How Balanced Scorecards Drive Contact Centre Results to the Next Level

A major national telecommunications company implemented an integrated performance management process across its ten contact centres, which collectively manage thousands of agents, to deliver over 10% up-lift in performance as well as improved staff retention.

Everybody running a contact centre knows it is essential to have a clear idea of how their team is performing, and to be able to constantly improve. Most companies have performance action plans in place to do just that. What many companies don’t have is the ability to measure accurately what benefit their action plans are really having on their front-line employees.

Before the implementation of Compas™, this major telecommunications company used an in-house scorecard system that had significant manual processes, which made it labor-intensive and untimely. Their VP of Customer Care knew it was time to implement a better system. His primary objectives were:

• Ensure the front line is aligned with the company’s strategy;
• Leverage the incredible power and reach of the contact centre throughout the organization;
• Drive accountability and focus of agents/associations and contact centre managers;
• Ensure the thousands of agents/associates feel connected to the company and its mission.

In order to accomplish these goals, the company needed a better way to clearly define individual and team success, in order to encourage individual ownership and accountability. This would enable clear, objective and equitable performance assessment.

In Phase I, they implemented Compas Balanced Performance Scorecards to help achieve the contact centre goals. In particular, they chose a Balanced Scorecard approach because it reinforced basic performance management principles and the three “rights” of any employee in their organization. That is, the right to:

1. Know what is expected of me
2. Know how I am doing against expectations
3. Know what I need to do to

Compas Balanced Performance Scorecards enabled the company to provide common objectives across the organization and create linkages at all levels, so that everyone could constantly work towards the same goals. In the first twelve months since their customer care organization implemented Compas Balanced Scorecards, the organization was able to deliver significant operational improvements, which included:

• Average Handle Time (AHT) decrease of 16 seconds
• Sales per Call increase of 12% (year over year basis)
• First Call Resolution (FCR) reduced from 1.7 to 1.55 calls – for which the organization received industry recognition as “most improved FCR” in North America
• Cost per subscriber decreased just under 5% per annum
• An increase in employee satisfaction of 3%

Phase II included the implementation of Real-time Dashboards, the Knowledge & Skills coaching platform, and the Annual Performance Evaluator. By providing actionable intelligence, a solid coaching interaction platform, an easily accessed knowledge & skills repository, and an employee performance evaluation facility, the Compas system has been instrumental in creating a more proactive and informed performance coaching culture.

For more on the implementation and outcomes of Phase II see the Contact Management Magazine article ‘Developing Leadership Skills’.

For more details, download the full LimeBridge report ‘Rogers Communications Case Study: How to Use Integrated Performance Management to Drive Performance in Contact Centres’.