Inbound call center efficiency

Inbound Call Center Efficiency

The inbound call center department is probably more important than the other call center wings. The reason is that the callers who call up do so with the idea that they will be talking to an in-house representative of the company. They like to believe that they are talking to a person in authority. The call center agent needs to have that element of responsibility in the voice, and be friendly with the caller at the same time. This requires training and in most cases, years of practice. This is the department which can make or break your sales drive. The caller who has taken the effort to ring you up is definitely someone who is more than interested in doing business with you. How you turn that interest into revenue for your business is that you have to focus on.

With time, the inbound call center services have diversified. There are modern appendages like the interactive voice response system (IVRS). These facilitate the callers into obtaining the call center service that they need without much of a hassle. However, ask any caller and he will tell you that getting what you need in an IVRS system is a pain in the neck. There are too many unwanted options filling up the menu. While you are paying for every second ticking on the call, the answering service end is playing on hold music that refuses to end. When you finally get through to a live voice, you are asked a thousand inane details that are not needed to be recorded! That is the general plight of the IVRS system in most cases.

Even when you are calling up a customer care number that is manned, the time it needs to put forth your query really gets to you. Sometimes there is a barrage of stupid questions thrown at you. But the bad experiences with inbound call center services are not to be generalized. There are many premiere call centers out there that go a long way into ensuring that the callers get what they want in the minimum time possible. Such efficient answering service agents are not born, they are made. Your team of managers and trainers has to be at them so that they can be coached on the basics of telemarketing. The key point to keep in mind is that these agents would be the face of your business. So you better keep them in good shape or that might adversely affect the performance of your company in the sales department.

An efficient inbound call center department is like having a celebrity at the door to welcome guests to your house! Customers feel special and they are more interested in your products/services. The call center units realize this huge potential and that is why they sweat it out to make this department work in the true sense of the term. When it comes to BPO, the callers are the assets of the firm. To retain customers and to build up on the customer database, you have to welcome them properly and provide them services that will keep them close to your company.

How to get high demarcation test equipments

How to get high demarcation Test Equipments

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Interim management — increasingly part of the plan

Interim Management — Increasingly Part of the Plan

Interim Management — increasingly part of the plan
Interim management has traditionally been seen as a reactive response to organisational failure. Increasingly, a new breed of interims are emerging — people who regard interim management as a career and have transferable leadership skills to work across sectors. Building in organisational capacity to accommodate career interims ‘as part of the solution’ is discussed.

Interim management saw rapid growth in the private sector in the 1990s. It experienced a decline as the downturn bit in 2000 but has shown signs of picking up in the last eighteen months. In the public sector interim management has been slower to take off but has seen rapid growth in the last two to three years, first in London and then throughout the country. As with the private sector, interim management was associated with organisational failure but is now slowly being seen as part of the solution.
In both sectors — private and public — many corporate HR specialists, as well as group managers, are only just beginning to see the potential in recruiting interim managers as part of their change programmes. As such, interim management is still very much an untapped resource.

Below, we explore these issues in greater depth with Linda Booth, Group HR Director for United Utilities, a FTSE100 company. The interview is interspersed with real life examples where Veredus interim managers have been brought in to help organisations.

Has there been a growth in interim management used by your company?
«Yes, but very gradual. At United Utilities group level we have used no more than possibly five to seven interims in the past two years. This, out of a total of 120 staff. We have three recruitment streams: from headhunters and executive recruitment brokers, from single independent contractors and from larger consultants who can offer specialist services. Within the larger group of 17,000 employees business managers have the capacity to recruit their own interim staff. In the main we don’t use headhunters but rely more on independent contractors. My personal view is that interim management is still largely an untapped resource which, if used properly by organisations, could support forward thinking programmes.»

Part of the solution — Veredus case study
Increasingly interim managers are being used by central government in a more strategic way. In one part of central government an interim manager has been placed to oversee the establishment of a new agency with a high political profile. The interim has been responsible for setting up the corporate governance of the agency, establishing the structure of the new organisation and working with civil servants on recruiting the senior permanent staff team. In this case, interim management is being used as a resource to set up executive structures in a newly formed national organisation.

What are the qualities/skills you look for in an interim manager?
«In the main we are talking about senior managers. So, someone who comes with good technical skills and can ease into the role smoothly, someone who can quickly understand the organisational culture and work with the grain, someone who can offer a challenge to the company and identify where improvements can be made, someone who is focused, has delivered before and can form easy — but not collusive — rapport with colleagues. Also, someone who can see the bigger picture. Equally important is the ability to not get ‘pushed back’ — someone who can stand their ground in the face of opposition once having agreed ‘the brief’ and has a clear definition of the role. Good interim managers come with a degree of maturity — they tend not to be phased by the ‘ups and downs’ of an organisation and have the ability to get on with the job. They know they are only going to be around for a limited period and can ride the stormy bits. Good interims get on with the job, can be set free quickly and want to make things happen.»

Has interim management changed in the last 2-3 years in terms of skills, talent and age?
«Most definitely. My sense is there has been a big change. Alongside those who have retired or taken early retirement is a new group of interim managers. Not just people with good technical skills but people with transferable management and leadership skills who can effectively move between sectors. Also people who appear to have more flexible lifestyles, who see interim management as a career — either as a medium or long term opportunity — and who are prepared to travel. My other feeling is that they are getting younger. Good project management skills are essential but increasingly so are good leadership and management qualities. Only now are we becoming aware of the pool of talent available.»

Part of the solution — Veredus case study
A national rail infrastructure company was awarded a ?3bn contract as part of a private/public sector package. Part of the business plan was to look at different elements of the contract and consider options for more rational and cost-effective models of service delivery. For example, whether to outsource or keep in-house some aspects of the service as well as how to turn round failing parts of the organisation. In this case, interim management being brought in at an early stage to consider future strategic options for the company.

Is there a place for interim managers to be seen as part of your longer term business strategy?
«Generally we don’t plan for interims as a part of our business cycle. As I mentioned before we still use interims as a reactive response. Using interim managers or technical experts as part of a planned development is still relatively new and undeveloped. I can see how built in capacity can be valuable to an organisation given the need to stay ahead of the game and give us a competitive edge. Not only technically but also managerially. Particularly in scoping either a new role or a new development where some uncertainty exists about long term viability. Less personal upheaval may result as well as less business instability. Certainly an idea that needs to be developed.»

Part of the solution — Veredus case study
A medium size unitary county council had recently appointed a highly able Director of Children’s Services. The new director had previously turned round a failing social services and was now expected to do the same for the education (schools) in the newly combined service. The authority agreed to bring in an interim manager — on a project basis — to work on poorly performing service blocks. The interim manager was previously a successful director of education. From the beginning role boundaries were made clear. The newly appointed chief officer would have complete responsibility for the management of the service but would use the interim as a mentor in getting to grips with the schools agenda, and as a resource in quickly drawing up action plans for ‘fragile’ parts of the education function. An example of interim management as a coaching resource and providing capacity to move forward quickly in getting the whole service up to speed.

In a nutshell, how would you summarise the qualities of a good interim manager?
In a nutshell, people who provide you with immediate access to high quality talent, who come with good track records, represent low risk and maintenance and can offer you more instantly by seeing things through a fresh pair of eyes. It’s interesting to speculate — coming back to the question of using interims as part of the solution — what came first. Did organisations identify a need or were they reacting opportunistically to a more talented and flexible pool of talent. My feeling is that it was a bit of both. Either way, we need to use interims in a more creative way and develop a clearer understanding of what interim management is.

Increased compliance burdens are leading to the establishment of more legal process outsourcing firms

Increased Compliance Burdens Are Leading to the Establishment of More Legal Process Outsourcing Firms

Legal Process Outsourcing (LPO) services are becoming quite popular these days. One reason behind this is the increase in the number of statutory compliances for corporate organizations.

Lack of transparency and regulation has been identified as one of the factors that engendered the recession which in turn shook the roots of the American economy. Authorities have responded to this by making it mandatory for important financial institutions to maintain certain records to increase transparency. It is perceived that these measures will reduce the chances of another recession hitting the market.

Regulatory requirements

Those who have been keeping a tab on developments in this field will know that private equity advisers and hedge funds have to register their firms with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and reveal their books to regulators. Depository institutions will be subject to the bank holding regulations issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. Moreover, the Office of Thrift Supervision (which was the regulator of institutions like IndyMac Bancorp Inc., Washington Mutual Inc., and American International Group Inc.), will be made a part of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Companies that issue mortgages would be required to retain a minimum of 5% of these on their books to discourage improper loans. The new Consumer Financial Protection Agency will have SEC authority and regulatory authority. This agency will ensure that entities which create consumer debt disclose more information.  

Apart from recession related issues, energy and healthcare reforms will also impose more compliance burdens on organizations related to those sectors.

Some people argue that these regulations have been imposed to make sure that no institution becomes too big. However, everyone agrees that such regulations will increase legal spending across all corporate organizations.   

Advantages of appointing LPO service providers

It is natural that firms will try to outsource as much work as possible because they are already cash strapped.  Even the American Bar Association approves legal process outsourcing. The LPO industry is useful for small and medium sized businesses because such organizations find it more difficult to deal with the compliance burden. This is the only way in which they can compete with larger firms within and outside America.

Not only can such firms provide routine, low end legal services, they can also offer services like drafting and reviewing privilege logs, drafting case chronologies, conducting contract analysis, putting together witness binders, drafting head notes & case summaries, and conducting research at the global or multi-state level.

The LPO industry is already quite developed and firms have the advantage of studying partnership models that have worked. Establishing long term relationships with firms that offer legal services from foreign locations is more cost effective because it allows for longer training periods and enables setting up of compliance tracking teams.

Some companies are concerned about the degree of confidentiality and data protection issues in legal process outsourcing firms. However, this should not be a concern because these firms adhere to the standards accepted in USA or UK.

On the whole, LPO seems to be the best option for law firms and corporate bodies because two birds are killed with the same stone: the cumbersome legal requirements are met and expenses are kept low.

How to join snapfish

How to Join SnapFish

Membership to SnapFish is free and gives one the opportunity to access photo sharing and printing services that are widely regarded as the best by the online photo-sharing community. More than 23 million people already have an account with SnapFish and are enjoying benefits such as 30 free digital prints, free online photo sharing and storage, and free developing of the first roll of film.

To sign-up for SnapFish, one needs to go to www.snapfish.com. The information to be entered includes first name, last name, email address, and password. Credit card details are required if one wishes to avail paid services from SnapFish, these include digital prints and gift items. Newcomers are required to agree to the T&C of SnapFish and therefore it is desirable that one reads them first.

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