Hi All,  

I'm going to lead a project on reducing fatal/critical errors while taking inbound customer calls (BPO). I intend to identify the root causes for fatal errors and plug it thru various process changes. I'm sure many of us would've done project on similar objective..it'll be great if you can share your insight. It'll be  great help in my project......

agent error, technical failures, customer not cooperative are few reasons.

in agent error there are scenarios where deliberate action and action due to lack of latest floor updates could lead to fatal.

 

Hi,

 

As correctly mentioned the fatal error could be due to tech issues, no updates on the floor, ack on agents interest while taking call, a times it is also observed that the fatal error percent increses with the tenurity of the agent on the floor. Thr cld be a slab of tenured agents let us say between 6 monts to 1 yr who do max fatals.

CE's majorly occur,lack of product updates to all the agents on the floor,Data updation,Call tagging,application downtime,CRM updation,giving false promises(Specially in Sales calls),no attention of the agent,control and conscious of agents mind on a call,lack of interest by the agents,Identifying the majority of CE takers and anlysing their call handling and giving feedback on regular intervals and giving training sessions on CE's on point to point basis,explainaing them the importance of Zero CE's and how it effects individual and leads to customer dissatisfaction.

Well, going by the Deming view of the process being majorly reponsible for defects...

The agent's job is to follow instructions - no matter how much you stress on the fact that he has been given the freedom and the training to take judgement based decissions. His core job is not to foresee the possibility of errors at the root level. If we think regular floor updates, audits, refresher sessions 'must' eliminate errors, we are living in a utopian world.Let's not even talk about how agents 'should' involve themselves at work.

1. When you list your errors and rate them in terms of impact - money wise, CSAT wise, SLA wise... (I understand all are fatal, but there is some grade to each) - start implementing system controls which force the user to check on the details but also has an overide function (like Change price plan) .

2. Before you create a process flow for any call driver, foresee possible fatal errors and implement temporary floor control - agent should summon a floor walker etc. 

3. Again, the most ffective method : monitor & feedback. All processes have an initial period when familiarity is low. At the end of every day - allot a team of back office people, to pick up SOs, cases for the particular call type - for eye-balling. (Of course, some errors will never be caught due to incorrect case types etc.). Have any incorrect process followed like wrong case types, order dates, incorrect info flagged off as a report to be discussed in review meets. If you drive this carefully for the first  month and new hire batches - 95% of your work is done.

Last but not the least, I am sure your organisation has this kind of structure... but implementation is the key to any solution.

 

Regards

S.

In inbound calls it very important that agent first understand customers issue, paraphrase it so mbr will know if agent understood his issue, select correct casebase to follow the correct call flow structure, ack to customers comments, if agent is not aware of the issue its important that he do not misguide the cusyomer but place mbr on hold and get the correct information from the supervisor.

Hi,

First analyze the FE report, drill down the FE's into Agent failure, Process failure. Now take the agent failure and drill down them whether its due to carelessness or knowledge issues. carelessness reduced with effective feedback and monitoring. knowledge issues can be reduced by either u coaching them or with help of the ops/training team.

 

Regards,

Srinivas

 

Hi Sree & others,

                 I was having a look at the interaction on the topic raised by Sree which was quite informative. Coming back to the question raised, one firstly needs to clearly understand & define ‘Fatal error', irrespective of classifying it under various heads (CSAT, monetary, etc) from a business stand point & grading them subsequently in terms of impact on the business. A Fatal error can be broadly defined as an error which decides the fatality of the existing business in the event of it's occurrence (a contingency). I presume that you have sought feedback on your question for a voice process.

               From a BPO/call center perspective, the commission of such a FE can happen only at an agent's (those who deal directly with customers on phone for a voice process) end (whether we attribute it to agent failure, process failure or technical failure) & not anybody else as the customer relates only with the agent on phone, irrespective of the controls that are in place. With this in mind (I am slightly digressing away from the main topic here to explain my point), a team leader or Ops Manager needs to understand that he/she had been an agent (unless reasonably qualified & / or talented to deserve a high position or held a similar position in another (non BPO) industry) at some point of time in his/her career (in BPO)  before becoming a team leader or manager, & thus should be in a better position to understand & appreciate the agent's job in contributing to the fatality factor rather than adopting an authoritarian stand towards them (agent), as was opined by one of the earlier respondents. This para clearly shows the role of an agent to be critical from a fatality or fatal error stand point.

              Fatal errors are generally always well defined (by the client) for any BPO (voice) process & are normally minimal in numbers. When one talks about forseeing fatal errors in such a scenario, one is only trying to define the occurrence of new errors, which may be almost neglible, unless additionally defined by the client or if the process is newly acquired or commenced, with no clear guidelines defining it (fatal error). Visualisation or foresight  of fatal errors specifically refers to envisaging the situations where an agent can commit  the fatal error (which has already been defined) more than trying to visualize the error itself. Definition of the fatal error has to be from the Customer's (client) view point keeping our business interests in mind, applying logic & common sense, unless our perspective on the same is sought by the client (or any other party concerned).

            It is ofcourse, without doubt the agents job to follow instructions given & deliver or try to deliver to the best of what is expected (KPIs). This endeavour of their's needs to be  strengthened by cultivating a receptive attitude towards their job feedback, thus making them feel valued for the job they are doing, so that your efforts are appreciated by them & to get their future co-operation as well. Further more,

1)  Motivational factors. Viz., rewards / recognition, social interactions through outings,  special allowances (per provision from the HR), etc.  

2)  Meaningful (more than routine) training involving the agents to share their experiences & making it a mutually interactive session. Teacher - Student barrier should not exist between the trainer & trainee. Body language & attitude of the trainer should convey his/her effort towards helping in mutual growth by learning & improving together.

3) Other support functions like periodic announcements with handouts & post its whenever necessary, call monitoring & feedback given in a proper way, deputing a floor walker who is an experienced & knowledgable agent for assistance, having sufficient technical staff at hand for trouble shooting, etc.

4) periodic mgt review, along with an agents representative, of the problems encountered by agents on calls, etc.

The above factors play a major role in substantially minimizing (if not plugging) the possibility of occurrence of Fatal errors.

          Occurrence of fatal errors can have far reaching consequences of grave magnitude on present & future business, which can make it difficult for time & human repair for long. So, having a happy, well informed & good team will solve most  of your problems than having a rigid system to check on it. This is no rocket science but simply human technology. Your object should be prevention of Fatal errors before occurrence & not their detection post occurrence & then finding ways to plug them.

           At the end of the day, you need to bear in mind that an agent being the backbone for a voice process in a BPO can commit a fatal error either deliberately or inadvertently. Your job is to forsee the reasons for these & design a system to control & subsequently arrest them. A call center/BPO agent's job is generally perceived to be monotonous & draining . So, bringing about a turnaround of this attitude in the agent is important  rather than adding to the agent's woes by being rigid & dictative, which is unfortunately a common trait among most BPO Team leaders & Managers. Ofcourse limits need to be set & conveyed, crossing which (by agents) will warrant punitive & disciplinary action. Even if one (manager) is able to achieve success by practicing high-handedness, it would be a myopic view in the long run & the person is actually redrawing the battle lines for worse in an industry (BPO) which is already plagued by high attrition rate & related exodus.  If one still chooses to be autocratic in his/her way of functioning to get things done, then that person needs to have a serious relook at his/her own professional life, living in a democratic country (India) more than 60 years post independence. It is as good as fighting a lost battle.

Sorry for the long response.

Thnx & rgds.

 

hi,

thanks everyone for your suggestions.....especially Manian as your insight is very interesting and thought provoking....well i thought to just update you all on progrees on  my project...

i've identified the key reasons for fatal errors..did paretto on CSR's, tls, departments, teh fatal errors... f...then went about doing a brainstorming session to plug the areas....so i'm looking here at two aspects one is the behaviour & second the process...For behaviour we designed a performance development plan...and for process..we have come up with a crisp action plan targeting the three most reasons impacting customer experience......

as Manian mentioned earlier...the focus is on strengthening process which will thereon minimise the possibility of human error...many of the activity which i've planned along with is to keep the CSR's Motivated and improve their awareness on fatal errors.....

I have a slightly different opinion on the Fatal's or any defects. The Defects are caused becuase the system allows the same or the process allows teh same. The processes/technology shoudl be in such a way that it shoudl be IDIOT Proof. In the past I have observed that the simpler way to pass on the buck is blame on the CSR, but people forget that CSR's are trained by us and they have a different presuure to perform keeping in mind the multiple updates that they get from multiple depts. If You want First Time Right, then design the systems are processes around that. Have you ever met a person in a feedback who says that he has intentionally made a mistake. Just Imagine if the same would have been thought in an airline industry, every error would be bifurcated in people and systems, we would have more people error then system. Coming back, it sounds good to put people in a Performance Improvement Plan however remember until yuor proceses and systems are not up to the mark, these fatals will always occur.

Hi All,

Why fatal error. I think the reasons for fatal error is not only the internal factors. The more important thing is updating and berifing about the process, and giving additional time to anylizing things and taking effictive action is required. How you put accross to you Reps, How you make the impact to keep you things up to mark is the most important. For the same Time structuring is very important.

 

Hi Sreejit,

Now I am about to start the same project on this topic would appreciate if you could help me and guide me for this.

Regards,

Ajeet

 

 

Hello Everyone.

I found this a valuable link on this website. Read the story of relevance, innovativeness and simplicity of Six Sigma methodology from its learners and followers across various domains in BPOs and KPOs. The pioneers of Six Sigma tools in ITES speak of its utility with common six Sigma projects in BPO. To read their direct comments and feedbacks, click here.

Or you may paste the following link in your browser:

http://forum.benchmarksixsigma.com/topic/1101-bpoites/

Warm regards

AbhishekM

Hi,

As per my experience with Fatal Error reduction program, start with the identification of the parameter at which the CSR being marked down,it may be the soft skill parameters like rudeness on the call,not empathizing the customer,attentiveness,willingness missing on the calls,language mismatch,parallel talking during customer engagement or it may be related to the wrong or incomplete product information.

To reduce fatals on Soft skills-TNA can be done,training can be aligned ,one on one feedbacks can be given,pre and post analysis can be done.

To reduce fatals on product knowledge : Reason of fatal on product knowledge may vary. It is possible knowledge tools are not updated and CSR provided wrong information. CSR not updated with latest updates, there may be a technology failure or knowledge tools not get opened while CSR tried to open that for providing information to the customer. CSR coming office after a gap but not taken the refresher training.

Apart from this there may be other reasons as AHT pressure to wrap the call, montonous routine,Earn more talk more type schemes where CSR more inclined towards the Quantity of the calls rather than call Quality.Floor support may be missing to solve the Queries during peak hours, and technical failures.

Hi Sree,

with reg to Fatal Error / critical error reduction.

Point # 1 : we can ask our quality team to call the individual associate on there avaya and perform a surprise process check, this way it will help us to reduce the fatal error / critical error and to indentify who is not upto date on the process or product.

Point # 2 : to avoid the fatal error in future we should make a model in the training period we should teach them what are the fatal error and how will it affect the business or the repetation of the client.

Senario based process test for the new hires, call auditioning to be done by new hires for the good calls and bad calls . this way there is an opportunity for the new hires to avoid the same mistake on the call which will lead to reduction on fatal error or critical error.

Point # 3 : also to aviod this we can create a software (Depends upon the company).

we should create a drill down tree or a decision tree for the calls handled by the associate or calls made by the associate

step by step for all the calls handled by the associate were he can document the same in the drill down tree or a decision tree and copy paste the same in the CRM this way the FE will reduce and agent will also not missed any of the process.

Point # 4 : Week Quiz to be conducted by the Team Manager or the OPS Manager or by the quality team on the process & product updated, for 30 min in a week or 45 mins. when we do this it benefits for the Associates and the manager they know who is capable of what and we can identify and give more roles and responsibility for the associate this way retention & access to manager will be good. it will be WIN WIN Senario

Point # 5 : When an assocaite made any fatal error or critical error on call. are we giving the feedback on the same day for the fatal error?. we should also identify the agent controllable and no controlable of the fatal errors. based on that we should give feedback to the associates. also when we provide feedback we should identify what is the problem for associate and try to close this issue if it official.

please do let me know if you have some more on the fatal error or critical error reduction

Regards

KS

Hi,

If the project champion is aware of FMEA ,RACI and Voice of the customer .and its SIPOC control chart is good then no need of going for all kind of root cause analysis .

thanks and regards

Madan