Transition to Homeworking Contact Centre

Major Media Brand

UK media client successfully migrated to a new contact centre provider, improving service, reducing costs, and enhancing demand forecasting despite initial operational challenges.

Sector: Media

Location: UK

Ownership: UK PLC

Duration: Short to Medium

Challenge

The client had decided that its traditional contact centre and fulfilment services provider didn’t meet its needs, especially the requirement to flex resources to meet customer contact demand peaks (around e.g. reader offers, promotions and delivery issues at times of bad weather). A new outsourced supplier had been identified, but expert help was sought to ensure the migration was achieved on time and to budget, without interruptions or degradation in service.

Existing processes and procedures used by the incumbent contact centre provider were incomplete or ill-defined. Engagement from the incumbent provider had further decreased once the appointment of a new supplier was revealed.

Stakeholder reviews identified that a number of operational, performance and risk targets were not currently either understood or being met.

The new provider’s typical business model was to handle ‘the peaks’ for clients’ established in-house centres, it was ill-prepared to act as a sole provider.

Solution

The day-to-day scrutiny of the incumbent supplier’s performance was increased and appropriate governance and communication expectations for new supplier management was established in parallel. A robust plan for the phased migration between suppliers was created and managed, with shared ‘ownership’ and commercial incentives for successful achievement established.

Performance targets and related processes were re-defined and adapted to reflect a homeworking delivery model.

A collaborative exercise to understand the nature of the newspaper brand’s very changeable demand profile, as well as the means to better anticipate fluctuations on both client and supplier side, was undertaken. This was used to define the new supplier’s business requirements for its new workforce management (WFM) solution.

Outcome

  • A smooth migration between suppliers was delivered, with no loss in service levels and improved first contact resolution

  • The promised lower costs and significant (6 figure) reduction in contact centre and fulfilment services’ Total Cost of Ownership was achieved, with progressively more accurate and efficient demand forecasting