In statistics, the Greek letter sigma is used to denote how far something deviates from a given standard.  In 1986, Motorola (News - Alert) extended this concept to business processes (specifically manufacturing), creating a methodology by which companies could measure the development and delivery of products and services against an idealized objective.  Known as Six Sigma, the process uses data and statistical analysis to improve business performance and reduce product variation.

According to General Electric, “The central idea behind Six Sigma is that if you can measure how many "defects" you have in a process, you can systematically figure out how to eliminate them and get as close to ‘zero defects’ as possible.”

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You can see how this methodology might apply to the call center.  Customer service is full of processes prone to defects and variation, which can, under this philosophy, be measured and systematically eliminated, resulting in a “perfect” call center.

Technically, to achieve Six Sigma quality, a process cannot produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities (chances for failure in meeting idealized specifications).  What this actually correlates to in the call center is the subject of a call center training program offered by The Resource Center for Customer Service Professionals (RCCSP).

The course is designed to teach call center managers how to apply science, engineering tools, techniques, and statistical methods to create an optimized, high performance support center.  Covering proactive design approaches using Six Sigma centered methods, RCCSP believes this training can ultimately help an organization engineer lower costs, minimal wait times, and high customer satisfaction.

RCCSP’s “Designing Six Sigma Support Centers” training course is offered at various times throughout the year and in various cities throughout the United States, however the next class is being held May 1-2, 2014 in Dallas, Texas.

The company also offers a “Call Center Six Sigma Master Black Belt Capstone (News - Alert)” course, a rigorous, university-accredited five-day training program that will award participants (upon successful completion)Six Sigma Master Black Belt certification, the highest level of technical and organizational proficiency in service engineering.  The capstone takes place December 15-19, 2014 in Greenville, South Carolina.

With robust Six Sigma philosophy and methodology training under their (black) belt, call center professionals will be better able to ensure that their facilities stay at peak performance throughout the year.