Competitive Benchmark Study:

Defining a World-Class
Customer Service Call
Center
Presented By:
Chris Scafario

Getting Started
Current State:
A manufacturer and global distributor of premium-quality
hardware for kitchen, coffee, washroom, beverage, and
foodservice systems, seeks to improve efficiencies and
operations within its regional customer service call center.

Getting Started
Current State:
The Company understands that effective customer service is
an important means of reinforcing brand equity. As a result this
work has been formatted to support and present an optimal call
center structure including:
Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
A move towards full transparency connecting call center
management in a clear chain of communication with the rest
of the organization as a whole.

Initial Findings.
A retail arrangement with Lowes fails to make use
of standard technology to streamline ordering .
No means of capturing, calculating, or
communicating Key Performance Indicators ( No
KPIs).
A lack of awareness of industry best practices to
guide performance improvement .
Nonexistent outgoing information flow from
customer service to the customers they support .

Initial Findings.
Need for Improved Organizational Communication.
Documentation that is not in an easily searchable
form.
Confusion as a result of product- and model
changes that are not communicated.
Unpredictable spare parts inventories.

Scope of Our Work.

In an effort to remedy these shortcomings, DVIRC has
collected:
A list of companies that are renowned for customer
service.
An overview of call center best practices.
Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Call Center Management Job Descriptions.
Division-Specific Recommendations.

Customer Service Superstars

L.L.Bean, the Freeport-Maine mailorder giant, has made service
excellence and product quality the
cornerstones of its operating
philosophy and strategy for almost
100 years.
In terms of product/service scope,
consider the fact that the company
offers more than 16,000 items, 200
of which it manufacturers itself.

Customer Service Superstars

L.L.Beans reputation for outstanding customer service is primarily
built upon its unlimited, no-questions-asked return policywhich
permits unlimited returns on all itemsand for its legendary
willingness to perpetually replace the rubber soles of its Maine
Hunting Shoe.

Customer Service Superstars

Customer loyalty is a primary concern for L.L.Bean. As such, call
center agents often engage in conversations that are not directly
sales-related.
- It is a way to identify clients needs, it is seen as an opportunity to
increase brand value. Despite this conversational approach (or
perhaps because of it), agents maintain low average order times.

Customer Service Superstars

L.L.Bean does the bulk of its sales over the phone. Due to this
fact, and because the business is largely seasonal, call volumes
can exceed 155,000/day during busy periods.
- In addition, with their heavy reliance on catalogs, (not to mention
customers tendency to save catalogs for years), the company
recently undertook an initiative to expand the functionality of their
order-taking software to support more complex inquiry calls.

Customer Service Superstars

The goal of the initiative was to reduce both the number of call
transfers, and the amount of training required to handle many of
these calls, while continuing to maintain traditionally high customer
service and employee satisfaction standards.
The result was a redesigned screen layout that focused on design,
HTML prototyping, task-based user testing, and reviews with expert
users, businesses, and technical team members.

Customer Service Superstars

The redesigned screens had a measurable impact on service, including:
Improved customer and employee satisfaction
A five-second reduction in average call time
A 37% reduction information queue requests
A more than 50% reduction in new-user training time
A 50% reduction in call center training costs

L.L.Bean also streamlined its call center by commissioning forecasting

models to predict incoming calls so that staffing schedules could be
produced farther in advance. The company expects to save $300,000 as
a result of the move.

Customer Service Superstars

L.L.Bean refers to the Customer Service function as their Customer
Satisfaction department, effectively underscoring the groups ultimate
goal. President Chris McCormick says that: "Superior customer
service has always been and always will be the cornerstone of our
brand. . .

Customer Service Superstars

The company serves customers with
knowledgeable employees who are highly
customer focused.
- Its a matter of quality over quantity.
Customer service agents are trained to spend
whatever time is necessary to make every
customer feel valued.
- Each service channel has been designed to
enable the companys guarantee of 100%
satisfaction.

Customer Service Superstars

The Customer Satisfaction department operates 24
hours a day,
365 days a year, out of three customer contact centers
in Maine.
- During the peak holiday season in 2009, L.L.Bean
employed
nearly 3,000 customer service representatives. The
size of their
customer satisfaction enterprise is considerably larger
than
the clients but there are lessons to be learned
from the way

Lessons From the Superstars

Use what you know to develop long-term
relationships.
- By making customer information easily accessible to
frontline service reps, L.L.Bean hopes to enable
personalized interactions with customers. Key
information elements include:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)

Past Purchases
Returns
Length of customer/vendor relationship
Past problems with products or services (if any)
Type(s) of catalogs received
Purchase channels (telephone, Internet, store, etc.)

Lessons From the Superstars

Technology can have a dramatic impact
- L.L.Bean undertook a simple screen redesign project.
The result will
help the company to realize significant benefits in
terms of cost savings, overall service impression, and
employee and customer satisfaction.
- The Client has a similar opportunity to leverage
technology to replace
outdated processes and possibly enjoy similar service
improvements.

Lessons From the Superstars

Every employee can affect your
companys brand.
We decided that we wanted to
build our brand to be about the
very best customer service and
the very best customer
experience.
We believe that customer service
shouldnt be just a department, it
should be the entire company.

Lessons From the Superstars

Zappos boasts 10 core values that
define
the company culture. They are as
follows:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Deliver WOW through service

Embrace and drive change
Create fun and a little weirdness
Be adventurous, creative, and open-minded
Pursue growth and learning
Build open and honest relationships with
communication
7. Build a positive team and family spirit
8. Do more with less
9. Be passionate and determined
10. Be humble

Lessons From the Superstars

Zappos views the phone experience as a branding
device and urges customers to call about nearly
everything. Their call center takes 5,000 calls per
day, and employees work independent of scripts,
quotas, or call time limits. The longest call to date
has been four hours.

Lessons From the Superstars

Zappos made a deliberate decision to redirect its marketing
budget towards delivering exceptional customer service with
a great company culture, in hopes that the move would help
the business to thrive where others had failed.
To that; every new hirespends four weeks handling calls as
a customer-service rep and one week in the Kentucky
warehouse before starting work.
Zappos is also one of the many call centers turning to cloud
computing technology and social media networking to
increase the amount and efficiency of interdepartmental
communication.

Lessons from the Superstars:

Go long
Zappos customer-service employees
are not encouraged to keep calls
short.
They are encouraged to essentially
take ownership of the call, spending
whatever time and effort are
necessary to ensure a positive
outcome.

Lessons from the Superstars:

The clients goal in the case of the
customer
service center is to create an
environment in
Which representatives are encouraged
to have
customer service conversations. Giving
these
interactions time to unfold will be a
key part of

Lessons from the Superstars:

Southwests customer
service department is
"proactive, with workers
taught to anticipate
dissatisfaction and act
preemptively.
Every passenger on a
significantly delayed flight,
for example, receives a
letter of apology. In severe
cases, they go so far as to
toss in coupons.
.

Lessons from the Superstars:

Integrating Technology..Southwest created a custom
graphical user interface, using Java Swing components, that
allows individuals to review every alert before it is sent out
and customize the message that will be fed into their Varolii
text-to-speech engine.
Southwest has chosen to inject a little human judgment into
the process.

Lessons from the Superstars:

Anticipate problems & act accordingly...
Southwests anticipation strategy extends
to an automatic call system that alerts
customers about cancellations and gate
changes.

Lessons from the Superstars:

To the client, late shipments are directly
analogous to Southwests delayed flights. Taking a
cue from the airline, we see that an excellent way
to resolve problems is to anticipate them and head
them off.
If the cleints customer service division can
coordinate with shipping, they will be able to first
identify shipments that will miss their due dates
and then react to that knowledge in the form of a
phone call (preferred) or email to the customer
alerting them to the delay.

Lessons from the Superstars:

West Chester, PA -based QVC was
recently recognized as a top-10
retailer for customer service.
With daily live broadcasts to 84
million households in the U.S. and
another 40+ million overseas,
nearly $4 billion in sales, 133 million
calls answered and 92 million
packages shipped in 2009, QVC is
very, very big business.

Lessons from the Superstars:

Communicate.Gary Ormont, QVC's vice
president of operations, says that the company
places high importance on fostering an
environment in which call center agents feel
comfortable with their coworkers.

Customer service is only as good as those who

deliver it, he says. We're really employeesensitive. Our people interact on a first-name
basis, and we have constant teamwork,
communication, and numerous roundtables and
forum meetings at which we discuss issues and
trends.

Lessons from the Superstars:

Just as important for the client is the matter of
communication between call center staff and corporate
managers.
Client call center representatives play a key role in forming
customers perceptions about the client, its brand promise,
and the status of the enterprise as a whole.
It is imperative that those charged with brand development
at Franke pay close attention to those on the front lines.

Lessons from the Superstars:

The cleint is a premium brand with prices that correspond
to that high level of quality. Management must take an
active role in educating customer service representatives in
the proper terminology, and the correct way of replying to
customers/guiding the conversations into areas that will
enable the agent to offer solutions.

Lessons from the Superstars:

Conclusions
The general lessons learned from these enterprises can have a
direct relevance to the clients stated goal of improving customer
service performance and leveraging that superior service in order to
provide high-end customer experiences and develop a stronger
brand identity.
In the following section, we will outline call center best practices and
show the specific ways that each can be used to move the clients
service offering to a point that more closely reflects the companys
premium product brand position.

Best of Best Practices

Best of Best Practices

e first step in the transformation to an efficient call center is to

derstand the best practices associated with its operation. They are:
A. Develop a customer access strategy
B. Employ targeted, strategic training
C. Measure the effectiveness of that training
D. Use call center reps as idea collectors and sales agents
E. Consider implementing a balanced scorecard
F.

Monitor social networking sites

G. Use call center agents to keep mailing/contact lists up-to-date

Best of Best Practices

A. Develop a customer access strategy A
tailored customer access strategy consists of a set of
standards or guidelines, and processes that define
the ways customers can access information.
Although these strategies can take many different
forms, most cover the following components:
Customer Segmentation:Summarize how current
customers and prospects are segmented (e.g., by
geography, demographics, volume of business, or
unique requirements) and how the client will serve
each segment.

Best of Best Practices

A. Develop a customer access strategy Although
these strategies can take many different forms, most
cover the following components:
Contact types:Anticipate and identify major types of
interactions that will occur, such as placing orders,
changing orders, answering inquiries, providing
technical support, etc. Each type of interaction should
be analyzed for opportunities to enhance customer
satisfaction and loyalty.

Best of Best Practices

A. Develop a customer access strategy Although
these strategies can take many different forms, most
cover the following components:
Hours of operation:Identify hours of operation,
outlining how they may vary for different contact
channels or customer segments. Decisions will be
driven by cost and service considerations defined in
the plan.
Service level: Summarize the organization's service
level (the percentage of calls answered within a
predetermined period of time, generally 80% in 30
seconds) and response time objectives.

Best of Best Practices

A. Develop a customer access strategy Although
these strategies can take many different forms, most
cover the following components:
People/technology resources required:This step marks
the transition from proper call/email/other request
routing to the deployment of agents and systems
needed for each customer segment and contact type.
Information required:Perhaps the most important part
of the plan, this segment outlines the customer and
product information that must be available to agents.

Best
of
Best
Practices
B. Employ targeted, strategic training Considering
the amount of visibility that call center agents have
with customers, it is critical that all agents be trained
properly in order to minimize the differences in
productivity between new and experienced
employees. Training will help agents to understand:
1. Their role within the business structure;
2. What their performance means to the organization as a
whole;
3. The ways they can contribute to sales and customer service
goals;
4. How their customer interactions help to deliver on the brand
promise;
5. What they are supposed to do; and
6. Why their job is important.

Best of Best Practices

C. Use call center reps as sales agents and idea
collectorsSome of the best product and service ideas
come from customers. Call center agents, have the most
direct contact with your customers and are ideally situated
to spot these innovative ideas.
Management also consider spending some time with the
staff of the call center. This tactic has a twofold benefit:
first, by putting senior staff in direct contact with customers
and call center agents, they will gain fist-hand, in-thetrenches knowledge of the ways this function operatesas
well as the ways it should not operate. Second, having
higher-ups working alongside the service representatives
will show the latter just how important their job is, and
possibly inspire them to better understand the ways they
serve the greater corporate goals.

Best of Best Practices

C. Use call center reps as sales agents and idea
collectors Management also consider spending some time
with the staff of the call center. This tactic has a twofold benefit:
First, by putting senior staff in direct contact with customers and
call center agents, they will gain fist-hand, in-the-trenches
knowledge of the ways this function operatesas well as the
ways it should not operate.
Second, having higher-ups working alongside the service
representatives will show the latter just how important their job
is, and possibly inspire them to better understand the ways they
serve the greater corporate goals.

Best of Best Practices

D. Capture customer feedbackYou must remember to
capture customer feedback through any channel that
customers can use to interact with your organization. With
this feedback captured, it should be passed along to those
who are in a position to act on it.
E. Monitor social networking sites.Considering the ease
with which dissatisfied customers can publicize their
experiences in the marketplace, it is a customer service best
practice to monitor complaints on social networking sites.
Whether or not those complaints are valid is largely irrelevant;
just as in the blogosphere, perception in the social networking
space is reality, and there are endless examples of companies
that have been embarrassedpublicly and virallyas a result
of poor customer service.

Best of Best Practices

F. Use call center agents to keep mailing/contact lists
up-to-dateIf the client plans to build a mailing list for the
distribution of eNewsletters or similar active communications, call
center agents are in an excellent position to capture phone and email
information, along with permission to send promotional emails.
This information can also be used to update customers on order delivery
status and push content regarding new products and services.

Best of Best Practices

G. Consider implementing a balanced scorecard In a
call center environment where a number of key performance
indicators are captured, it may be helpful to pursue the
Balanced Scorecard approach.
The balanced scorecard is a means helping managers focus on
those performance metrics that most directly lead to success.
Rather than measuring strictly financial outcomes, in this case
we will focus the human issues that drive successful customer
service outcomes as a means of improving brand identity.

Best of Best Practices

G. Consider implementing a balanced scorecard
1. Identify the Key Performance Indicators to be measured
2. Determine the weighting (expressed as a percentage) for
each KPI.
3. Establish the upper- and lower performance levels; these
may come from benchmarking of peer groups, similar
businesses, internal historic date, etc.
4. Collect internal call center data for each metric
5. Calculate the Metric Score: (worst case actual) / (worst
case best case) x 100
6. Calculate the Balanced Score: (Metric Score x Weighting)

Best of Best Practices

G. Consider implementing a balanced scorecard
Performance Range

Weighting

Best Case

Worst Case

Actual
Performance

Metric
Score

Balanced
Score

Service Level (% answered in 20 sec.)

30%

90%

65%

81%

64.0%

19.2%

First Call Resolution (%)

25%

80%

60%

63%

15.0%

3.8%

Abandon Rate (%)

15%

3%

10%

5%

71.4%

10.7%

Average Talk Time (seconds)

10%

180

360

255

58.3%

5.8%

After Call Work (seconds)

10%

180

360

345

63.9%

6.3%

Average Handle Time (seconds)

10%

360

720

600

33.3%

3.3%

Key Performance Indicator

Total

100%

49.1%

Best of Best Practices

G. Consider implementing a balanced scorecard

Best of Best Practices

Conclusion.

The specific best practices listed above hold a great deal of

promise for the client. As effective, proven means of structuring
the call center operation in a way that reflects the overall brand
promise, enables a premium customer experience, and outlines
ways that the call center operation can serve both businessand branding goals, these are each applicable to future
improvement efforts in the call center.

In the next section, we will learn more about the metrics

that will allow the client to measure performance in the
six areas that most effectively track performance in
critical areas.

Call Center KPIs

Effective Integration of Key Performance Indicators

(KPIs)Call center operations include a unique set of

activities that are defined by the responsibilities and
challenges associated with after-sales service related to
management, technology, and staffing.
By structuring a clear, frequent mechanism for measuring
relevant KPIs, the client will have a tracking tool that addresses
each of the important areas in the form of indicators, to which
you can assign upper- and lower target performance figures.

Call Center KPIs

Effective Integration of Key Performance Indicators
(KPIs) Gauging KPIS through s balanced score will enable
the client to continually:
1. Monitor call center efficiency
2. Track agent effectiveness;
3. Perform targeted performance-improvement training where
needed; and
4. Ensure that the call center performance is serving larger
corporate brand-development and business goals.

Call Center KPIs

Effective Integration of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
Although dozens of possible KPIs exist, DVIRC has identified six that
we believe will give the client a simple way to initiate a scoring
system that is simultaneously effective and uncomplicated.
Key Performance Indicator

Definition

Service Level (SLA) and

Average Speed of Answer (ASA)

Percentage of calls answered in a given period of time (typically 20 or 30 seconds)

First Call Resolution (FCR)

Percentage of calls resolved without the need for escalation

Abandon Rate/Customer Loss Rate

Number of calls that hang up before connecting to an agent

Average Talk Time (ATT)

Average amount of time agents spend talking to callers

After Call Work (ACW)

Average amount of time required to wrap-up call

Average Handle Time (AHT)

Sum of Average Talk Time and After Call Work

Call Center KPIs

Effective Integration of Key Performance Indicators

(KPIs) Although dozens of possible KPIs exist, DVIRC has

identified six that we believe will provide a simple way to
initiate a scoring system that is simultaneously effective and
uncomplicated.
1. Service Level and Average Speed of Answer (ASA)
Service level is usually defined as the percentage of calls
answered within a predetermined number of seconds. For
example, a Service Level target of 80/20 indicates that you seek
to answer 80% of all calls within 20 seconds (approximately 5-6
rings). Service Level is impacted (positively) by agents ability
to answer calls faster than the designated time limit.

Call Center KPIs

Effective Integration of Key Performance Indicators

(KPIs) Although dozens of possible KPIs exist, DVIRC has

identified six that we believe will provide a simple way to
initiate a scoring system that is simultaneously effective and
uncomplicated.
2. First Call Resolution.First Call Resolution (FCR) is a
relatively new metric. Expressed as a percentage, this is the
proportion of calls that are resolved without the need for either
escalation (sending the call to a more senior operator) or
callback. Note: Benchmark values for FCR will vary with the
complexity of calls handled.

Call Center KPIs

Effective Integration of Key Performance Indicators

(KPIs) Although dozens of possible KPIs exist, DVIRC has

identified six that we believe will provide a simple way to
initiate a scoring system that is simultaneously effective and
uncomplicated.
3. Abandon Rate (aka Customer Loss Rate)The
Abandon Rate, expressed as a percentage, is the number
of calls that hang up before connecting to an agent (not
including those calls that receive a busy signal).
4. Average Talk Time (ATT)
5. After Call Work (ACW)
6. Average Handle Time (AHT) (aka Resolve Time)

Effective Management Job Description

Suggestions

Call center managers, given their role on the leading

edge of customer communication and in-depth
product/service knowledge, have a unique position
within companies like the client.
With this blend of knowledge and market expertise, it is
important to leverage call center managers to filter trend data,
serve as a conduit for that information, and have a finger on the
pulse of relevant call center metrics. Furthermore, each of
these responsibilities must be guided by the clients stated aim
to develop a call center that promotes a positive brand identity
and enables superior call experiences.

Effective Management Job Description

Suggestions

Call center managers, given their role on the leading

edge of customer communication and in-depth
product/service knowledge, have a unique position
within companies such like the client.
With this blend of knowledge and market expertise, it is
important to leverage call center managers to filter trend data,
serve as a conduit for that information, and have a finger on the
pulse of relevant call center metrics. Furthermore, each of
these responsibilities must be guided by the clients stated aim
to develop a call center that promotes a positive brand identity
and enables superior call experiences.

Effective Management Job Description

Suggestions

Overarching Call Center Responsibilities.In the crush of

incoming calls, it is all too easy to either ignore the

management best practices that will drive the call center to
succeed, or collect data without circulating the findings.
In many cases, companies believe that their customer service is
better than it really is. A recent survey by Bain & Company,
which included the customers of 362 companies, yielded some
startling results. While 80% of the customer surveyed described
their customer service as superior, just 8% of customers
agreed with them.

Effective Management Job Description

Suggestions

Overarching Call Center Responsibilities.Clearly, call

center performance is not something that a company can

hope to assess objectively without a champion to drive the
various processes within the department. The following
primary responsibilities should fall to the center manager:

1) Managing center staffing and personnel issues;

2) Collecting and analyzing balanced scorecard data;
3) Gathering and reporting on product damage/failure rates;
4) Coordinating staff education and training;
5) Developing and implementing cross-department
communication; and
6) Evaluating and recommending software additions/upgrades
for more
effective call center operation.

Effective Management Job Description

Suggestions

1) Staffing and Personnel ResponsibilitiesThese duties

include the standard managerial roles as defined by the
clients senior management.
2) Scorecard Responsibilities...
-Establishing metrics to be included in the scorecard;
-Determining the weighted importance of each metric;
-Benchmarking the selected metrics against a standard
determined by Franke;
-Tracking actual performance;
-Calculating the Metric- and Balanced scores; and
-Communicating the resulting performance figures to the
appropriate parties.

Effective Management Job Description

Suggestions

3) Gathering/Reporting on Product FailuresThe manager

should be charged with the collection of data on product
failures.

4) Coordinate Staff TrainingThe managers primary

responsibility with regard to training will be to assess and rank
team members in order to facilitate effective training (see page
19 re: Independents, Strivers, etc.)
5) Develop/Implement Cross-Departmental
Communication
As a back-end portion of the product failure role, the manager
should convene regular meetings with call center staff (to
educate them on products, revisions, engineering changes, etc.),
and engineering/technical support in order to coordinate regular
updates of the product drawings, parts lists, bills of materials,
etc. used by the call center agents.

Effective Management Job Description

Suggestions

6) Recommend Software Upgrades/Additions The

center managers day-to-day familiarity with the challenges and
opportunities that exist within various call center departments
make them the most logical choice to: a) determine whether or
not additional software is needed, b) weigh the options
available, and c) make a recommendation regarding the
purchase of new software. - Please Refer to Supporting List

Closing Recommendations

The Luxury Division.

The Clients luxury support divisionthe department that has
potentially the most to lose through subpar customer support
and interactionhas a number of responsibilities that can be
improved by a bit of automation.

With representatives from this department taking ownership of

orders from their entry point and manually guiding them through
the confirmation of customer status, bill to-, ship-to, and other
required information, price, order release, and return of order
acknowledgement, a number of opportunities to automate
become apparent.

Closing Recommendations

The Luxury Division.

Concern: Handwritten order notes can be inconsistent.
Recommendation: Create a shared database to enable direct
entry. Team with retail customer support to brainstorm a list of
possible comments that apply to various aspects of the order.
Program these as drop-down menu choices in order to
standardize the options available.

Closing Recommendations

The Luxury Division.

Concern: Agents must compare customer names to a manual
lookup table in order to identify/confirm direct customers.
Recommendation: A searchable, network-accessible table with a list
of all direct customers will dramatically reduce the amount of time
required for this step. Note: In order to preserve the integrity of the list
while still allowing regular updates, management must coordinate with
luxury customer service management to determine appropriate
permissions for write-access to the file.

Closing Recommendations

The Luxury Division.

Concern: Corporate sales forms lack email addresses
Recommendation: Include email addresses as a required
information field on new order forms. Instruct agents to ask
customers for both email addresses (in order to notify them of
changes in delivery status) and permission to include the
customer on an eNewsletter list.

Closing Recommendations

The Luxury Division.

Concern: Manual commission code lookups add unnecessary
time to After Call Work.
Recommendation: Delegate offline lookups to an
intern/administrative assistant-level employee who can aid
multiple customer service representatives at one time, avoiding
the need for CSRs to break focus and move (physically and
psychologically) from the phone bank.

Closing Recommendations

The Luxury Division.

Concern: Customer service representatives are being asked to
make shipping payment decisions (prepaid vs. collect).
Recommendation: A simple matrix of allowable freight
charges (differentiated by product type and/or model) will allow
CSRs to make informed decisions. This approach will also give
an opportunity to control shipping-associated costs. Note: This
solution will also benefit the tech. support and retail/customer
support departments.

Closing Recommendations

The Luxury Division.

Concern: The online faucet ordering function does not list all
models currently for sale.
Recommendation: The Client should include a marketing/web
development representative as part of cross-departmental
meetings. As new models are brought online and/or removed
from the product roster, marketing should be coordinating with
the internal (or third-party) web development team to make
sure the site does not offer faucets that are no longer for sale,
and vice versa.

Closing Recommendations

Technical Support.
The Clients Technical Support group handles warranty issues
(including lifetime warranty support for some of the companys
luxury items). In this role, they confirm that inbound calls should
be handled by tech. support, answer questions, provide parts as
necessary, and talk customers through the repair/replacement
processes.
Technical support call center agents struggle with a lack of
communication between product design/marketing departments,
as product changes and new specs are not always explained
adequately to those who are expected to support those products.
The resulting miscommunication manifests through confusion
regarding parts availability, and a lack of inventory from which to
replace/repair existing models.

Closing Recommendations

Technical Support.
Concern: A recent vendor switch resulted in supply shortages for
many spare parts. Technical support sometimes has no choice
but to a) disassemble faucets from inventory supply and send
parts to customers, or b) replace whole faucets because spares
are not available.

Recommendation: The Client was ill-advised to switch vendors

without a contingency plan for either stocking sufficient spares or
maintaining a supply chain for parts to service product in the
field. In a competitive environmentparticularly one in which
the client needs to maintain a brand image that is in alignment
with its price point.

Closing Recommendations

Technical Support.
Concern: Paper-based change documentationcollected in
binders onlyis frequently incorrect; product family-based
troubleshooting procedures should be available online

Recommendation: Create an interactive, searchable, online

document library to replace hard copies. Documents should be:
a) verified as correct by engineering prior to publication, b)
subject to strict document control practices, c) labeled with part
numbers and descriptions, and d) offer users the ability to view
parts with mouse-over.

Closing Recommendations

Technical Support.
Concern: Replacement parts and drawings are not
available/CSRs are not aware of new products prior to launch.

Recommendation: Regular meetings between call center staff

and engineering/product development should include every effort
to make new documentation available (in a searchable, .pdf or
other online format) at the time of product launch.

Closing Recommendations

Technical Support.
Concern: Product manuals and parts trends are available in
printed format only (see binder comment above), not
searchable/trackable online.

Recommendation: DVIRC recommends that the responsibility

for gathering/tracking and reporting part failures, tech support
trends, etc. fall under the job description of the call center
manager. By collecting this raw data in a network-accessible
spreadsheet (or other means), the data will become readily
available to those with read access to the file.

Closing Recommendations

Technical Support.
Concern: Delivery delays are not proactively communicated to
customers.

Recommendation: This concern in particular runs counter to

efforts to enhance the brand identity and build a culture of worldclass service and support. As discussed in the Luxury Division
recommendations, an opportunity exists to task an administrative
assistant-level employee with the responsibility to gather
shipment date changes (whether querying an online database or
communicating offline with shipping) and distribute that
information to CSRs who can update customers accordingly.

Closing Recommendations

Retail Customer Support

In addition to routine EDI order handling for non-Lowes retail
orders, the Retail/Customer Support Division is responsible for
handling incoming Lowes Link orders (as many as 200 on
Mondays). This task includes printing new orders and
cancellations, checking stock to confirm/correct delivery dates,
entering, printing, and acknowledging orders, and fielding calls
from Lowes associates regarding tracking information.

Closing Recommendations

Additional Recommendations:
Despite the fact that the retail/customer service, luxury, and
technical support call centers are separate entities, they should
strive to work as a team across locations, they should hold
regular cross-team summits in order to share best practices and
encourage the sharing of ideas. This will be especially helpful
once the marketing survey initiative is underway; as the
individuals with actual phone contact with customers, call center
agents will have unique perspective on the issues. They may be
able to shed additional light on the data collected by the surveys.

Closing Recommendations

Additional Recommendations:
Avoid excessive printing; as a matter of policy, CSRs should be
instructed to print only those orders that require a signature to
confirm prepaid shipping or other special exceptions. Order
acknowledgements should be sent by email whenever possible.

Closing Recommendations

Additional Recommendations:
Avoid excessive printing; as a matter of policy, CSRs should be
instructed to print only those orders that require a signature to
confirm prepaid shipping or other special exceptions. Order
acknowledgements should be sent by email whenever possible.

Thank You

THE END