September 1998

Anytime, Anywhere…We're On Call

BY MATTHEW VARTABEDIAN, TECHNOLOGY EDITOR,
C@LL CENTER Solutions

What is the one quality shared by all good leadership? Vision. Leaders who are able to conceptualize their goals and convey them to others to help secure the appropriate support, stand a good chance of making that vision a reality. Companies, moreover, can be seen as the expression of a leader's will, each pursuing a leadership position, effected by senior management, in its market where achievement arises as much from sheer determination as it does from capitalizing on a product/service.

General Motors (GM) has recently demonstrated such leadership. I'm not speaking about its manufacture of automobiles; I am referring to a call center solution it "rolled out" two years ago to further "value-add" GM car ownership. This program, called OnStar™, is a "communication service that uses global positioning system (GPS) satellite technology and a hands-free, voice-activated cellular phone to link the driver and the vehicle with the OnStar Center, where Advisors provide real-time, person-to-person help 24 hours a day, 365 days a week."

OnStar began as vision to displace the existing "paradigm" of car ownership (buy a car and then have sporadic contact with the manufacturer), and replace it with a model that (pun fully intended) places the customer in the driver's seat. By leveraging certain resources (Hughes Electronics and EDS) available to GM at the time, the company recognized, and seized upon, an opportunity to make sophisticated technology a useful, everyday tool for customers. This solution has also helped improve the personal nature of its customer/company relations.

OnStar Services
With the purchase of a '99 Chevy Lumina, for example, I could have the OnStar system installed. This involves a $1,300 installation fee by GM, the purchase of a cell phone, a cellular phone service contract, and finally, a monthly fee of $21.50 for the OnStar service. And what does this seemingly expensive process gain me? Peace of mind.

Now, with the press of either a green or a red button (see the photo), you're linked into all sorts of nifty resources. Your medium is the OnStar Advisor, a call center agent prepared to offer you, the OnStar subscriber, the following:

• Emergency Services - Should your airbag deploy, your car will call OnStar. If an advisor can't make voice contact with you, local emergency services can be contacted on your behalf (if you can speak, the advisor will find out what happened and dispatch help if necessary). If it's another kind of emergency situation you can press the red button, speak with an advisor at once and get the help you need.
• Remote Diagnostics - Ever have a warning light come on and not know what it means? When you call OnStar, your car's computer communicates with OnStar's computer, relaying the exact physical condition of your vehicle, as well as your latitude and longitude (via GPS) to the advisor who comes online about 20 seconds later. If your car needs immediate service, the advisor will tell you. The advisor's computer can also interrogate the car more thoroughly, if necessary, covering 266 system codes (representing the vehicle's engine and powertrain systems, the antilock brake system and the airbag system.) To help minimize miscommunication, the icons you see on your dashboard are the same ones the advisor sees on his/her monitor.
• Automatic Theft Notification (with a factory-installed security system) - Should your car's security system be breached, your car will notify OnStar. An advisor will begin tracking your car's position in real-time (again, via GPS), contact the police, coordinate with the police dispatcher and let you know your car's been stolen. If you don't have a security system, but your car is stolen, you can call OnStar's 800 number, provide your security word or PIN, and they'll begin tracking your vehicle.
• OnStar Convenience Services - Via GPS and a comprehensive database of restaurants, hotels, flower shops, movie theaters, gas stations, etc., an advisor can make dinner reservations for you, get theater tickets, order flowers and a host of other "convenient services."
• Roadside Assistance - This service covers everything from flat tires to locking your keys in the car. Via the cell phone interface, for example, the advisor is able to remotely unlock your doors.
• Route Support - If you get lost, or if there's traffic on your normal route to work, call OnStar and ask for directions. The advisor knows exactly where you are (via GPS) and by accessing a map database, can provide precise, verbal travel directions.

OnStar center manager Bill Madalin told me that the subscriber usage profile varies. Some people like knowing OnStar is there in the event of an emergency, while others, like mobile workers, take full advantage of all the services offered. Vacationers also add their unique demands to the mix, creating a call volume unlike those of a direct telephone marketer or customer service center.

Operational Challenges
The main challenge is matching demand to capacity - a familiar refrain. Call volume picks up with East coast drive time and then just as that's tapering off, West coast rush hour kicks in. Time zone changes, weather and vacation patterns, and marketing promotions (greater influx of demonstration calls from GM dealers) also affect call volume, making for a unique set of variables.

Unlike an 800-number customer service call, the OnStar subscriber is paying for the cell phone call; they're also paying $21.50 for the service every month. Every second of wait time is therefore highly undesirable, to both customer and company. From a technical perspective, there is a certain degree of "lag" inherent in the system - initial communication with the car's computer takes about 20 seconds, so every subscriber calling will have to wait at least that long. If, during peak hours for instance, a subscriber does have to wait, an automated message is played, stating that you've connect to OnStar, and that the next available advisor will take the call.

Not putting people on hold, as Mr. Madalin stressed, is the one of OnStar's informing principles - their core competency, if you will. When your product is the call center service, wait times are simply unacceptable.

The Heart Of The System
Global positioning satellite technology obviously plays a huge role in the OnStar - as does the proprietary technology for carrying sophisticated data communications over cellular phones. UPS systems (uninterruptable power supplies) are on all workstations, which are further backed up by a massive diesel generator capable of powering the entire building. There are two OnStar call centers, employing an undisclosed number of advisors. An Aspect ACD provides switching, routing and load balancing for these centers. Routing is based on time of day, day of week, and since OnStar is also available in Canada, some incoming calls from that region are routed directly to French-speaking advisors. Emergency calls are assigned the highest priority and are routed immediately to advisor specialists.

The folks at OnStar wouldn't get into many of the technical specifics of how the system works, for fear of betraying trade secrets. And while it was frustrating not to learn the specifics, their polite refusals to get into the nitty-gritty drove home this point: the technology, however sophisticated, is merely the enabler of the personal relationship advisors can cultivate with the customers they serve.

OnStar Advisors
Prior to going live, all advisors undergo an intensive, 60-day training program that provides them with the information and experience to answer a variety of questions. From this training, as well as from being on the job, specialists in routing, mapping, theft-tracking emergency services, convenience services, etc., emerge. Every advisor spends time in OnStar-compatible vehicles, accustoming themselves to the products they support - this hands-on experience means a lot to the customer who calls for help on adjusting their seat.

There are three different kinds of advisors:

• Demo Services - These advisors handle calls from GM dealers demonstrating the system to prospective customers.
• Dealer Services - This group handles questions from technicians installing OnStar. Once installed, the advisors make a data call to the vehicle, load all operating parameters and test their control over the behavior of the system. These advisors also process subscriptions and interface with dealer sales people.
• Subscriber Services - This group provides the services I summarized earlier.

All the advisors have college degrees and are generally two to three years out of school. Compensation is intended to be competitive within the call center environment and is also attractive to college grads. Since OnStar isn't a typical telemarketing or customer service operation, incentives/motivational tools are a bit different. If an advisor has a particular interest in Cadillacs, for instance, they can receive extensive training on that car, becoming a subject matter expert on Cadillacs and an internal, expert resource for coworkers to tap if they receive a call requiring more detailed information.

Overall, the OnStar center experiences low advisor turnover. Mr. Madalin attributes this to the "cool" technology the advisors get to use, their role in the ongoing development of OnStar and to the potential for upward mobility (to a supervisory position or even to other positions within the company). Many simply enjoy the customer service aspect - in some cases they even may help save lives.

The City On The Hill
So, why is GM a leader? Because they've empowered the customer with a means of direct expression to a company representative. Thus, GM can acquire solid data, not only on how subscribers view OnStar, but on how they are reacting to the product - the car - itself. What better way to create a satisfied, loyal customer than to track down a stolen car within 24 hours, or unlock their car for them 20 minutes before an important meeting, or, worst case, dispatch emergency services if they've had an accident?

We've entered an age where, despite (or perhaps because of) the overwhelming influence of computers, human interactions are of ever-increasing importance to people (customers). To make your company succeed, you need to provide a product or service that makes your customers lives easier, more productive, safer or better in some other way. It would be nice if all they needed to worry about was making sure their car battery didn't die.

The author can be contacted at mvartabedian@tmcnet.com.