Newsroom

01 Aug 2002

Alton F. Martin, CEO and Co-founder of COPC

For additional information, contact:
Karen Colvin, info@copc.com

Standards - Who Needs Them?

OutsourcingCentral.com

Writing this after reading yet another article about the Enron scandal, it almost seems ludicrous to suggest the contact center industry couldn‘t benefit from standards. In a perfect world, line staff reporting on key performance items such as first call resolution or billable hours would be unaffected by any tendency to rely more on wishful thinking or self-promotion than facts. The Enron debacle, however, makes it clear that there is no perfect world. Can standards help improve the one in which the contact center industry transacts business?

Clearly, the contact center management industry can benefit from the help standards bring. Some of these organizations have become caught up in the fast paced growth of the industry. Continuing to move forward, they seem unmindful or unwilling to admit that basic operations of their organization lack the structure and focus to assure its continued success. As a result, decent but declining percentages and top line growth numbers often mask leaks below the water line. Laws are routinely passed to regulate call center activities in the outbound space, attrition levels at 50% are considered great, and a first line manager with 15 months total experience and zero job-specific training is the norm. The industry seems intent on adding call center facilities fueled by grants from economic development authorities that provide incentives to “create jobs,“ but not necessarily to do them right. And US companies stand by as tens of thousands of call center jobs go to Canada, India, and the Caribbean.

In addition, top executives are also giving increased attention to the erratic performance of the industry. A representative article by Lior Arussy, Senior VP Global Marketing, NICE Systems, appeared in the January 2002 Harvard Business Review. The article, titled “Don’t Take Calls, Make Contact“, states “…few Centers make any attempt to deepen customer relationships, or to gather ideas from them. By stressing speed over service, the Centers virtually guarantee that they’ll end up annoying customers instead of helping them.“

Implementing appropriate standards that improve performance and customer satisfaction could definitely enhance this less than favorable scenario. By their very nature, standards are designed to support clarity, consistency, and success vs. chaos, unpredictability, and failure.

If we agree that standards may offer a workable solution, the next question is what standards should be implemented. Is there any point to looking to outside organizations for help in this regard? Countless times I‘ve heard some variation of the following – “We believe in standards here at XYZ Company, we just don’t believe in one that we didn’t invent. So, we use our own standard – and a very rigorous one it is!“ Candidly, this is laughable. Can you imagine a business going to a bank to borrow a few million dollars and telling the banker, “Don’t worry about my financial statements, I audited them myself“? Of course this wouldn’t happen, but the operational equivalent of it is happening everyday in the contact center industry.

Fortunately, as in the securities industry of 70 years ago, the view of “self-regulation“ is slowly starting to change. Executives are tired of seeing annual costs rising, customer complaints increasing, and customer loyalty and satisfaction declining. Right or wrong, the executive suite now views standards as a possible solution. I no longer think the question is if for a standard. I think the question has become which one and when.

Currently, we are faced with a plethora of standards and their requisite initials to choose from -- ISO, COPC, CIAC, STI, HDI, SSPA, SCP. I suspect we will see more standards in the next few years. The marketplace will determine the survivors.

As you adopt, implement and sustain a Standard in your organization, keep the following in mind:

1.) Set clear objectives for the effort. These can be financial, non-financial, or more likely some combination. They can be oriented towards improving short-term results such as operational efficiency or longer-term results such as improved customer satisfaction and employee retention.

2.) As you test a Standard for its Return on Investment (ROI), be sure to segment your analysis into the relevant time frames. Year one will be the investment year (although you should expect a breakeven, at minimum); year 2 and beyond will be when significant gains are obtained and sustained.

3.) If you don’t get a high ROI, you may be using a Standard that isn’t rigorous enough to produce the desired results. In this case, you have likely pursued a “plaque on the wall“ vs. true improvement which comes with performance oriented standards. Regrettably, I can assure you there are “Standards“ out there that require little effort and you too, can have a plaque!

I urge you to improve your business based on sound models that have a track record of results. Use a tool that works, and one that can allow your firm to differentiate itself through improved and sustained performance. If using a Standard gets you there faster than you could do it yourself, and in all likelihood it will, don’t be too proud to use one. You just might be very pleasantly surprised with the results!