Pre Conference Workshop

Dr. Brownell O’Connor

September 15, 2008
9.30- 17.00
Lutfi Kirdar, Sultan room 1

Fee: 399 € + VAT

Operating budgets are apportioned by evaluating the true, operational and strategic value of particular organisational components (e.g. departments). Departments that add no value to an organisation but incur necessary expenditure are classed as “cost centres”. Cost centres are controlled by maintaining the lowest possible operating costs. Departments that add value (increase shareholder value, for example) are deemed to be “value centres”. Value Centre operational budgets are apportioned by analysing the rate of return of all the “value centres”.

Some organisations are lucky to have “profit centres” but in general, the term “profit centre” is a misnomer. In modern business, there are few, true, stand-alone profit centres because profit is generally derived from the value-return of a number of “value centres” and often, that profit cannot be harnessed without some cost centres.

Contact Centres, in general are “value centres”. If the contact centre is treated as a location where telephone calls are answered then it is being under-valued as a cost centre. Thus, the company is wasting a lot of funding, paying for a capability that is being under-utilised. This is akin to purchasing a brand new Ferrari and only using it to drive to the supermarket for the weekly groceries!

However, value returns are not infinite so organisations must ensure that there are positive returns from value investment. Based, therefore, on the principle that there are unique values attributable to each and every customer interaction (sales, upselling, cross-selling, marketing, loyalty, retention etc.), organisations that leverage their customer contact centre as a “value centre” don’t just throw additional funding into the call centre, they target specific value returns from that investment.

Thus, contact centre managers are no longer charged with simply operating on a shoe-string budget and achieving a particular Service Level and Average Handle time objectives. Contact Centre Managers are now charged with delivering key “value” metrics to the organisation as a whole. Some of these metrics are revenue-based metrics on sales and up/cross sell. Others are based upon customer intelligence gathering, customer loyalty building etc.

This Workshop, designed and delivered by Dr. Brownell O’Connor delves into the operational and strategic values of customer contact to show how they can be easily measured. With easy value metrics, contact centres can be budgeted and empowered to deliver ACTUAL business results. Whilst operational staff are concerned about Average Handle Time and Service Level, senior management should be concerned about the value affect that is having on the business as a whole.

For example, Increased Service Level requirements usually mandate increased expenditure. That increased expenditure is not really important. What is important is whether or not it delivers a positive return. Customer Satisfaction may be a positive return. Customer retention is definitely a positive return. The challenge is to demonstrate that those returns have a definitive value that is greater than the required increases in expenditure.

Workshop Contents Include:

Analysing Return on Contact Centre Investment:- (The difference between Contact Centre Operational Performance metrics and key business performance metrics) This section of the program analyses the rate of return on contact centre investment and covers some key principles regarding improving customer satisfaction and other commonly-regarded, Call Centre Key Performance indicators. Customer Satisfaction is only a worthwhile target if it delivers an added business value. So, if customer satisfaction increases customer loyalty and leads to repeat purchases and referral business then it is worthwhile. However, if it worthwhile for those reasons, then it would be prudent for senior management not to focus on customer satisfaction but rather to focus on repeat business and referrals while the contact centre operations management team focus on leveraging customer satisfaction to improve key business performance metrics.

Common contact centre budgeting strategies:- How do most companies prepare contact centre budgets? This module examines common and usually inappropriate methodologies for contact centre budgeting. The reasons for inappropriateness are discussed and analysed.
The Contact Centre as a Value Centre:- How does your contact centre add value to the organisation? What would your organisation do if there was no contact centre? What impact would it have on the business and the customers? As part of this module, participants engage in an involved exercise to uncover the true value of their contact centre operation and to discover if their centre is a cost, value or profit centre....or perhaps all three?

Inbound Customer Care budgeting:- This is probably the most contentious budgeting scenario of all contact centre operations. Using data gleaned from the previous exercise along with analyses of customer segmentation strategies and customer lifetime value, the group will build a value model for their own inbound customer care contact centre.

Outbound Telemarketing Budgeting:- Similar to the previous module, delegates will engage in a series of exercises to build a budgeting model for an outbound telemarketing centre or an outbound telemarketing campaign that will be run in an otherwise, inbound contact centre.

Telesales Budgeting:- Telesales operations are probably the easiest to budget for. Whilst they are rarely stand-alone profit centre, telesales contact centres are the closes approximation we have to stand-alone profit centres.

Building a set of Key Business Indicators:- When a budget is built on the basis of forecasted business value returns, those business value returns need to be managed by way of monthly management accounts and reports. The Doctor’s “value” approach to contact centre budgeting lends itself very well to senior management reporting because correctly chosen key business metrics correlate directly with accounting principles and thus the world of operations and accounts come together seamlessly. This contrasts with most present-day operations where senior management read synopses of ACD reports and IVR usage without any direct business correlation.

Managing Operational KPI’s:- Of course, operational Key Performance Metrics are still important but they are important for the operations management team. It is incumbent upon the contact centre manager to set appropriate KPI’s and to leverage those KPI’s in order to ensure that the Key Business Objectives are achieved within budget. Contact Centre metrics are a quagmire of inter-dependencies and inter-relationships that most senior management teams and accountants simply do not have time to come to terms with. It is far more efficient to expect the contact centre manager to understand how to leverage these performance variables in order to achieve the all-important business outcomes.

Dr. Brownell O’Connor (The Contact Centre Doctor), has been working in the Contact Centre Industry for almost 18 years. In his time, he has worked with customer contact on virtually every continent and in virtually every industry sector including telecoms, banking, IT, financial services, Travel & Hospitality and home deliveries. Brownell is a regular presenter at many international, contact centre industry events and has earned numerous industry awards for his contribution to “the cause”.

As with all the Doctor’s workshops this is a highly interactive session, peppered with many case studies from around the world. The program may be delivered as a standard workshop, a small edu-tainment session or a full scale event with lighting, sound and other “special effects”.
Dr. Brownell originally graduated in Electronic Engineering before establishing a Call Centre Software Company. He is originally from Ireland but is currently living in Dubai, U.A.E.