One of the largest divisions of a major cable operator (serving over 540,000 subscribers). Division is a collection of geographically discontinuous systems distributed across a single state

14 autonomous call centers without shared processes or procedures. The current operation led to poor customer service as evidenced by the low sales rates, high error rates, poor service levels, and high abandonment rates.

• Two person project team led an eight week assessment of the division’s customer care operations
• Analyzed call center data across the division
• Conducted interviews of key personnel from senior management to frontline employees to gain perspective on current operations
• Performed ride-alongs with field technicians, participated in side by sides with call center agents, and observed supervisors and managers in action
• Reviewed and analyzed best practices across other divisions within the company

• Standardize Call Center and Field Operations
• Centralize Call Center Operations
• Build Customer Care support team
• Organizational Restructuring
• Technology Enhancements

A major provider of health insurance – member of a national association of health care plans. The company delivers individual and group health plans and third party administration services to large clients

Sales and enrollment process was overly complex, didn’t meet different needs of different customer segments

• Determine client expectations and appropriate metrics for the process
• Map core activities and develop “as-is” process maps
• Review process disconnects and design new “to-be” process maps
• Develop system requirements necessary to support re-designed process
• Create new roles, position descriptions, and organization charts for affected departments
• Develop implementation plan and business case for required investment

• Client implemented recommendations in Marketing, Underwriting, and Customer Service departments to improve service and reduce cycle time
• Customer Service recommendations reduced abandon rates from 12% to 2% and improved service levels without hiring staff
• Process analysis and business case justified necessary staffing increases and new positions in Marketing and Sales
• System requirements incorporated in RFP for new system by client’s IT department

Subsidiary of a major retail catalog/online order provider known for outstanding customer service and product quality

• Management struggled to understand differences between B2B, B2C sales environments
• Emerging B2B business unit lacked adequate technology, effective processes and metrics, and management reporting
• Sales and Marketing projection models were not integrated with staffing and operational models
• High abandonment rates and low service levels led to lost sales, repeat calls, client dissatisfaction

• Determine client expectations and appropriate metrics for the process
• Map core activities and develop “as-is” process maps
• Assess staff performance, operational challenges, and technology gaps in multi-channel contact management
• Conduct gap analysis and design new “to-be” process maps
• Develop system requirements necessary to support re-designed process
• Develop new roles, position descriptions, and organization charts for affected department
• Develop implementation plan, staffing model, and business case for required investment

Sales during peak exceeded business projections with improved service levels, lower error rates, and higher customer satisfaction. Client preparing second phase of technology implementation Opportunities for performance improvement expected to yield up to 50% increased processing capacity for same staff levels.

A worldwide provider of industrial gases. The company supplies atmospheric, process and specialty gases, high-performance coatings, and related services and technologies to a wide diversity of customers.

• Call Center IVR underutilized and the customer needed a capabilities assessment of the new corporate IVR system to realize ROI on this capital investment
• Most process tasks were manual and the current Call Center system did not have automated event management capabilities
• Several non-integrated technologies and data sources were involved in the Call Center processes
• There were multiple and disparate channels of communications between the Call Center Agents, Customers, Drivers and Sales & Service account teams.

• Develop CRM Repository Requirements
• Conduct IVR Technology Stack Validation against Call Center “To Be” requirements
• Design 4 BPM “To Be” Call Flows utilizing BPM best practices
• Develop repository Vendor Selection Criteria for CRM/Repository
• Design Technology Stack Diagram “To Be” aligned with corporate technology roadmap
• Identify gaps between “As Is” and “To Be” states
• Provide Findings/Recommendations/Industry Best Practices for future improvement phases

• Identified non-value add Call Center process tasks and recommended improvements
• Identified process tasks to be automated
• Provided CRM/Repository Vendor selection criteria
• Leveraged existing corporate systems and data for recommended improvements
• Identified technology and process changes to monitor for business events and initiate real-time corrective actions

A provider of fiber-based communications services. Network offerings including Internet Protocol services, metro and longhaul transport, content and video delivery, data and voice services.

• Problems designing and delivering new video streaming products and services as a result of acquiring a small company with different processes and technologies
• Several processes were not documented with workflows, job aids and product
• All project work had to be completed and tested within six weeks to meet product launch date

• Conduct cross functional interviews with engineering, finance, sales/order entry, IT, service delivery and service management to map new product processes into the corporate BPM application
• Identify technology and process methodology gaps between corporate and newly acquired company
• Design and document process flows, job aids and product life cycle documentation for new video streaming products and services
• Update project status, action plans and file documentation using MS Share Point, MS Project and Info Path

• Successfully designed, documented and tested new processes in BPMS before product launch date
• Eliminated cross-organizational communications barriers and duplicate processes
• Mapped new processes to leverage existing financial, billing, distribution systems and data sources

A large ILEC/CLEC that provides voice and data services to several hundred thousand customers.

• Call centers were supported by a Central Office switch with ACD software providing only limited capabilities and management information
• Agent desktop application environment was very complex which led to higher than average error rates and handle time
• Company required a fully integrated contact center technology and desktop solution to enhance the customer experience

• Developed corporate vision of customer care
• Conducted a needs assessment
• Developed high-level technology requirements based on the corporate vision
• Created a business case for recommendations
• The project team presented the business case to executives and gained approval
• In three months, a three person consultant team worked with the client to define requirements, develop RFPs, review vendor presentations, and negotiate contracts
• The project team worked with the vendor to assist in implementation and acceptance of the new solution through 2 phases.

• The client saw increased sales and decreased costs within the first quarter following implementation
• The client leveraged the improved reporting and customer insight capabilities of the new system to identify repeat caller issues and developed action plans which reduced repeat calling rates by 30%.

A large not-for-profit organization operating globally to raise funds for services to support mothers and children in 30 countries. Organization has seen multi-year growth at rates over 20%/year and is now expecting this growth rate to accelerate.

• Support relationship management and account management needs for US organization supporting four major product groups and 8 major customer segments
• Meet needs for solutions in contact center, marketing automation ,campaign management, business intelligence and reporting
• Define conversion strategy from multiple current platforms
• Comply with strategic technology architecture standards and directions established by IT group

• Interview executive leadership at C-level, VPs, Directors – across Marketing, Product Management, Strategic Planning, and Information Technology
• Review and advise on IT initiatives for contact center technology selection, taxonomy development, and information architecture development
• Develop draft strategic plan and review with various stakeholders
• Revise, develop technology roadmap, timeline, business case, and initial project descriptions for action in next fiscal year

• Increase market penetration, customer lifetime value, while reducing TCO and organizational inefficiency
• Support continued long-term growth

A large cable MSO with five call centers with over 1200 agents with no CRM solution. Over 15 fragmented,out-of-date, and inadequate KBMS. No standard content management tools or processes

• Increase sales and First Call Resolution rates
• Reduce AHT, error rates, agent training time
• Develop common systems to be leveraged by call centers across divisions
• Develop process for managing business knowledge
• Go live in six months or less!

• Identified vision and key requirements, developed project budget and assisted in presenting business case to executives
• Worked with corporate IT to develop requirements and designs for CRM and KBMS
• Facilitated rapid business review of requirements ,designs, content management process
• Developed and led user test and agent training for pilot implementation
• Provided post-implementation support to business users.

• Avoided $2 million dollar re-licensing cost for one acquired KBMS
• Met goals for pilot implementation in six months – on time and on budget!
• Positioned business and IT to roll out systems to all centers and agents – completed within two months after pilot!
• Provided conversion strategy for prior KBMS

A large ILEC/CLEC that provides voice and data services to several hundred thousand customers.

• Call centers were supported by a Central Office switch with ACD software providing only limited capabilities and management information
• Agent desktop application environment was very complex which led to higher than average error rates and handle time
• Company required a fully integrated contact center technology and desktop solution to enhance the customer experience

• Developed corporate vision of customer care
• Conducted a needs assessment
• Developed high-level technology requirements based on the corporate vision
• Created a business case for recommendations
• The project team presented the business case to executives and gained approval
• In three months, a three person consultant team worked with the client to define requirements, develop RFPs, review vendor presentations, and negotiate contracts
• The project team worked with the vendor to assist in implementation and acceptance of the new solution through 2 phases.

• The client saw increased sales and decreased costs within the first quarter following implementation
• The client leveraged the improved reporting and customer insight capabilities of the new system to identify repeat caller issues and developed action plans which reduced repeat calling rates by 30%.

A major provider of financial services to students and education lenders. The company was operating 4 isolated call centers throughout the country. Growth through acquisition had created a customer service technology environment that was fragmented, outdated, and forced inefficient use of resources.

• All contact centers could work together as one
• Technology was scalable
• Technology could support not only the call center but non-call center employees and executives

• Working with client executives, the project team defined a vision for customer service and developed high-level technology requirements that support the vision
• The project team presented the business case to the Board and gained approval
• The team developed RFPs, facilitated vendor presentations, and negotiated contracts
• The team was also engaged to work with the vendor to implement and gain acceptance of the new solution

• In 5 months, the project went from initial discussion of vision to Board request for funding to receiving live calls in the first call center
• Second site was live and operational only 4 weeks after first site
• As result of having clearly defined vision and technology plan client was able to roll-out new solution to the remainder of the organization – over 2,000 employees, a total of 800 call center agents , adding WFM, predictive dialing, and QA monitoring- quickly, using internal staff, at significant savings (ROI to client from consultant services estimated at over 600%)
• Substantially increased customer satisfaction, improved calls/account ratio, and reduced cost of service/account by using improved management information capabilities

Client required rapid evaluation of alternative sites for call centers

Site selection criteria included balancing risk of severe weather (hurricanes), availability and cost of work force, education levels and bilingual language skills, cost/suitability of facilities, ability to access community investment support

• Established client project team and facilitated development of client evaluation scoring model
• Conducted initial data collection and prepared initial ranking model
• Identified finalist site candidates and reviewed with selection team
• Developed refined selection criteria and more detailed scoring model
• Ranked and recommended 3 finalist sites and presented to executive team

Completed site evaluation and community selection process in 4 weeks with minimal impact on executive time and limited travel and research costs.