Contact Centre Archives

Quality Management

by Mukami | Jul 31, 2013 | Community of Experts

Close to 100 people attended the Community of Experts workshop ‘Creating a QA process that enhances customer experience and drives on-going performance improvement’ by Jackie Naughton.

Jackie is well known in the contact industry. She has been a convening judge for the BPeSA’s industry awards over the last eight years. She gained her an in-depth understanding of the challenges faces by contact centre managers while overseeing more than 4,500 workstations across 13 countries gave. Today she is a world-renowned expert on QA. Her company, BYC, today offers outsourced quality assessments, consulting and training to contact centre operators.

Outsourcing QA to BYC allows customer experience managers to “benefit from cost effective and objective understanding of their overall contact centre operations”.The BYC approach to quality assess is not just focused on results, but strives to provide insight into factors that are likely to prevent or delay the optimization of customer delivery through customer initiatives.

The event was introduced by Jackie with a video regarding branding, which explained that we are exposed to more than 3 500 brand messages per day and live in a brand saturated world. Jackie clarified that, although branding impacts on QA, it is not measured by QA, which is the process of determining whether products/services meet customers’ expectations and focuses on enhancing and improving the process used to create the end result, rather than focusing on the result itself.

With call centre agents engaging in 23 000 customer interactions in a single year, they carry more branding power than anyone else in the company, which makes it essential for agents to be involved in and part of the QA process. Jackie’s presentation made it abundantly clear that QA is the “dipstick of processes in a company”, and when correctly implemented and applied, it results in the sharing of significant statistics and information. Participants were reminded that a company’s brand is owned by its customers and is only as good as the customer says it is.

Total Quality Management, according to Jackie, is akin to continual improvement and should never stand still, leaves no room for grey areas, and she felt that it should perhaps be referred to as Customer Experience management, which “has to live and breathe”, as QA is “the living heartbeat” of any company. It should never be perceived as just a set of reports, and being flexible, QA gives insights that, for instance, allow companies to measure the effects of processes.

The presentation was extensive, eye opening and filled with useful and practical information that participants could use to ensure their company processes, products and services measure up to the highest standards.

It was heartening to see participants actively raising questions after the presentation and Jackie was able to answer a variety of questions, ranging from relationship building to motivating QA on agent level, as well as how to convince management QA was not just needed but a necessary tool to assist in optimising effective operations.

iFundi’s Community of Experts Series has been welcomed by the public as an innovative tool for both educating and networking, while addressing topics of common interests to the practitioners of various professional communities. These events expose the participants to new ideas as presented by a guest speaker and allow a forum for the participants to share their experiences.

Decent Work in the BPO sector

by Mukami | Sep 25, 2012 | Blog, News

Following the Polokwane conference, decent work for all has become one of the ANC’s key priorities.*1 According to the IOL and WTO, decent work opportunites involve creating freely chosen, productive jobs for women and men; jobs that are in safe, healthy, participatory work environments and that afford them decent and equitable remuneration, social protection and, whenever possible, professional development. *2 All of the above criteria that define decent jobs can be found in contact centres because they offer:

Permanent Jobs with Good Pay

Only 25% of staff are temporary workers compared to the national average of 50% of all workers. More than half of employees stay with the same employer for more than two years.

Contact Centers pay well and provide good advancement opportunities. Average entry level salary for agents with no experience are R6561 per month. Agents with experience earn on average R8339. Salaries for supervisors raise to R12 4573 and go as high as R60 000 for top managers.

In 2008, salaries increased by 20%, a rate significantly exceeding inflation, testimony to the growth of demand in the sector and a shortage in supply of skilled people in the sector. *4

Since good customer service ultimately depends on motivated employees contact centers are typically managed according to best HR practices, in compliance with the labour law.

Basic benefits are also provided for eg, medical aid, provident fund, wellness programmes. All statutory benefits are administered in accordance with the labour relations act and basic conditions of employment.

Professional Development

Contact centers present a well defined career path. Qualifications for agents, supervisor and managers are registered with SAQA as per the National Qualifications Framework.

52% of contact centers have their training materials SETA accredited. 56% of companies train their staff for more than 10 days a year.

Apart from a career in the contact center industry, graduates can also pursue careers in: customer care, sales, marketing, IT and administration. As a matter of fact, contact center employees are sought after because of their understanding of the world of work and their exceptional communication, customer service skills and computer skills. *5

Safe and Equitable Employment

The workforce is largely representative of the population, 85% of agents and 75% of supervisors are historically disadvantaged individuals, equally distributed across both genders.

Contact center work is a white-collar profession. It is therefore safe. Each workstation is equipped with a computer. 74% of contact centers have more than 5m2 meter of space per consultants. 68% have canteens. 43% have acoustic control.

We can speak about the standards which have been developed by the contact center industry and are SABS governed. This also contributes to safety and equitable environment.

Because contact center work is not physically demanding, it is well suited for the physically disabled. 78% of contact centres have access for the disabled and 72% have special toilets. *6

Jobs That Help Reduce Poverty

The industry has created over 100’000 jobs in the last five years and is expected to generate at least that many jobs over the same period in future especially since the BPO sector is one of the key pillars of governments industrial strategy.

Ideally suited for school levers, 48% of contact centers do not require previous experience and 68% require only Matric as entry level qualification

Contact Centers can also make a contribution to rural development. Given the industry’s continuous demand for new people, contact center operators prefer to set up new sites in places where workers are readily available as is the case in rural areas. Leveraging that trend, the DTI has therefore created incentives for companies to move into designated underdeveloped areas, in order to spread the opportunity and shift the focus away from more active regions.

Multiplier Effects

Research by the Business Trust shows that for every new direct job in the BPO sector, three other indirect jobs are created. If one takes into account that the average family has four members, for every job created in the BPO industry 12 people are benefited.

Sustainability

The BPO sector has enjoyed robust growth over the past five years. As customers expect ever more from businesses, contact centers have hired on average 15% more people every year, growing the industry from 70 000 to 170 000 employees *7.

Traditionally, contact centers have employed inexperienced people, particularly large companies which have their own in-house training programmes. Learnerships are therefore common in that sector. Almost half of all contact centers have had learners in their businesses.*8 As companies are forced to do more with less, they are now even more open to alternative means of recruitment and training. A recent request for expression of interest into learnerships by the industry association was oversubscribed by a factor of ten. In short, learners are in demand by the industry.

Despite the current economic downturn, the sector is expected to prosper especially since the South African government has identified the Business Process Outsourcing and Off-shoring (BPO&O) sector as one of the top three priority sectors to stimulate growth within its Accelerated Shared Growth Initiative (ASGI-SA).

“Recent events would only reinforce the need to continue with offshoring. Anything that delivers cost savings will be encouraged.“ The Everest Research Institute expects the growth rate of the offshore BPO market to be tempered in the short-term, i.e., between 0-10% over the next 18 months to pick-up once again in the region of 20-30% by 2011-12, to eventually grow at 50% per annum, which is expected to lead to 100,000 new jobs *9

Given the positive prospects for creating new employment in the sector and the willingness of the sector to employ learners, the proposed project will be sustainable in the long term.

¹ ANC Today, Volume 8, No. 2 •18—24 January 2008:http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2008/at02.htm#art1

² International Labour Organisation: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/afpro/cairo/

³ BPO & Call Centre Report 2007/08, p146

⁴ Kelly Contact Centre Salary Survey 2008

⁵ South African Qualifications Authority: http://regqs.saqa.org.za/viewQualification.php?id=67466

⁶ BPO & Call Centre Report 2007/08

7 BPO & Call Centre Report 2007/08, Multimedia Group, 2008

⁸ BPO & Call Centre Report 2007/08, Multimedia Group, 2008 p84

⁹ Ready to Compete, The Everest Group and Letsema Consulting, Department of Trade and Industry

Learnerships pay dividends!

by Ovation | Oct 6, 2011 | Blog, News

South African government incentives for broad-based black economic empowerment have encouraged companies to invest in skills development training for existing staff as well as new recruits. Companies that have the infrastructure and capital to fund customised skills training can apply for limited upfront cash grants and qualify for tax rebates once training is complete.

The Skills Development Act of 1999 laid the foundation for education and training to occur in a format that could be monitored and controlled by Government.

Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETA) were tasked with the responsibility to ensure that all training organisations complied with a set standard dictated by industry leaders. That, in turn, gave rise to learnership programmes comprising theoretical teaching plus practical on-the-job training that would culminate in a formal qualification over 12 to 18 months. This resulted in encouraging existing staff to strive for personal improvement, thereby promoting diligence, loyalty and commitment in the workplace as well as attracting new recruits.

Learnerships can be compared to apprenticeships, except that they are run with tighter controls and more stringent training timetables.

The call centre industry is one sector where learnership programmes have paid dividends. Companies implementing training to develop more efficient call centre staff have attracted highly motivated employees, grateful for the opportunity to study and work and thereby encouraged to deliver better results.

Staff members appreciate interest and investment from management and are motivated to work harder to meet targets, resolve customer complaints, improve service and even reduce company expenses.

Employees are only too happy to sacrifice their spare time when their studies are being financed, their career path is clear, and they are working towards a formal qualification. Studies have shown that one day of training equates to one month of prolonged retention. Staff turnover is therefore reduced, because employees feel that their needs are being met. The prospect of promotion and an accompanying salary increase post-qualification is another motivating factor.

Call centre employees who know their employers are investing in their future automatically engage better with customers. This has the knock-on effect of producing more effective service, pleasing customers and generating repeat business.

Learn more about on our SETA Accredited Programmes.