Excellence in Contact Center Operations

Vol. 5 June 2011

Aegis Speak

Dear Customer, I am delighted to present to you, the fifth issue of Insight. Excellence in Contact Center Operations, the theme for this issue, is an area of focus for Aegis right from the beginning. We believe that it permeates all aspects - from the time we identify the right people, till we train them with the requisite skills. In fact, in this issue's Think Tank, Bruce Belfiore, CEO, BenchmarkPortal echoes the importance of people, as he explains how, in addition to operational metrics, morale of the staff in the contact center operation is vital for its success. Speaking of metrics, though the operational metrics that we use may differ depending on the various verticals and industries that we operate in, we are at all times conscious of the fact that the aim is to improve Customer Life Time Value for our client and to increase customer loyalty by enhancing customer experience. We are constantly examining the backend data that accumulates and looking at identifying ways to innovate and enrich the overall experience. The Case in Point section illustrates how Aegis partnered with 1-800-FLOWERS to address the demand spikes during peak seasons, and also achieved excellent customer satisfaction levels, and reduced operational costs. This case study is an excellent example of how understanding the salient aspects of the industry that the company is in, helps a service provider deliver superior results. At Aegis, we continue to focus on how we can implement best practices within a vertical without impinging on client confidentiality and any proprietary processes. Irrespective of the geographies that end customers may belong to, they primarily look for three things, namely, Resolution of their concerns, in a Timely and Respectful manner. Excellence in contact center operations hinges on getting these three basics right. We hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we did putting it together for you. Do please write in with suggestions of what you would like to see in the future issues of Insight! Regards,

Rajiv Ahuja President - ANZ and ASEAN

Buzz Factor
Industry Buzz
Outsourcing Market Growth: Everest
According to research firm Everest Group, the global outsourcing market grew at a rate of 6% in 2010, when compared to 2008. While the ITO transaction volumes increased at 5%, the BPO transactions increased by 12%. Geographies such as North America, and Verticals such as BFSI were instrumental in leading the market recovery. The year also saw the revival of high value deals, growth of captive models, spreading of offshore locations beyond Asia, and reclassification of China as a mature location. Significantly, in spite of the economic slowdown, leading service providers have experienced increase in revenues, head count and operating margins.
Source: Everest

Aegis Buzz
Aegis and Saudi Telecom come together to transform Customer care in the Region
Aegis and Saudi Telecom Company (STC), Saudi Arabias largest telecom operator entered into a landmark strategic partnership, which would see Aegis managing STCs entire customer care operations including billing, directory enquiry, collection, verification. As part of the deal, Aegis and STC would form a near equal stake joint venture company Contact Center Company (CCC) which would provide customer care service to STCs over 28 million customers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).

Aegis positioned in Magic Quadrant for Customer Management Contact Center BPO Worldwide by Leading Industry Analyst Firm
Aegis has been positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Customer Management Contact Center BPO Worldwide 2010 report as a niche player. The research evaluates service providers on their capabilities across the Americas, EMEA and Asia / Pacific. The companies considered for the Magic Quadrant showcase a blend of business, organizational, vendor / product, industry, customer management (CM) BPO program and project management expertise. They showcase the ability for innovation with capabilities to deliver CM contact center BPO services through an onshore, nearshore or offshore (global) service delivery model. In 2009, Aegis was positioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant CRM Contact Center BPOs for North America for its strong CRM contact center BPO capabilities in North America.

TPI suggests healthy contracting activity for rest of 2011

In its recent report, TPI, the sourcing data and advisory firm, suggests that during the first quarter of 2011, the restructuring activity returned to historical norms, after 2010s record increase, but the value of new scope awarded in the market remained steady. One of the highlights of the Global TPI Index was Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), which had its second best quarterly performance in the last two years. The total value of BPO contracts awarded by clients was $6.6 billion, an increase of 66% from the same quarter the previous year, and a two time increase over the same quarter in 2009. In terms of number of contracts awarded, this is the second highest value after 2009.
Source: TPI

IDC Marketscape identifies Aegis as a Major Player in the comprehensive customer care BPO Marketplace
Aegis has been identified as a Major Player in the IDC MarketScape report on the comprehensive customer care business process outsourcing (BPO) market 2010. IDC analysts report cites Aegis' high value services, strong funding model and aggressive acquisition strategy as key areas of strength. The companys promising growth strategy and execution, its effective cost management, and focus on services such as analytics, are also highlighted as key indicators of Aegis' future growth. The IDC vendor assessment for the comprehensive customer care BPO market represents IDC's opinion on which vendors are well positioned today through current capabilities and which are best positioned to gain market share over the next few years.

Awards
Aegis was awarded with the MVP quality award 2010 by Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC)s Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine for demonstrating the utmost commitment to quality, excellence and customer service. Aegis was recognized as the BPO top job creator at the annual Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA) awards recently. Aegis ranked 15th and recognized in Leaders category by International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP)Global Outsourcing 100 list

Aegis was recognized by Aon Hewitt as one of the 25 Best Employers in India 2011 for alignment of people practices with growth objectives.

Think Tank
Increasing Emphasis on Excellence Location Decisions for Outsourcers in Contact Center Operations
Bruce Belfiore is the CEO of BenchmarkPortal, which provides best practices information to the customer contact industry. He is a consultant to call centers in a wide variety of industries seeking to improve their results, and is noted for helping to calculate the financial impact of proposed changes. Bruce is the author of the books "Benchmarking for Profits!" a manual for best practices benchmarking, as well as its sequel, "Benchmarking at its Best for Contact Centers." Bruce holds an A.B. degree from Harvard College, a J.D degree from Harvard Law School, and an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. He is the holder of a registered patent for a symbolic language system known as Simbly, with important call center applications.

How do you define excellence in Contact Center Operations? What do organizations look for in service providers with respect to this aspect?

What trends do you foresee this year in Contact Center Operations?

As analysts, we determine excellence scientifically and objectively we look at key performance metrics that correlate statistically to cost structure and to quality. We examine these in comparison to industry benchmarks. When I define excellence personally, I add another factor employee morale. I call it M&M- metrics and morale. Morale can be measured through agent satisfaction surveys and can be gauged through focus groups. Excellence in M&M is a hallmark of truly great contact centers in my experience. With regard to what organizations look for in service providers, they look for organizations which will partner with them to deliver a service that balances cost with high quality in terms of processes, people and technology. They look for professionalism and in-depth knowledge of how to deliver a great customer experience at an acceptable price. While organizations do not expect perfection from service providers, they do expect true partnership in this sense.

I see a spirit of constructive competition. People are asking "how am I doing compared with my peers", which is leading to an increase in benchmarking and to an increase in improvement initiatives based on the results of benchmarking. I am also seeing a greater emphasis on training this year. There is a new appreciation for the role of the supervisor as the agent leader in the call center. IVR optimization, work force management, multi channel integration and social media are all exciting areas I see focus on this year.

What do you think are the various trends adapted by various service providers to excel in Contact Center Operations to optimize the end user experience?

An important trend is to really understand the client objective and the customer needs and service them to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. This is an area that service providers are concentrating on. They are also using training in an important way to explain to agents how to contain talk time and average handle time, while not impairing customer satisfaction.

What are the value propositions that would separate the best from the rest?

Can you also share your thoughts on the various vertical centric approaches followed in Contact Center Operations?

For outsourcing operations, the value proposition starts with the real partnership between the parties, where the outsourcer understands and embraces the objectives and the mission of the client company. The partnership promise is fulfilled through excellent people, who are well recruited, well trained and well motivated. Also, through processes that run well and are comprehensible to the client. The third value proposition is technology. Superior operations are those that work in an optimized and harmonious mode with three elements in synchronization - people, processes and technology. Add to this continual and effective communications between client and outsourcer and you have the elements of the best outsourcing relationships.

I am very sensitive to vertical-centric approaches. It is important in benchmarking to compare apples to apples within industry vertical sectors to get valid information leading to proper decisions and superior results. Similarly, contact center operations that specialize by industry vertical tend to be more expert and more successful. It is helpful to know, in the case of outsourcers, that they have had deep experience with your type of call and your industry sector. Naturally, there is a tension between vertical specialization and cost containment, especially within medium and smaller operations. Load balancing (which reduces costs) is easier to do when there are cross-trained agents who can handle more than one queue in more than one vertical. If agents are properly cross-trained and tested, the center can offer added flexibility and cost containment while still providing vertical expertise.

What kind of influence does innovation and cutting edge technology have in achieving operational excellence?

It has a great and still untapped influence - there is so much more to do for so many centers. A proper combination of technology components such as IVR, CRM, KM, Work Force Management, etc. drive customer satisfaction and loyalty by helping deliver superior customer experience.

Bruce Belfiore can be contacted on info@aegisglobal.com

Case in Point
Enriching Customer Experience Through "Service Excellence"
THE CLIENT
With revenues of more than $600 million, 1-800-FLOWERS is one of the worlds leading floral and gift retail and distribution companies. This family-run business has been providing customers with fresh flowers and a broad range of gift choices for more than 30 years. Its international delivery network covers 48 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and South Africa. The client engagement began in October 2009, with Aegis providing the following services: Aegis assumed a central role in managing sales, customer service and back office functions. Aegis teams, working from the delivery center in the Philippines, effectively handled customer queries. Most of the interactions were from U.S.-based customers, with a small percentage coming from international customers. Aegis adopted flexible work force planning and recruitment to manage the seasonal demand cycle. Aegis constituted a core team of able agents and support staff which provided services during all seasons. During peak seasons (Christmas, Mothers Day, Valentines Day), the headcount was expanded to more than 500 FTEs with the ramp up normally lasting two weeks. When it first ramped in December 2009, Aegis exceeded client expectations in terms of conversion and quality. Aegis delivered stellar performance across KPIs considering that it was just over a month since it stepped in.

CUSTOMER CHALLENGES
The large seasonal spikes in the Companys business posed a significant challenge to staffing its service center function while maintaining key performance indicators (KPIs). Maintaining KPIs like CSAT for customer service and sales, conversion rates, and average order value was of immense importance especially during the impending holiday rush. The client therefore decided that they needed an expert partner with quick scalability to enable them deliver high quality, cost-effective customer service. To help handle the critical service center function, the client sought the help outside of its US-based home-agent network and turned to Aegis for a scalable and yet a cost effective solution. Aegis was selected due to its superlative performance management techniques and unrelenting commitment to quality. With an established reputation, proven track record and vast experience in supporting some of the worlds best companies, Aegis was an ideal partner for 1-800-FLOWERS. Aegis challenge was to provide comprehensive customer care, reservation sales and services, and support within crunched time lines.

RESULTS
Aegis was able to successfully reduce costs, while significantly exceeding expectations by improving customer satisfaction. With service levels back under control, and significant reduction in hold times, sales conversion rates showed a dramatic improvement over previous levels. 1-800-FLOWERS derived many benefits from this exercise: Improved quality scores Significant increase in customer satisfaction index Increased sales cycle and enhanced revenue cycle management Significant cost savings The Average Handle Time, or AHT, remained consistent leading to the adoption of strategies for offering additional support such as cross sell and up sell. This efficiency improvement as a result of the improved workflow meant that Aegis had created extra capacity which could thus take on additional processes.

AEGIS SOLUTION
The Aegis team studied the existing process in great detail to identify areas of improvement and eliminate steps that provided little business value to the client. After an exhaustive situation analysis Aegis proposed an apt range of services to the client.

I am grateful for the teams overall performance during the Mothers Day ramp. The leadership demonstrated by Aegis in this project run was undoubtedly outstanding! Congratulations to all the supervisors, trainers, peer trainers, assistant team leads, quality analysts, and support group who helped! Director of Outsourcing, Customer Experience

Global Footprint
G lobal Headquarters C ountry Headquarters C enters

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS
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Contact Information
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