I recently spoke at the BPO India Forum event on the topic of Workforce productivity & the role of services workforce in BPOs in driving end consumer experience. I have suggested an approach for organizations to achieve significant improvements in service delivery while keeping costs constant, thereby allowing the BPO to achieve non-linear growth.

1. Transforming the Services
Workforce
Deriving maximum returns from the biggest cost heads of
Customer Service
Najmuddin Jabalpurwala
Note:
Any re-production or re-use of any of the frameworks/models mentioned in this document must be done only after prior
approval from the author

2. Contents
 A brief history of Indian BPOs & the evolution of Workforce
practices
 Impact of Customer Service on overall Customer Experience
 Issues in managing workforce productivity to derive maximum
throughput
 Workforce as a catalyst to drive better Customer Experiences
 Role of I.T. in improving workforce related processes

3. The evolution of Indian BPOs & their
Workforce practices
• Large/Stand • Multiple Client • Process • Customized
• Process Focus
Alone model processes Excellence Offerings
• Move Off-shore
• Basic Care / • Focus on Back- • Entire Front & • Analytics driven
• Global Delivery
Telemarketing Office Back-Office insights
Late Early Mid Current
The Future:
90’s: 2000’s: 2000’s: Scene:
True
Market Move OPEX is Insights
“On-Demand”
Frenzy OffShore KING & Value
• Frenzied Staff • Quality • Schedule Mgt. • Increased • Optimized
Hiring Monitoring • Multi-Skilling focus on Costs Workforce
• Focus on inc. • Focus on SL • Capacity • Focus on • Standardized
Capacity only management Planning Productivity KPIs across levels

4. Outsourcing Service Providers going
up the Value Chain
• Analytics &
Research Value Chain
• KPOs TRANSFORMATIONAL
• CRM Competitive Advantage
“Make Me Money”
• F&A
• Healthcare
ENHANCEMENTS
• Legal Effectiveness-Focused
“Make It Better”
• Data Entry
• Payroll/HR
UTILITY
• Basic Customer Efficiency-Focused
Care (Voice) “Make It Cheaper”

5. What consumers expect from their
interactions with the organization…
Accessibility Speed
Quality of Service Knowledgeable Staff

6. Managing the disconnect between
Clients & BPOs
What BPO’s
What Client’s demand… deliver…
• Progressively reducing
• Seamless End-Customer Handle Times
satisfaction
• Inadequate visibility of
• End-to-end process operational metrics
handling
• Limited visibility of customer
• Lower Costs interactions across
channels
• Flexible business models
• Inconsistent staff knowledge
• Strict SLA adherence & across different product
reporting types
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All rights reserved.

7. The role of the Services Workforce in
delivering Customer Experience
Contact Volume Service Sales Marketing
100%
90%
80%
Customer Experience
70% across lifecycle stages
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Search/Explore Select/Buy Use & Pay Support Re-purchase
Customer Lifecycle
stages
The Services Workforce plays a Invest in improving the Frontline
crucial role in shaping customer Workforce to deliver better
experiences across the Customer Experiences!
7 lifecycle… ©2012 Aspect Software, Inc.
All rights reserved.

8. Transforming the Workforce to
achieve Differentiation
HIGH
Basic Customer Differentiated
Care Processes Service
Experience 1 Modify Employee /
Process behavior
1 4
2 Prioritize Agent
Ability to Deliver
Capability/Skill
alignment
Complex
End to End
Business
Customer
3 Invest in process
Processes improvement initiatives
lifecycle
Management
2 3
4 Ensure sustainability of
customer centric culture
LOW
LOW Increase in Customer’s Experience HIGH
8 ©2012 Aspect Software, Inc.
All rights reserved.

9. Productivity is understood &
measured differently across the
hierarchy
CENTER • Overall Costs of Operations
HEAD
• Conforming to SLA target values
• Aggregated values of team leaders
TEAM
• Staff Attrition
MANAGER
• Process Compliance
TEAM • Aggregated values of agents in the team
LEAD
• Escalations handled / Agent Coaching time
• Average Talk Time (Voice based)
AGENT • No set definition (Non Voice)
• Training time
9 ©2012 Aspect Software, Inc.
All rights reserved.

10. Path to better Customer Experience
along with your Workforce
Initiatives to drive Measurable Increase Observe tangible
Efficiency in in Workforce improvement in
Operations Productivity Customer Experience
Undertake Efficiency improvement Continuously monitor progress & Enable the Workforce to improve
projects across functions take corrective actions the customer’s experience
▲ First Call Resolution ▲ Productivity ▲ Employee Satisfaction
▲ Quality ▲ Coaching Effectiveness ▲ Customer Satisfaction
▼ Cost to Hire ▲ Process Efficiency ▲ Issue Resolution
▼ Time to Proficiency ▼ Cost per transaction ▼ Fewer, but customer-
centric KPIs
▼ Average Handle Time ▼ Reduced cross-channel
process redundancy ▼ Number of Silos for
information availability
PEOPLE
PROCESS
TECHNOLOGY
10
©2012 Aspect Software, Inc. All

11. Information can be leveraged to drive
improvement
CFO VP.Ops CC Mgr Team Ldr Agents
Margin/P&L Performance Exceptions Commissions
3 Inform and alert across the operation
2 Analyze across complex
business dimensions
4 Act and improve
in a closed loop
MEASURE CORRELATE AGGREGATE REVIEW COACH
UPSELL WITH By Group
By agent Hold time By Supervisor
By prod line Handle time By Location
By vendor Res time By Month
Answer speed By Quarter
By QOS PLAN TRAINING
Customer-centric Cost-centric
Information Information
1 Quality CRM ERP ACD IVR WFM
Unify all relevant information
©2012 Aspect Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

12. Key Take-away: The F.A.S.T Approach
 Focus on Productivity at process / business unit level instead of just at
associate’s level.
 Analyze on complex workforce dimensions ranging across workforce
lifecycle stages
 Standardize Service Workforce related processes across front-line
(voice) and back-office (non-voice) to maximize productivity & achieve
cost optimization.
 Transform the Service Workforce from being a cost liability to a
revenue contributing asset.
12 ©2012 Aspect Software, Inc.
All rights reserved.