Moving the Back to the Front
Whilst a great number of enterprises have invested considerable time and effort in improving the operation of the contact centres very few have made the same level of investment in the equally important back office. In fact in many cases once customer transactions leave the contact centre it appears to disappear into black hole of unaccountability - you simply don't know when or how transactions will be completed or be closed off to the customers satisfaction.
Despite rapid advances in technology and business intelligence we have observed few organisation's that have recognised that a wide range of back office activities can be completed successfully and without risk at the first point of contact or even better, repetitive tasks have been automated to remove the frustration from staff.
The truth is the customer experience on a whole range of transactions including insurance claims, finance applications, status updates, create bills, amend application status and various other changes is determined more by the back office than it is by the contact centre, all to often without valid reason
In fact many back offices structures are more aligned to the organisational chart than they are to the customers requirements. There is nothing LEAN about them!!
Back office work loads, workflows and tasks vary widely across industries and the enterprises within specific industries. Despite all of these differences we have found that most businesses share the same set of challenges when it comes to improving the effectiveness of the back office.
Typically these include the following:
Limited visibility across their people work flows and systems-all too often back office systems aren't integrated and individuals works separately on predefined lists of tasks and activities. Because those lists are not managed in any system there is very little visibility to service levels, risk and outcomes.
Fluctuating demand-as the contact centre work often comes in an unpredictable volumes due to events outside the control of the enterprise e.g. media exposure, storms, marketing activities et cetera. Often there are communication failures across the enterprise which lead to these fluctuations in an forecast demand. When they occur they create backlogs, and backlogs compromise service levels.
Variability in activities - the complexity of tasks undertaken in the back office is no different to those responded to in the contact centre, they range from simple to complex and yet we continue to expect the same individual to handle both.
Variations in performance- as in contact centres different employees will have varying motivation, skill sets, knowledge and experience which would determine the level of performance. The handling times of individual transactions can vary quite substantially as they do in the contact centre, which means that without the right tools, the management and forecasting of service levels is guesswork at best.
So what are the opportunities to enhance performance in the back office and focus on improving outcomes for the customer
We firmly believe that rather than focusing on improving efficiency in the back office, there should be two primary focusses:
Firstly understanding which transactions can be safely and effectively integrated into the front office, delivering dramatic improvement in first contact resolution, lower cost and effort and as a consequence improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
Identify those transactions that lend them selves to digitisation or process automation . Typically these are the simple brain numbing transactions managers ask staff to to complete day in and day out
The second and equally important outcome of these changes is that they typically lead to improved levels of employee engagement as a work becomes more fulfilling leading to lower turnover and improved customer outcomes
We have clearly identified that enablement and empowerment are the two key drivers of employee and customer engagement. In today's knowledge economy there is very little in the way of transactions that the contact centre can't perform equally as well as the back office, given the right support systems and coaching, backed up the more effective use of existing information sources and reporting.
The challenge is to understand the customer journey and to redefine/realign your processes to match. By challenging every single handoff, and why it is currently work flowed to a back office area will typically identify substantial opportunities to automate or integrate back office processing with the front office. In all of our recent engagements we have identified substantial opportunities to do just this.
The following are just two examples of how our SPEC Methodology could help transform your business:
Example 1 - we identified that less than 40% of customer interactions in a financial services business were completed at first point of contact compared to a benchmark of around 75% amongst the enterprises competitors. We identified opportunities to redesign processes to match or exceed their competitors and reduced contact demand by over 30%
Example 2 - less than 20% of all insurance claim liability decisions were made during the first contact from the customer. By developing what we refer to as optimised practice blueprints for each claims transaction, we were able to dramatically improve approvals to around 80% at the first point of contact, leading to a substantial range of benefits including: lower average claims cost, improved net promoter score results, improved employee engagement, lower operating costs and improved customer loyalty which delivered both market and revenue growth.
The challenge is to create processes that get the right work to the right people as quickly as possible. When this can be achieved the following business benefits arise:
Improved service levels by reducing repeat contacts and saving the time associated with tracking down and identifying the status of incomplete transactions.
Better alignment of tasks with the skills of the workforce and their ability to perform them
Improved accuracy of workload forecasts scheduling as workloads are more predictable.
Critical or high-value tasks can still be assigned to highly skilled operators to ensure that they are dealt with more effectively.
For more information on how we can help you make this vital adjustment contact us here
