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RCCSP Professional Education Alliance on Call Center Training and Productivity

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TMCnews Featured Article


April 22, 2011

RCCSP Professional Education Alliance on Call Center Training and Productivity

By Brendan B. Read, Senior Contributing Editor


Call centers are about productivity: handling contacts effectively and efficiently and tracking and judging this performance through using a wide array of metrics. That requires call center training so that agents can meet and surpass these objectives.


The RCCSP Professional Education Alliance is a leading worldwide call center training and certification firm. To get a handle on call center productivity and training TMCnet recently interviewed its CEO, Nina Kawalek:

TMCnet: What trends are you seeing that are affecting call center productivity and what are the drivers?

NK: Call center productivity is a quantitative measure of handled contacts. In other words, call center productivity metrics measure throughput. This can be seen from an overall call center perspective, as well as from an individual agent perspective. Measuring call center productivity allows the center to go beyond tracking throughput. Many productivity metrics are used to build other metrics that measure different aspects of operational performance.

Typical call center productivity metrics include:   

--Abandonment rate
--Self-service rate
--Service refusal rate
--Transfer rate
--Escalation rate
--Resolution rate
--Error rate
--Contacts per agent

Main drivers of call center productivity include: 

--Forecasting accuracy
--Scheduling efficiency
--Schedule adherence
--Efficient routing of the calls
--Training
--Proper distribution of tasks, roles, and responsibilities to reduce job variability

TMCnet:
Briefly outline how does training and which types specifically directly boost call center productivity? 

NK:
Call centers that want to boost call center productivity need to focus on service engineering techniques. Productivity is about throughput, and that’s what engineering is about. Call center managers need to know how to apply scientifically-based design principles and tactical uses of metrics to balance service quality, efficiency, and profitability. Our Call center Service Engineering Boot Camp does just that, by teaching call center managers: 

--Six Sigma design to ensure less variability in the call center processes
--Better models for the proper division of labor
--Service engineering techniques to optimize the flow and routing of calls into the center.

TMCnet:
What are the best practices that you recommend in setting up and using training boost productivity?

NK:
Call center design impacts productivity. However most of call center design has been historically based on learning from trial and error, not through the scientific application of service engineering techniques. There has been an assumption that has been clouding productivity efforts, and that’s that economies of scale always have a positive impact on traffic in the call center, and this is not necessarily true. 

Training in call center design that is not based on science is a dangerous and potentially expensive way to go.

TMCnet:
What new or enhanced training offerings have you come out with in the past year or will be rolling out this year that will increase productivity and if so how?

NK:
RCCSP has decided to release its proprietary Call Center Business Model, the framework upon which RCCSP Professional Certifications are based. The framework makes clear what productivity is, and how productivity is impacted at different stages within a call center’s business processes.

Having a basic understanding of what impacts productivity gives managers an ability to focus their attention on the exact points within processes that will have the greatest productivity payback. The RCCSP framework provides the same level of guidance for capitalization, utilization, efficiency, effectiveness, and return on investment.

Starting in the second half of 2011, the Call center Foundations course will be available in select cities throughout the United States, and in 2012 it will be a pre-requisite to all of RCCSP’s professional certifications.


Mae Kowalke is a TMCnet contributor. She is Manager of Stories at Neundorfer, Inc., a cleantech company in Northeast Ohio. She has more than 10 years experience in journalism, marketing and communications, and has a passion for new tech gadgets. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.

Edited by Patrick Barnard







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