Return on Investment

Transcription

1 Return on Investment Summary When you are attempting to justify the expense of investing in a quality assurance call monitoring/recording system, you must show that using the system will directly affect the topline and bottom-line financial condition of your company. Calculating the Return on Investment (ROI) must be considered. The purchase either increases the revenue generated by your call center, or reduces the expenses associated with that call center. In order to realize maximum Return on Investment on the purchase of a quality assurance call monitoring system, managers must use the system to bring about positive change to contact center operations. Virtual Observer delivers the information every manager needs to make precise, explicit decisions that will directly affect the profitability of the call center. This document will walk you through the different ways a quality assurance call monitoring system can increase your revenues and decrease your expenses. Marketing Department (R. Ruby) - CSI Partner

2 Return on Investment Tool Page 2 Profit Centers: Increasing Profits In a profit center, every call is an opportunity to generate more revenue. An intended purpose of a quality assurance call monitoring system is to increase the number of calls answered by agents in the call center. An increase in the number of calls answered directly affects the total revenue generated by the profit center. of Profit Centers: a sales contact center, an order-processing center, and a telemarketing center. There are two main strategies for increasing profits in a contact center where each call has the potential to generate revenue. 1) Increasing the number of calls that agents can answer 2) Increasing the amount of revenue each answered call produces Cost Centers: Decreasing Expenses In a cost center, every call is an additional expense, and will not (in most cases) generate revenue. The intended purpose of a quality assurance call monitoring system is to decrease the expense related to each call. A decrease in expenses will directly affect the overall costs associated with the contact center. of Cost Centers: Technical Support Center, Help Desk, Information Desk. The main strategy for increasing the profitability of a Cost Center is control of staffing expenses. A quality assurance call monitoring system provides the manager with agent performance information to make intelligent staffing changes. Mixed Centers: Decreasing Costs while Increase Profits In a mixed center, every call has the potential to generate revenue, but also has a direct expense associated with the call. The intended purpose of a quality assurance call monitoring system would be to increase the revenue each call generates while reducing the costs associated with that call. of Mixed Centers: Inbound Support and Outbound Sales, Multitasking agents (both selling and supporting), and centers where agents provide support and refer callers to sales personnel. Managers of Mixed Centers should combine the ROI strategies of the Profit and the Cost Centers. If you manage a Mixed Center, you can get a greatly increased return by both increasing revenue and decreasing expenses.

3 Return on Investment Tool Page 3 Profit Centers: Reducing the Average Call Handling Time The primary factor in the number of calls your agents handle is the length of time it takes your agents to close a sale. The average handling time is usually calculated by adding the total amount of time spent talking to the customer (ACD talk time) plus the total amount of time spent processing paperwork after the call has been concluded (post-call processing time/call wrap-up time) divided by the total number of calls. If you are not monitoring the customer handling time, you will not be able to tell if your agents are spending too much time conversing with the customers or too much time engaged in completing paperwork. Example: your call center takes about 15,000 call a year. Examining an ACD report generated by your phone system, you notice that the average handling time per call is about 5 1/2 minutes, which is longer than you consider reasonable. You also notice that 70% of the call handling time consists of post-call processing work. With this information, you rework the sales process, and improve the paperwork procedure needed to complete the sale. You use Virtual Observer to monitor the length of time each agent is talking to a customer and use Virtual Observer s screen capture feature to watch the agent navigate through your screens during post-call processing. You also reinforce standard call center practices, such as only using the post-call processing state (Not Ready or Work) for paperwork associated with a call (and not bathroom breaks, cigarette breaks, or surfing the internet). By reducing the post-call processing requirements and coaching agents on excessive call length, you reduce the average handling time per call, increase the number of calls being answered in your call center, and increase your revenue accordingly. Use the spreadsheet below to see how reducing the average handling time per call will affect the revenue your call center generates. Reducing the Average Call Handling Time Total call center revenue for last year $750,000 Total call center budget for last year $525,000 Total number of Calls Accepted for last year 15,000 Total net profit for last year $225,000 #N/A Average profit per call $15.00 #N/A Total Amount of Call Handling Time (in minutes) for last year 82,500 Average Call Handling Time (in minutes) 5.5 #N/A Reduction in Average Call Handling Time in seconds 60 Increase in number of calls due to reduction in handling time 3,333 #N/A Increase in revenue due to reduction in handling time $50,000 #N/A

4 Return on Investment Tool Page 4 Profit Centers: Increasing the Average Call Revenue Each call answered by your agents generates a certain amount of revenue for your company. An increase in the average amount of revenue each call generates will directly affect the total amount of revenue. If your agents are not following your company's sales script, or are not offering all of your company's services and products to each customer, you are not reaching the full sales potential with each call. By coaching your agents' sales abilities and monitoring the quality of the customer/agent interaction, you can increase the average revenue each call generates. Example: your call center receives about 12,000 calls a year. Examining an ACD report generated by your phone system, you divide the total net profit the call center generated last year by the number of calls received last year, and you calculate the average revenue each call generates. You reach the conclusion that your agents should be able to increase the amount of revenue each call the agent handles will produce. With that information, you use Virtual Observer to monitor and evaluate the sales abilities of your agents. You coach your agents into following the prepared sales and into using established sales strategies. When your agents are trained for maximizing the sales potential of each call, your average call revenue will increase and your total revenue will follow. Use the spreadsheet below to see how increases in the average call revenue will affect the total revenue your call center produces. Total call center revenue for last year $750,000 Total call center budget for last year $525,000 Total number of Calls Accepted for last year 12,000 Total net profit for last year $225,000 #N/A Average profit per call $18.75 #N/A Increase in the average call revenue (in cents) $1.50 Increase in the total net profit $18,000 #N/A

5 Return on Investment Tool Page 5 Cost Centers: Reduce the Average Call Handling time The primary factor in the number of calls your agents handle is the length of time it takes your agents to close a sale. The average handling time is usually calculated by adding the total amount of time spent talking to the customer (ACD talk time) plus the total amount of time spent processing paperwork after the call has been concluded (post-call processing time) divided by the total number of calls. If your agents spend an excessive amount of time resolving a customer's call, the agents will not be available to talk to customer who are about ready to hang up the call. If you are not monitoring the customer handling time, you will not be able to tell if your agents are spending too much time conversing with the customers or too much time engaged in completing paperwork. Example: your call center takes about 15,000 call a year. Examining an ACD report generated by your phone system, you notice that the average handling time per call is about 5 1/2 minutes, which is longer than you consider reasonable. You also notice that 70% of the call handling time consists of post-call processing work. With this information, you rework the sales process, and improve the paperwork procedure needed to complete the sale. Use Virtual Observer to monitor the length of time each agent is talking to a customer and use Virtual Observer s screen capture feature to watch the agent navigate through your screens during post-call processing. By reducing the post-call processing requirements and coaching agents on excessive call length, you can meet customer service level expectations without increasing your staffing expenses. Use the spreadsheet below to see how reducing the average handling time per call will affect the revenue your call center generates. Reducing the Average Call Handling Time Total call center budget for last year $580,000 Total number of Calls Accepted for last year 15,000 Number of Agents in the Call Center 25 Average agent annual salary $23,000 Average expense per call $38.67 #N/A Total Amount of Call Handling Time (in minutes) for last year 82,500 Average Call Handling Time (in minutes) 5.5 #N/A Average Calls per agent 600 #N/A Reduction in Average Call Handling Time in seconds 60 Increase in number of calls due to reduction in handling time 3,333 #N/A Agents previously needed to take those calls 6 #N/A Increase expenses (due to call volume increase) $128,889 #N/A Saving in staffing (agents you do not have to hire) $138,000 #N/A Overall Decrease in Expenses $9,111 #N/A

6 Return on Investment Tool Page 6 Cost Centers: Decreasing Attrition Related Staffing Expenses Whenever an agent ends his/her employment with your company, all of the expense you incurred training that agent goes out the door with them. High staff turnover rates indicate high attrition related staffing expenses, especially in the resources committed to training new employees. Your company has invested time, effort, and capital into every agent, and each agent that leaves the call center is an expense that will not contribute any additional revenue. Example: your call center employees 23 agents, averaging about $19,000 in annual salary. It takes your management staff approximately 3 months to train a new agent to an acceptable level of customer service ability. Your call center is experiencing a 50% turnover rate in your workforce. Using an ACD report generated by your phone system, you notice that the agents that are leaving have some of best call statistics, or are agents that are struggling with a particular aspect of their customer service responsibilities. Using that information, you establish new policies for evaluating, coaching, and mentoring your agents. You use Virtual Observer to evaluate your agents customer service abilities, and to coach agents in the best way to service your customers. You acknowledge agents whose call statistics are superior, and you use those statistics to pinpoint problem areas of other agents. You use Virtual Observer to alert management to situations of potential crises, such as agents who are having difficulty closing a particular customer's issue. Because you can direct your management efforts to specific areas, you are able to increase your workforce job satisfaction without greatly increasing your own workload. When workforce job satisfaction increases, attrition rates drop, and so do attrition related staffing expenses. Use the spreadsheet below to see how decreasing the attrition related staffing expenses will directly affect the total expenses your call center generates. Decrease the Attrition Related Staffing Expense Number of Agents in the Call Center 23 Average agent annual salary $19,000 Average Training Expense (3 months salary) $4,750 Average Workforce Turnover percentage 50% Annual Cost of Workforce Attrition $57,000 Decrease in Attrition (due to coach and evaluation) 25% Decrease in Attrition Related Staffing Expenses $28,500 #N/A