Lean for The Call Centre

Transcription

1 Lean for The Call Centre Levantar March Lean Guides for other sectors are available on our website e.g. Lean Office, Lean Manufacturing, Lean Engineering

2 This Guide includes the following pages? Why read Lean for the Call Centre? What will Lean Deliver? Lean isn t Lean is Waste & Value Add Respect for Others Leadership How do you reduce WIP? (Work In Progress) Looking for the 7 Hidden Wastes The 7 Wastes A Simple Waste example Finding the 7 Wastes Why is Lean Management important? (hint: Work in Progress)

3 Why Read Lean for the Office Lean Management helps you to produce your business outputs as fast as possible. The faster a business can convert a business enquiry to a finished output; then the lower its Work In Progress. Having lower Work In Progress levels means you need less cash to run the business. Being able to produce work faster means You can do more with the same resources (software, people) typically ~15% should be the aim. You can complete work faster than competitors Is reducing the cash required to run your business attractive?

4 Isn t Lean just for Manufacturing? Lean is normally associated with Manufacturing Companies. Research in the US has taken place with US Manufacturing Companies who undertook LEAN improvement projects. Of ALL of their projects 70%, were office based improvement projects not shop floor related. Our OWN research has estimated that wasted time in Call Centres can reach as high as 60%.

5 Lean Delivers Lean Management is proven to deliver Increased Efficiency & Productivity - 15% more output with the SAME resources (staff, software, work space) Better Quality outputs (reducing re-work, duplication) Better on time delivery performance (stop chasing work!) Improved morale and employee engagement

6 What Lean Isn t Lean, is in our opinion, an unfortunate name for what is delivered, Lean Management ISN T About being SKINNY Isn t about being MEAN Isn t about cutting out people

7 Lean Isn t

8 Lean is. Lean is the set of management practices based on the Toyota Production System (TPS). It has been applied in many sectors; engineering, office, call centres, banking, legal. By companies such as Toyota, Tesco, GE, Zara, LloydsTSB, NHS. - This guide is for those involved in office, department and service sector management. One way of defining lean is in two parts: Eliminate WASTE and non-value-added activity (NVA) through continuous improvement. Practice respect for people. *There are guides for other business sectors and departments on our website

9 Waste and Value Added The opposite of waste is value-added, which has a special lean definition. An activity, in a process is value added if, and only if, these three conditions are met: 1. The customer must be willing to pay for the activity 2. The activity must change the output, making it closer to the end output that the customer wants and will pay for. 3. The activity must be done right the first time.

10 Respect for People - Leadership Respect for people is often harder to define. Lean leadership is about enabling and empowering people. Lean leadership is about helping people grow, allowing them to take pride in their work. Helping them and the business to continuously improve. Lean leaders recognise how a business operates. Lean leaders set targets for people, then spend time coaching staff to meet these. They spend very little time in their office, or in meetings. Lean Leaders see what is actually happening rather than managing KPIs and reading reports.

11 How do you Reduce Work In Progress? Find the fastest way of getting from A to B. If A is customer enquiry date and B is customer delivery date then we want A to B to be a short as possible, with as few interactions as possible. The shorter we can make this then the less time we have to find cash for. Normally the shortest time to produce often comes out as the least cost, so we have to find less cash as well.

12 Looking for the 7 Hidden Wastes In any business there are a host of hidden wastes; these are the wastes that can t be seen without searching them out. Everyone can see the wasted paper, wasted materials and scrap but what about wasted time, effort, thinking, physical activity? Lean people will try classify the waste in one of 7 groups.

13 Lean for the Call Centre the 7 Hidden Wastes Read the next few pages. - If you find the examples of Waste familiar you will benefit from applying Lean techniques in your Call Centre. (some are on two pages) NOTE: MANY of the WASTES WILL BE CAUSED by OTHER DEPARTMENTS

14 The 7 Wastes Waiting Hold Time getting resolutions to customer queries. Abandon rate customers waiting too long Waiting for internal information requests to be processed for customers. Waiting for paper work to be processed, delivered from other departments etc. Waiting for approvals for action due to processes and company Policies etc. Waiting for Royal Mail post to arrive in the department each day. Waiting for decisions to be made, meetings to occur, end of month reports to be produced.

15 The 7 Wastes Defects and Rejects Failure to resolve customer query on first contact. Customers calling in because the website, products or service information is hard to understand and they need further help. Calculation errors on bills or errors on customer information. Different IT systems hold different information on customers no single source of information. Incorrect or missing information from customers you have to call them for information again. Failure to contact the customer outbound calls Team management - HR and Payroll, Bonus errors.

16 The 7 Wastes Defects and Rejects - KPIs Failure to understand variance in call centre agent/representative performance. Over reliance on average performance figures. Over reliance on Yesterday, Last Week, Month to date KPIs lack of trend performance data. e.g. take a dice and throw it 100 times work out your average score it will be close to 3.5. Monitor your highest and lowest scores they will be 1 and 6, the variance. Try throwing 3.5, the average score? Can you What if you had a dice that could only score 3 or 4 would you would still get 3.5 average? (Yes) but variance would be reduced.

17 Overproduction The 7 Wastes Processing customer requirements that then sit in an inbox somewhere else in the organisation - waiting. Getting customer enquiry details (from marketing activity) before you can cope with the demand quality of enquiry degrades. Our own research shows only 1 in 3 outbound enquiry calls is able to be completed. e.g. prospect able to take the call and has relevant info with them otherwise it s a call me back situation.

18 The 7 Wastes Inventory too many outbound calls to be handled potential customers, enquiry follow-ups etc. too many inbound calls to be handled created by poor , website, letter communications. Or communicating to large numbers of customers at once. Enquiries, Orders & Documents all in process awaiting additional actions. High levels of consumables and paper kept just in case. Batch Processing rather than single flow.

19 The 7 Wastes Over (Extra) Processing Re-entering information / data into multiple systems. Answering queries that could be resolved by better website info, videos, podcasts, FAQ etc. Unread reports or reports (Excel) with excessive amounts of unread data. Duplication of paper work, orders, reports etc. Too many Checklists or Quality Checks. Giving information on calls that isn t required by the latest industry compliance. Collecting customer information that isn t used.

20 The 7 Wastes Over (Extra) Processing Stop & Re-starting work due to interruptions internal phone calls, s, other staff. Confirming the same details by phone, and letter. Excessive time spent on internal management activities meetings, data interpretation, performance management, bonus & rewards management. Having to re-contact customers, suppliers, other parties etc to make good errors or omissions.

21 Motion The 7 Wastes Swapping information between IT systems cut and paste of data Searching for information in paper and/or in computer files. Searching through piles of files, held too far away from desks or in unorganised shelving. Walking from one area of the office to another - workstation or photo copier, stationary cupboard. Finding data on shared, personal drives + info held in Outlook Ergonomics of the work station / desk

22 Transportation Excessive attachments. The 7 Wastes Unnecessary moving or handling of files customer details on and off shore. Lack of use of appropriate electronic files and sign off e.g. ing correspondence v Royal Mail.

23 A Simple Waste Example #1 One office found that 40% of the inputs it received from customers contained errors or omissions. To correct these they asked the call centre staff to call the customers; we know from our work in call centres that only 1 in 3 outbound calls is successful. By this we mean that 1 in 3 calls will find the person, who is able to take the call AND they have the right information to hand how many times do you get call me back or the answerphone? Imagine therefore for every 100 orders being processed this lead to 100 checks + 40 re-contact the client = 140 activities. These additional 40 activities slowed down the work coming through behind and caused WIP and costs to rise. The 40% of defects were accepted as normal where else would 40% non-conformance be acceptable?

24 A Simple Waste Example #2 One call centre found it couldn t cope with the customer demand - it had a large number of enquiries on its books. To manage this they collected data from customers at initial enquiry put them in a queue and called them back on another day. We know that only 1 in 3 outbound calls is successful. By this we mean that 1 in 3 calls will find the person, who is able to take the call AND they have the right information to hand how many times do you get call me back or the answerphone? Imagine therefore for every 100 enquiries being processed this lead to 100 calls handled calls out + 66 call backs = 266 activities. These additional 166 activities slowed down the handling of enquiries coming through behind and caused WIP and costs to rise. We classified these 100 calls out + 66 call backs as waste the customer had originally rung in and been put in a queue to call back another time.

25 Why is Lean Management important? Speed. The faster your business can go the lower your WIP - or Work In Progress; WIP requires cash. A customer engages with you. Employees take the call or they call the customer back. They input the customer details, beginning to process their requirements. They ll be guided as to what output is required; information, parts, forms, letters etcfor the customer. Any delays (Waste) in this process whether it means longer calls or call backs -means that the amount of WIP is increased and the time to resolve queries, resolve the contact is increased. Any Wastes (Delays) in the processes means that your cash is tied up for longer than necessary. If WIP is high or rising, we ve used up more CASH e.g. we ve converted more cash to outputs that we ve yet to finish or sell. To keep the business running well need to get hold of more cash. In the forms of loans, overdrafts, investments etc. Bring WIP down and the amount of CASH required to keep the business running comes down. E.g. we can reduce overdrafts, loans, finance arrangements.

26 How Do We Find the 7 Wastes? Lean people call this GEMBA which translated means go to the place. We go to the place where work happens and watch, observe, listen only then do we ask questions, mainly WHY? We ll be producing another handout on GEMBA in the near future. If you would like any information in the interim, contact us; info@levantar.co.uk

27 Lean Call Centre Review Lean Call Centre Review Service Levantar have developed a Lean Call Centre Review Service. We come to your site and assess what we believe you could attain from adopting Lean Call Centre Practices; i.e. What could it be worth? In terms of shorter & fewer calls, quality improvement savings etc. You get a written report to help you decide whether you want to start a Lean Call Centre journey. If you need any information in the interim, contact us; info@levantar.co.uk Or call Mark on or Neil on

28 Summary The 7 Wastes Occasionally you will read of 8,9 or even 12 wastes we stick with the 7 for now. If you recognise the 7 Hidden Wastes in your offices or department then investigating and implementing Lean Management practices will have a positive affect on your outputs. We ve seen examples of the wastes in many guises and can help you begin to understand the impact they are having on your department, Call Centre or firm. Remember Lean Delivers Increased Efficiency & Productivity ~ 15% more output with the SAME resources (staff, software, work space) Better Quality outputs (reducing re-work, duplication) Better on time delivery performance (stop chasing work!) Improved morale and employee engagement

29 Thank you for your time in reading this. As with all our work, it is subject to Continuous Improvement. If you have any feedback, thoughts or observations then send them directly to Mark Greenhouse, Or call on