Call
Center Research Laboratory
Services
The Call Center Research Laboratory at The University of Southern Mississippi is a research facility dedicated to working with stakeholders in the dynamic global call center industry utilizing research-based scientific discovery, technology development, and education to produce value-added products and services.
Our services are of special interest to the following call center industry segments:
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Companies and corporations that run call centers
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Call center vendors and technology services
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Economic developers (site selection)
Call Center Managers/Directors
Turnover
reduction
Turnover
is the single most difficult issue ailing the call center industry.
This problem is not just an issue within the United States-based
call centers; it affects centers all over the world. Even though
the nature of call center work can drive many employees away, effective
management strategies are available that can be learned, adopted,
and measured to ensure long term turnover reduction success within
a call center. The CCRL has worked with call centers throughout
the country with both high and low turnover rates and has distilled
down key management strategies to permanently reduce turnover in
a call center.
Setting
a call center strategy
Running
a call center day to day is an exhaustive job. Most of a manager’s
time is spend focusing on local issues within the center. However,
without a strategy in place to align the call center to the overall
organizational mission with appropriate tactical steps, a call center
and its management can become misaligned with a parent company or
organization which can lead to problems of mission and function
over time. The CCRL has extensive experience in working with individual
call center managers and directors to outline a strategy for their
call center to ensure that it is operating at peak efficiency while
at the same time it is aligned with the parent organization mission
and quarterly and annual expectations.
Measuring
a Return on Investment (ROI)
One
of the more difficult challenges of a call center manager is to
justify its annual budget to the parent company or organization.
This is especially true for inbound centers which have been characterized
as “cost centers.” Being able to measure a return on
investment for a call center is a critical step in being able to
articulate the value of a call center to an overall organization.
Moreover, it is not only just important to be able to measure an
ROI, but also to be able to communicate this value in the language
of the company or organization-money. The CCRL has worked closely
with Drs. Patti and Jack Phillips of the ROI Institute to a construct
time-tested ROI measurement tool for the call center industry.
Working
with your local economic developer
Many
call center managers and directors do not know all of the economic
development benefits available to them and their center. These benefits
may come in the form of equipment tax credits, tax abatement, training
services for employees, training reimbursement, or discounts on
land and buildings. These benefits are often available not only
to the new employer in town but also to an employer of a significant
number of local employees every few years. The CCRL has worked with
local economic developers throughout the country and catalogs the
various and shifting benefits a call center manager can take advantage
of within their community.
Customer
satisfaction
Customers
are the source of revenue, directly or indirectly, for all call
center revenue. Without customers, call centers, companies, and
organizations will fail to exist. However, understanding customer
behavior is not a simple task for these people behave in various
ways that often seem contradictory. The CCRL has extensive experience
in measuring (both quantitative and qualitative) customer satisfaction
and loyalty.
Employee
Satisfaction
Just as call centers are often the “face” of a company
to the customer, call center employees are the voices that these
customers hear and count on to solve problems and delivery services.
If employee satisfaction is low this message will be broadcast to
all customers. If employee satisfaction is high, the customers will
know that the company or organization they are doing business with
is well liked by the front line staff in the call center. The CCRL
has years of experience in measuring call center employee satisfaction
and bringing to the table tangible, real, and effective action items
to help improve employee satisfaction within the call center and
subsequently the message being broadcast to the customer.
Effective
management metrics
The number
and type of metrics within a call center differ from each call center
and sometimes even between call centers within the same organization.
The purpose of such metrics is to ensure that the call center is
running effectively in a measurable way and that the employees on
the phones are productive. Most of metrics available today and the
fact that these metrics are often embedded and pre-programmed into
the technology, there is often little room for a manager to be creative.
The CCRL offers call center managers help in defining the appropriate
metrics for their center, with the understanding that all call center
are not the same and thus each will require unique metrics. Moreover,
the CCRL can also assist the manager in creating the appropriate
measurement tools to ensure the new metrics created are measured
accurately and consistently over time. In this manner, the manager
and their goals drives the center versus the metrics driving the
center for the manager.
Employee
productivity
Because
labor cost account for approximately 85% of total call center costs,
having productive employees is not ideal, it is an absolute requirement.
However, measuring productivity is not an easy task. The CCRL has
the experience to assess an existing center and with consultation
with the center manager create, test and launch appropriate employee
productivity measures for a call center.
Call Center Vendors and Technology Providers
Beta
testing your products
The
CCRL lab offers beta testing of products from computers and software
application to desks, chairs, headsets, and other commodities that
are purchased for call center operations. The CCRL offers beta testing,
measurement and feedback to vendors who may not have the existing
internal capacity to beta test and measure their own product’s
capabilities or seeks a third-party independent evaluator of their
product before alpha testing and determining product launch.
Alpha
testing your products
The
CCRL lab offers alpha testing of products from computers and software
application to desks, chairs, headsets, and other commodities that
are purchased for call center operations. The CCRL offers alpha
testing, measurement and feedback to vendors who may not have the
existing internal capacity to alpha test and measure their own product’s
capabilities or seeks a third-party independent evaluator of their
product before determining product launch.
Product
evaluation
The
CCRL lab offers final evaluation of products from computers and
software application to desks, chairs, and other commodities that
are purchased for call center operations. The CCRL offers product
testing to vendors who seek a third-party independent evaluator
to measure and report the performance of a product or product(s)
that are soon to go to market or those that are already on the market.
Product
comparison testing (head to head)
Because
competition is fierce in the call center industry, distinguishing
one company’s product from the others is a critical step to
a products succeeding in the call center industry. The CCRL offers
head to head independent testing, measurement and reporting of products
from computers and software application to desks, chairs, headsets
and other commodities that are purchased for call center operations.
This gives a company the data necessary to distinguish their product(s)
from the competition and devise a strategy to market their product
as a superior, better performing, lower maintenance, longer-lasting
or less expensive.
Advanced
product development
The
CCRL, because of its connection with a research university, offers
services to work with existing vendors in improving existing products
or product lines and/or assistance in creating new products. Companies
often do not have the internal research capacity to develop new
products due to the concentration of many companies on sales and
existing services. The CCRL is dedicated to being a company’s
new and existing product research and development arm.
Companies/Organizations
Site
selection
Find
the right site for your call center is critical since it helps set
the tone of the center and its potential success or failure. Because
call center are a labor intensive industry, it is critical that
the correct data collection tools are used in evaluating the local
labor pool a potential center can draw from. The CCRL has identified
specific key characteristics that pertain to call center successful
operations and have worked backwards from this research on successful
operations into key variables related to site selection. The CCRL
utilizes these variables while working with a company or organization
to find the correct site(s) and fit for the company.
Call
center operations portfolio
The choices
for a company or organization that operates call centers are numerous.
These can include in house operations, domestic outsourcing, outsourcing
offshore, inbound operations, outbound operations or blending inbound
and outbound. There is no one simple solution for all organization
or companies on how to structure a companies total call center portfolio.
The CCRL draws upon unique data on industry trends, experience with
other organizations, and an alignment with a company’s quarterly
and annual goals and benchmarks to help them create and launch the
right mix of call center operations and locations to achieve the
set goals.
Labor
analysis
Labor
input is the single most expensive variable of all call center operations.
If efficiency can be found to decrease the cost of labor and/or
improve labor performance, the return to the company or organization
will be larger than most other improvements in a center that could
be made. The CCRL has years of experience analyzing labor in call
centers and deriving solutions for labor productivity.
National
economic development incentives analysis
Each state
within the US, and each community within each state, has a set of
economic development incentives that are offered to various companies
that bring jobs to the area and/or maintain jobs over a set period
of time. Because of the various levels of bureaucracy within local
government and the desire of a business to begin operations immediately,
many companies miss opportunities associated with economic development
incentives. The CCRL tracks economic development incentives at the
state level throughout the US and offers guidance in securing the
benefits available to new and existing call center operations to
ensure that companies earn the maximum benefits possible for the
jobs they provide a community.
Customer
satisfaction
Customers
are the source of revenue for companies and organizations. However,
customers are neither simple nor always predictable. A company’s
call center operations are often the only interaction a customer
will have with a company and its products. Because of this disconnect
between the product and the company, knowing what the customer desires,
what price they are willing to pay, and how they desire that product
or service to be delivered is critical. The CCRL has a wide range
of experience on customer satisfaction research as well as research
to help determine the pricing of call center customer service operations
embedded within a particular product or service.
Employee
productivity
Employees in call center operations account for approximately 85%
of total recurring operational costs. Because call centers are labor,
not capital, intensive industries, they have some unique characteristics.
The CCRL knows the importance of labor productivity and efficiency
within a company’s call center operations as well as the impact
labor productivity has on the overall bottom line. The CCRL offers
a variety of evaluation tools to evaluate and improve employee productivity
with a company’s call center operations. Just a few cents
saved per call or a few minutes saved per employee can add up to
large economic savings in a labor intensive call center operation.
Economic Developers
Site
Selection
Call
centers are labor intensive, not capital intensive, industries.
Because of this, call centers have unique site selection requirements
very unlike a traditional manufacturing industry. The CCRL has extensive
experience in working with state and local economic development
organizations to determine which site(s) within a community are
most suited for call center development thus making their recruitment
and retention of call centers more successful.
Labor
market analysis for the unique call center industry
Call centers,
as labor intensive IT based industries, require specific labor groups.
Most labor measures do not accurately measure for call center success
or failure within a community. The CCRL has many years of experience
working with and measuring the labor demand of call centers and
working backwards from this demand to measure a community’s
ability to successfully recruit and retain a call center with its
existing labor.
Marketing
plan to help recruit call centers
Call center
have very specific and sometimes unique requirements. The states
and communities that have realized this and marketing their state
and community to this industry have succeeded in attracting and
retaining call centers. The CCRL has worked with many states and
communities to develop strategic marketing plans helping a state
and/or community address industry needs directly through marketing
to this specific audience.
Strategic
plan to help maintain the call centers already in your community
All states
within the United States have call centers. However, with recent
increases in offshore outsourcing many communities are concerned
that their call centers and associated employment may go overseas.
This trend of offshore outsourcing is not a predetermined outcome.
The call center industry is growing both within the United States
and overseas. Therefore, a community can take specific actions to
help keep its existing call centers within the community and reduce
the chances of the call centers going overseas. The CCRL has established
specific models and tools local economic developers can utilize
to help maintain, and possibly grow, the call center employment
in their service area.
Benchmarking
your state/community
One way
to measure the current success or potential success of a community
in the call center industry is to benchmark your community or state
with other communities and states. The CCRL has ongoing data collection
projects throughout the US which allows ongoing benchmarking of
states and communities with regards to the call center industry.
From these benchmarks, states and communities can choose to alter
their strategic plan to ensure long term success of their community
with call center employment.
Working
with your call center managers
Most economic
developers have not worked in a call center environment and so are
removed from day to day operations of call centers and the relationship
of a call center to its parent company. It behooves an economic
developer to know as much about the call center industry and call
center trends if the goal is to retain and/or grow the call center
segment in the local economy. The CCRL has years of experience in
briefing economic developers on the workings of a call center and
what economic developers can do to assist call center mangers succeed
in their job. A positive relationship between the economic developer
and the call center managers helps cement the call center and jobs
to the community decreasing the chances of the call center being
relocated overseas.