partner in order to leverage multi-site processes, experience, and expediency. Regardless if a company outsources or not, HP and ICMI recommend the following eight key practices to ensure success in the multi-site contact center environment.

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1 CREATE AND INNOVATE THROUGH A STRATEGIC ROADMAPDefining goals and targets is essential at the start of any initiative. Framed within a strategic roadmap – objectives aligned against enterprise priorities have a greater chance of success. Multiple site goals might include improving overall customer service; driving down operational costs, capturing, analyzing, and responding to insightful data, growing market share, and remaining competitive against known and unknown brands.

Implementation teams must be in alignment with the strategic roadmap. It is equally important for a BPO partner to understand them as well. HP’s experience supporting multiple automotive clients enables it to identify industry mega trends that can be utilized in development of the strategic roadmap.

One example of trend analysis could come from customer experience data. In our automotive case example, HP analyzed customer data to determine the reasons customers, dealers, and suppliers most commonly contact the call center. They looked at how these calls could be anticipated and more efficiently handled, or better yet avoided in the first place. They also looked at multiple methods to improve service.

To maximize the value of the strategic roadmap, it must be actively used and changed when necessary. The aforementioned auto manufacturer brought together their own established business units - training, quality, knowledge management, workforce management, and reporting groups to share best practices with HP across all brands, countries, and languages. This ‘lower level’ governance strategy enables leaders to manage opportunities across the broader organization in a scalable way; they are not required to be present at every site yet each site is in alignment with the strategic roadmap.

2 FORMALIZE PROCESSES & CONDUCT BUSINESS MANAGEMENT REVIEWSFormalize Processes When working with a BPO, ICMI and HP’s BPO Solution Integrator, Tim Szymanski recommends manufacturers take the following steps to formalize processes and ensure expectations are well understood:

• Have clearly defined requirements

• Write an RFP document based on those requirements

• Develop an evaluation criteria document

• Release a vendor qualifications questionnaire

• Create a site assessment template to ensure everyone is in agreement around success measurements

As these steps conclude, work can begin on a Statement of Work and Terms and Conditions. A formal “yes or no” Terms and Conditions review is recommended to ensure alignment with the selected vendor. Follow this activity with a contract and a post-implementation audit guide. The post-implementation audit is critical as a means to communicate whether the work is being performed as intended and results are truly being achieved.

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Conduct Business Management Reviews A business review (quarterly is often best) is a key opportunity for a business and its BPO to review and discuss performance, concerns and future direction. Each review should accomplish the following three goals:

1. Collaborate – as opposed to making direct demands, and come to a shared agreement through discussion and partnership on all challenges and improvements

2. Communicate honestly and fully – present both achievements and concerns in an open, respectful manner

3. Leave with action - agree on a future communication plan, dates and responsibilities, resolution touch points, and tangible and achievable goals

ICMI and HP have not found it necessary for a business review to be conducted at each site, but a review of each site should be completed and at some point, there should be plans to travel to each location. At the very least, it is recommended that representatives from each location be available for the review through virtual means.

3 ESTABLISH SHARED SERVICESA shared services organization helps ensure that work is performed consistently across sites and leadership teams. Most contact center shared services include workforce management (WFM), quality and transaction monitoring, training, recruiting, and human resources. A BPO organization provides this extensive network of personal, process and infrastructure to a client, thus alleviating the brand’s need for this investment.

The WFM group is responsible for forecasting demand, staffing, and scheduling of resources. In the case of the automotive client, HP forecasts demand through more than 30 volume streams up to 12 months in advance at the monthly and daily levels. This allows for flexibility and workload balancing across all tiers and teams. They align resources to achieve KPIs, allocate the right resource to the right contact type, schedule training to meet various SLAs, and optimize staff use in accordance with country labor laws. WFM also reduces staff attrition, retaining staff knowledge for a better customer experience while avoiding turnover costs.

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The Quality and Transaction Monitoring team develops effective transaction monitoring tools, gathers and analyzes data to identify process and product level improvements, and ensures quality standards are consistently met. This team works across all channels, which simplifies training modules, team meetings, processes and qual-ity feedback sessions. Monthly ‘Calibration Sessions’ with key clients and sites, are held to maintain consistency and encourage compliance. To accommodate multiple sites, they use virtual rooms, share points, and conference calls. All employees also have access to a single knowledge database that contains all processes and updates.

The Training team works to provide a repeatable training experience across all site employees in a measureable way. In the automotive shared service training group, training is delivered through the three methods below:

INSTRUCTOR

• Primary delivery method

• Maximum group induction

• Used for induction, soft skills and complex training modules

• Learning methodology aligned with latest training techniques

VIRTUAL

• Secondary delivery method

• Encourages group interaction and participation

• For remote workers

• Low cost

COMPUTER

• For informational and mandatory training

• Minimizes need for facilities and instructors

• Flexible WFM schedules

• Low cost

A shared service training team ensures a streamlined approach to the challenges inherent in multi-site people management: language barriers; cultural differences; and process, product and, procedural differences within each country such as warranty guidelines, products, and marketing offers.

High-quality trainees are selected through well-defined recruiting and selection practices. Recruiting staff establish the minimum skills for all key customer-related jobs, profile candidate requirements, prepare an applicant to start working, and provide guidelines for skills development, supervisor attention, and management of employees.

Finally, the Human Resources group works to manage new, existing, and departing employees to identify any organizational challenges impacted by staffing. They provide support to employees at all levels and have developed a retention program to manage attrition.

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4 BUILD A PROGRAM MANAGEMENT OFFICE (PMO)HP has created a PMO to establish effective invoicing practices and maintain centralized operating practices. The PMO has main oversight for:

• Contract compliance • Compliance and audits• Data security • Records management• Voice of the Workforce • Continuous improvement• HR management • Data privacy regulations

In our case study, much of this work is complex as it involves multiple currencies and country nuances, so centralizing these efforts makes sense. For example, predicting Applied System Hours and then converting them into a financial forecast based on local currencies and rates can prove much more difficult. The PMO assets are utilized by all segments of the shared services organization to best leverage cross-site labor and financial benefits.

5 IMPLEMENT A PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMThose with experience implementing performance management systems say it is imperative that a ‘standard’ performance structure be established. Teams must have a “true north” to align with – a goal that goes beyond service level agreements that enables organizations to embrace site diversity while delivering consistent results. Whereas single sites can be influenced by local cultures and needs, multi-site operations require common languages and frameworks that establish key approaches, processes, and common metrics.

HP and ICMI recommend managing individual site performance and compliance through annual management reviews. Conducted by independent auditors, these reviews should identify inconsistencies within and between sites. Szymanski noted that, “each site wants to excel, adding dynamics that are healthy. Local initiative also introduces an urge to expand and flex. The trick is to allow a site to mature, but to also reinforce and nurture a common trajectory for all sites across a program.”

In an effort to minimize variability, HP follows the Customer Operations Performance Center (COPC) family of standards. Through adherence to COPC, HP limits ‘fire-fighting’ moments, paving the way for smoother communications between local and enterprise level leadership for their multi-site customer center clients. This operational framework lends itself to repeatable, successful processes that include helping leadership communicate about issues and more easily allocate staff and manage volume between sites, while establishing standards at the individual site and enterprise levels.

For the automotive company featured previously, a consistent performance management system was critical in the improvements to CSAT metrics. Training, recruitment, knowledge management, and transaction monitoring are all highly tuned to drivers of client satisfaction. In some cases, acting as a neutral partner organization, HP has been able to diplomatically mitigate some of the growing pains their clients experience when expanding to new regions or countries in small regional offices and provide seamless customer service.

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6 LINK BEST PRACTICESAlignment with the manufacturer’s strategic direction enables consistent results. Through a centralized approach to multi-site management, good practices can be shared; this promotes consistency across all locations. With consistency comes confidence in processes, the ability to quickly observe variances from the norm and correct as appropriate. The vendor must ensure data validity and level of service provided. ICMI and HP have found the following three key practices to be of greatest importance to effectively managing multiple sites:

Communication Executive leaders require clear and meaningful communication - despite site diversity in roles, nationalities, languages and cultures. A variety of methods can used to make communication effective - from bulletins and newsletters to formal meetings, workshops, and town halls. Structured and unstructured forums are useful for the sites to talk and share ideas, issues, resolutions etc. A few checkpoints are usually necessary to ensure policy is adhered to as part of the solutions.

Measurement and analysis By having measures in place and performing data analysis, outlier data can be identified and investigated. This can result in corrective action or possibly trigger changes in the non-outlying teams. The ability and skills to perform this sometimes sophisticated analysis is growing more essential to delivering excellent service in an ever-changing landscape.

Advanced reporting capabilities that centralize data from multiple sources help measurement and analysis. It’s important to collect structured and unstructured data from both the manufacturer and vendor environments into a single “source of truth.” Consolidating data from social media, the case management system and other sources greatly aids analysis and interpretation.

People care High quality training programs, comprehensive personal development opportunities and effective human resource practices are all essential to retain and attract the best talent. The people who answer end-user queries are crucial to success. Providing a professional, caring, developmental environment in which people feel valued and able to progress is key in ensuring a happy workforce. In our case study, HP and the automotive manufacturer created several recognition initiatives – from site breakfasts, account competitions (Harlem Shake), awards, and more to maintain workforce morale and improve productivity levels.

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7 OPTIMIZE REPORTINGLeading organizations review daily reports on the performance of each site. Key indicators include call volumes, abandon rates, numbers of active cases, and the level of correspondence arriving in the system. QA data also provides insight into how teams, countries, and business functions are performing and affecting CSAT measurements. Senior leaders are able to utilize this information to stay aware of performance without having to travel to each location. Issues and concerns are identified, resolution plans created, and escalation paths designed where necessary. Good reporting makes it possible to link overall CSAT scores back to the team of agents who served each case. It will also extend across channels.

Finally, organizations must move beyond reactionary decision making. Reporting that analyzes performance over time is critical. Look for true trends that require corrective action for sustained improvement.

8 CONTINUOUSLY IMPROVE & ENHANCE Commitment to excellence and improvement is what ultimately separates a leader from the pack. Companies use various different mechanisms to ensure they can improve and innovate in the right directions. HP and ICMI recommend fully leveraging knowledge management databases, CRM systems, and Six Sigma analysis to identify opportunities for growth. Most improvement possibilities will surface in the areas of quality, performance management, skills development, knowledge management, and case management.

HP and ICMI have noted that it’s a good idea to frequently revisit people, process, and technology decisions. For the auto manufacturer, HP states that they are continuously monitoring and analyzing trends. They hold performance reviews twice a year, and monthly quality evaluations and calibrations. In addition, there are weekly staff meetings to discuss how they can operationalize improvements or address concerns, and resource meetings every other week to review volume forecasts and discuss necessary staff changes.

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IN CONCLUSION“Managing across sites is complex and continually evolving,” says Magda Llagostera, the European Project Manager for HP Enterprise Services. “The totality of processes which connect the different customer service elements must be fluid, agile, integrated, transparent and connected.” As organizations recognize that true differentiation lies through positive customer service and support experiences, ICMI expects that more companies will be standardizing their multi-site approach. While organic site growth has helped serve local needs, customers and businesses find many benefits in the creation of consistent, best-in-class processes. The eight recommendations above should assist in the multi-site integration strategy, and certainly help if one selects a BPO as a partner in the endeavor. “Ultimately, there is only one thing that really matters with multi-site management,” continues Llagostera. “One must deliver an effortless customer experience across all sites.”

About ICMIThe International Customer Management Institute (ICMI), is the leading global provider of comprehensive resources for customer management professionals—from frontline agents to executives—who wish to improve contact center operations, empower contact center employees and enhance customer loyalty. ICMI’s experienced and dedicated team of industry insiders, analysts and consultants are committed to providing uncompromised objectivity and results-oriented vision through the organization’s respected lineup of professional services including training and certification, consulting, events and informational resources. Founded in 1985, ICMI continues to serve as one of the most established and respected organizations in the call center industry.

About HPHP is a world leader in business process outsourcing (BPO), with 45,000 professionals serving more than 300 enterprise and government clients and nearly 700 small/medium businesses in 26 countries. We provide strategy, solutions, services, and products designed to solve complex business issues and achieve better business results. Our comprehensive portfolio includes a variety of industry-tailored business services, including finance & accounting, business analytics, customer engagement management and HR / Payroll services. Supplemented by applications and IT experience and in-depth, industry-specific knowledge our BPO services provide business-focused solutions tailored to client’s strategic goals.

HP helps organizations increase operational agility through process standardization, visibility and timely access into the ever-increasing store of enterprise data.