Jonty’s visit to … Conduit

It’s a tough balancing act trying to balance Average Call Times with NetPromoter Scores.  Our editor Jonty Pearce visited the Conduit Call Centre who are actually increasing their talk times to improve their NetPromoter scores.

Conduit are an outsourced call centre with 2,500 agents across four sites in the UK (Cardiff, Swansea and Plymouth).  They also have two call centres in Dublin and a range of global sites.

Increasing talk times to improve NetPromoter scores

Average talk time is one of the key metrics in most call centres, and for Conduit this is no different.  But they also recognise that getting things right on the first call can help to drive down repeat callers, and improve NetPromoter scores.

To achieve this agents are encouraged to spend longer on calls to new customers. They can explain to callers frequently asked questions such as how the service will operate, what their first bill will look like and when they can expect to receive it. The system appears to have been a success.

So what other things are Conduit doing?

Stand up team meetings

Short 15-minute team meetings that are held four times a week.  These are used to cascade news and communication through the call centre and to highlight customer issues.

The meetings are held standing up (which makes sure they don’t last too long) around the team leader’s notice board. Problems can then be rapidly detected and can be fed back to the customer.

Shift swaps

Conduit have introduced an online application that allows agents to swap shifts with each other.  They normally ask for two weeks’ notice to make sure that the schedules are maintained, but with team leader input this can be cut down to 48 hours.

Partnerweb

Conduit provides all its clients with a real time view of its performance through a secure online Management Information portal called Partnerweb. This online tool, gives clients, wherever they are, real time access to detailed reports on all aspects of Conduit’s performance, be that the core service levels, CSAT, sales performance, schedule adherence and incidents.

This innovation is based on Conduit’s belief that, in the outsourcing sector, openness and transparency is the only real way to create partnerships with clients.

In 2009 Conduit’s team delivered 99.67% forecast lock against some very volatile shifts in arrival pattern and volume.

Compliments and recognition

A very simple but cost effective form of recognition is the recognition board.  On this board is placed every message of positive customer feedback.

It provides very visible and direct feedback of a job well done.  This is also backed up by rewards of wine or chocolates.

New technology.

Conduit has also invested in improvements in the supply chain, reductions in call volumes, identification of call drivers and elimination of unnecessary call types, investment in Speech Analytics and Six Sigma.

Do you have any initiatives of note?  Please send in any photos and we will see if we can publish them.