A Process Improvement Project was done by my group for improving the process of handling Customer Relations and customer care support for PABIT Solutions Inc.

1. PABIT Solutions Inc.
Introduction to Process Improvement- Part II
MGS 618 – Advanced Process Analysis
Chhaya Bodhale
Komal Tirmal
Shubham Garg
Shruti Narkhede
Priyadarsini Kannan Krishnamachariar
05/14/2017

2. DEFINE
26/8/2017

3. Project Outline
3
 Company Introduction:
BAPIT solutions is company whose net worth is $10 million per
year. Chair of the CEO is held by Pamela Anne Bronkowski.
Company has 5 centers for company operations across USA, out of
which 2 have all departments including product development, sales
and marketing, software engineering, accounting and shipping etc.
The company also has 3 are call centers for operations like
customer sales, Onboarding, customer servicing and customer
complaints. Location of the sites is as follows:
 Buffalo, NY – Call center and all departments
 Tucson, AZ – Call Center
 Honolulu, HI – Call center
 Cleveland, OH – All departments
6/8/2017

4. Project Outline(Contd…)
4
 What has been going right
 CEO has target set to expand the sales by 10% for each of the
next 5 years and plans to take loan from USABanco.
 Talented resources with subject matter expert knowledge
 Company is expanding with multiple centers all over the USA.
Business expansion plan is under process.
 Work schedule is properly managed as per predicted call
volume for the particular week
 What gives cause for concern
 Customer dissatisfaction with customer service and
onboarding process.
 Increase in customer abandonment rate
 There is increase in the call hold time for customer which is
one of the reasons for customer dissatisfaction.
 Employees unwilling to scrutinize and accept problems in their
domain knowledge
6/8/2017

5. Project Scope Document
5
Problem Statement
1. The customer abandonment
rate is almost double from
2012 to 2013
2. This is a severe problem with
high scale as it will directly
affect the reputation and
business growth.
3. Customer survey and data
sheet give clear idea about
drastic variation in numbers
related to root cause for
customer umber decline.
4. Customer onboarding
process is not streamlined
and efficient.
5. Customer data related
documentation is not
maintained properly
6. Losses in terms of reduced
customer number, employee
inefficiency is huge.
Project Boundaries
• Process Starts with: Customer
registers with BAPIT Solutions
for a software product and
services by filling out number of
online forms through company
website.
• Process Ends with:
Confirmation of customer
onboarding by receiving a mail
with credentials.
In Scope:
• Turn around
time reduction
• Hold time
reduction
• Customer
(online and
hotline)
abandonment
• Reduction in
Operational
expenses
Out of Scope:
• Product
promotion
and analysis
• Increase in
sales using
process
improvement
procedures.
Goal Statement
1. To shrink the rate of
customer withdrawing
from onboarding
process to 7% or less
for next 9 months.
2. To decrease the turn
around time to 2 days
3. To have hold time for
customers to be less
than 40 seconds
4. To reduce operational
expenses through
innovative approaches.

6. Project Scope Document (Contd…)
6/8/2017 6
Preliminary Timeline
Project Activities Time/ Date
Define: Project Pre-work, Project Scope, 1-2 Weeks
Measure: SIPOC
Value Stream Mapping
1 Weeks
Measure: Baseline Data Time, Cost,
Quality and Volume
1 Weeks
(concurrent)
Analyze: Root Cause Identified 2 Weeks
Improve: Solutions Selected 2 Weeks
Improve: Cost/Benefits Case 1-2 Weeks
Improve: Implementation Plan Drafted 2 Weeks
Control: Benefits Reporting Started,
Control Plan
2 Weeks
Project Team
Process
Support
Project
Lead
Joe
Smith
Champion Rupert
Fries
Process
Owner
Pamela
Anne
Bronkowski
MBB/
coach
Julie
Mcgonagle
Business
Experts
Team
Member
Shubham
Garg
Team
Member
Priya
Ragavan
Team
Member
Akshaya
Jagan
Team
Membe
r
Chhaya
Bodhale
Project
Support
Team
Member
Komal
Tirmal
Compliance
/Legal
Liam H
Johnson
IT Kritika Khot Financ
e
Sangram
Wankhede
Benefits
Quantitative Qualitative
Reducing customer hold
time to less than 1 min
Decrease in % hold time
Decrease in manual
handoffs
Increase in efficiency
Reduce staff overtime and
paper cost
Employee satisfaction
Decrease avg turn around
time to less than 6 days
Improve % FTE utilization.

7. SIPOC
76/8/2017
S
Supplier
I
Input
P
Process
O
Output
C
Customer
Customer Incoming call Collect customer
Info via IVR
/manually by
customer care
executive
Customer
Information
gathered
Reasons for
abandonment
System Outbound call
queue
Customer call
back process
Information
gathered
Screenshot
capturing
systems
Customer data
captured
Data to be
entered into the
system
Data entry task
by Customer
care executive
Welcome Email
sent
Customer
Onboarding
system
Customer data Data verification
done by
Customer Care
executive
Entries in QC
database
Quality Control
database

8. Measure
86/8/2017

9. AS IS Process Map
96/8/2017

10. Advantages of using a Process Map
10
Makes it easier to find and focus on Areas of
Improvement.
Flexibility and ease of use
Clear understanding of ongoing processes
Eases updating and improvement of current
processes as and when required.
6/8/2017

11. Metrics involved
116/8/2017
Time: • Average hold time a customer is put on, when he
calls the call centre.
• Average time required to collect and verify customer
details
Quality: • Manual errors by customer care executive when
customer calls in.
Cost: • Infrastructure maintenance cost
• Labor cost for Customer care executives
• Cost for abandoned customer from each account
Volume: • Average calls answered per customer
• Average calls unanswered during office hours
• Average abandonment rate

12. Data Collection Plan
12
 Metrics contain the data generated by system
regarding effort hours and performance.
 It helps to understand the system and make
decisions based on that.
 Errors and mistakes that delay the normal process
efficiency can be easily identified and understood
by Metrics
 Automated System for call processing and
onboarding services can be measured and
improved by Data research and Analysis.
6/8/2017

13. Data Analysis – Basic Charts
136/8/2017
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Turn Time after sigma
Turn Time

14. Data Analysis – Basic Charts
146/8/2017
0%
20%
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6000
Buffalo East Tuscon South Buffalo West Tuscon North Honolulu
Annual Attempted Onboarded Volume 2011
Annual Attempted Onboarded Volume Percent
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Annual attempted Onboard Volume 2012
Annual Attempted Onboarded Volume Percent
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Annual attempted Onboard Volume 2013
Annual Attempted Onboarded Volume Percent

15. Data Analysis – Basic Charts
156/8/2017
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Buffalo East Buffalo West Tuscon South Tuscon North Honolulu
Region wise On-boarded Volume Year on Year
2011 2012 2013
0
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40
50
60
Customer Abandonment
2011 2012 2013

16. Analysis
16
Turn time was not proportionate before sigma
process. It got settled after applying Six Sigma and
now can me measured effectively.
Average onboarding time is much higher than the
service requirement
A clear understanding of relation between
onboarding time, hold time and abandonment time
can be established.
The following values are highest in 2012 –
 Average onboarding time
 Customer call hold time
 Average abandonment volume
Main contributors to the waste causing high
abandonment rate are manual handoffs and
missing sales data.
6/8/2017

17. Analyze
176/8/2017

18. Process map with VA/VE/NVE indicated
186/8/2017

19. 8 Wastes in the process
19
 Transport
The customer details recorded online or by phone call is sent to the
onboarding specialists before feeding into the onboarding system.
 Inventory
The cases where the customers need some fixes or resolution are
retained for 10 business days and then queued to outbound call
after 5 days, then the customer calls back the customer and
finishes the onboarding process.
 Over production
Too many employees are involved in handling clients in a less traffic
time and the customers are loaded with information of other
products and features on the call.
 Over processing
The customer has around 400 fields that need to filled to send a
customer service request, this entry to be done manually for every
request by each customer.
The clients are asked to verify their identity multiple times when
forwarding call across the teams.
6/8/2017

20. 8 Wastes in the process
20
 Waiting
The data to be entered by the customer in the website is not
processed until it is received by the specialist and fed into the
onboarding system.
The customer must wait for 5 business days for this to complete.
 Defects
The screenshots containing customer data obtained from the
website are deleted and the customer information record is lost and
the request is labeled as abandoned onboarding.
 Not using talent
The customer data is entered by the specialist manually for every
customer service agent.
 Motion
Customers are asked to take hard copies of the customer
information.
The calls of customers are transferred among 2 or 3 customer
service agents to resolve a customer query or give resolution to a
problem.
6/8/2017

21. VA/ NVA Table
216/8/2017
Value Added Non Value – Added
A customer can use a site
anytime as the Interactive Voice
Response will be enabled
After the customers provide
their data, It is being captured
and stored
Customer data is collected in
the backend and stored
A representative manually
enters the customer data into
the system
There is also a call center for
the customer to directly get in
touch with the representative.
For the cases that needs
further processing , a queue is
maintained and a call is given
back after 5 days
After the customer data is
entered and validated, a
welcome email with password is
sent to them.
The cases that are not
completed even after 10
business days are abandoned.
When the customers call the
customer care, specialists will
collect details and fill the form
Customer data is manually
entered into the system by the
representative

22. Root Cause: Fishbone Diagram
226/8/2017

23. Improve
236/8/2017

24. Solution Selection Matrix
246/8/2017
The Solution Selection Matrix
 The solutions were arrived upon by brainstorming with
the team, by classifying the ideas and ranking them.
 The same was use to identify the urgency of each
problem to be addressed.

25. Chosen Solution
256/8/2017
Problem addressed Root cause analyzed
Solution proposed
High Customer Abandonment rate Inefficient onboarding processes,
improper utilization of available
resources, poor data management
The caller could choose to be called
back before hanging up a call
leading to an improved customer
experience
High turn around time/ very long
wait times on hotline
Too much data to be collected from
every caller. Customer identity
verification required several times on a
single call
Add more Customer Service
Representatives to take calls on the
hotline
Inefficient Customer Onboarding There are 388 required fields which
need to be populated manually by CSR
which can be tedious for both parties
Pre-fill a few fields with default
values where required. Reduce the
number of required fields.
Maintain Customer data Partial updates of customer data not
possible
Allow partial updates to data.
Employee Inefficiency due to high
volumes of manual data entry
Absence of automation for most of the
routine process that CSR perform. Too
many unresolved cases with every
representative
Data from captured screenshots to
be used directly to update customer
data on the database
Each of the problems identified are directly or indirectly related to
other problems found after analysis. Hence the solutions are such
that, more than one problem has same root cause as one of its
root causes, also each solution addresses more than one problem

26. 266/8/2017

27. 276/8/2017
Idea Classification
Clear Solution Study Required
Within the Team Outside the Team
WithinTeamControlNeedsHelpFromManagers
3 1
4 2
 Solution 1
 Solution 7
 Solution 6
 Solution 5
 Solution 2
 Solution 3
 Solution 4
The solution number marked is in reference to the Solution Matrix excel sheet

28. 286/8/2017
Idea Ranking
Significant Action Not
Possible Within 60 Days
Significant Action Possible
Within 60 Days
WillNOTContributeMuchTo
TheMission
WillSignificantlyContributeto
MissionSuccess
3 1
4 2
 Solution 1
 Solution 2
 Solution 3
 Solution 4
 Solution 7
 Solution 6
 Solution 5

29. IDEA RANKING
Significant Action Not
Possible Within 60 Days
Significant Action Possible
Within 60 Days
WillNOTContributeMuchTo
TheMission
WillSignificantlyContributeto
MissionSuccess
3 1
4 2
 Solution 1
 Solution 2
 Solution 3
 Solution 4
 Solution 7
 Solution 6
 Solution 5

30. Future State Map
306/8/2017

31. Cost Benefit Analysis
316/8/2017
Solution
Before
process
cost
After
process
cost
Difference
in cost
The caller could choose to be
called back before hanging up a
call leading to an improved
customer experience $0 $16,350 $16,350
Add more Customer Service
Representatives to take calls on
the hotline $2,658 $78,406 $75,748
Pre-fill a few fields with default
values where required. Reduce
the number of required fields. $0 $65,000 $65,000
Allow partial updates to data. $0 $1,500 $1,500
Data from captured screenshots
to be used directly to update
customer data on the database $0 $24,742 $24,742

32. Cost Benefit Analysis
32
 Qualitative Benefits
Performance Improvement with better resource planning
No data problems with increased Customer satisfaction.
 Quantitative Benefits
6/8/2017
Implemented Solution Benefits
The caller could choose to be called back before hanging up
a call leading to an improved customer experience $3,975,430
Add more Customer Service Representatives to take calls on
the hotline $164,892
Pre-fill a few fields with default values where required.
Reduce the number of required fields. $147,938
Allow partial updates to data. $24,631
Data from captured screenshots to be used directly to
update customer data on the database $86,342

33. Changes in Cost of Abandoned Accounts
33
 Before Changes - Abandoned Rates
 After Changes - Abandoned Rates
 Cost Changes – Abandoned cost per account = $56
6/8/2017
Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Average
2011-
2012 3 10 7 8 12 22 24 33 25 21 15 20 16.67
2012-
2013 28 37 35 40 50 45 37 30 23 37 34 28 35.33
Sep-14 Oct-14 Nov-14 Dec-14 Jan-15 Feb-15 Average
8 6 7 6 5 4 6
Before
Changes
After
changes Difference
Average Rate 35.33 6 29.33
Cost $1,978.48 $336 $1,642.48

34. Implementation Plan
Job
IDs
Step
Description
Responsibility Check
Date
Target
Date
Comments
1 The caller could
choose to be
called back before
hanging up a call
leading to an
improved customer
experience
Software Team Lead 3/20/2017 3/31/2017 This action is important as this
would help in more customer
acquisition and retention. It would
also be a benchmark for good
customer support system
2 Add more
Customer Service
Representatives to
take calls on the
hotline
Team Member 2/18/2017 3/31/2017 Customer Satisfaction and Quality
Improvement
3 Pre-fill a few fields
with default values
where required.
Reduce the
number of required
fields.
Software team Lead 2/25/2017 6/4/2017 This action item would help in
Avoiding data errors and forms that
are rejected due to wrong data
entered and hence will result in
more customers overall.
4 Allow partial
updates to data.
Team Member 3/24/2017 4/5/2017 This tasks allows the customer to
partially update the data in their
forms and hence is of high priority.
Or solution is based on this task
mostly.
5 Data from
captured
screenshots to be
used directly to
Software team Lead 2/27/2017 3/31/2017 This task would help us reduce the
manual work and automate the
process, thereby creating a
business improvement in the

35. Control
356/8/2017

36. GOAL Statement
36
To shrink the rate of customer withdrawing from
onboarding process to 7% or less for next 9
months.
To decrease the turn around time to 2 days To have
hold time for customers to be less than 40 seconds
To reduce operational expenses through innovative
approaches
6/8/2017
Original
Process
New Process Change
Turn Time (for 6
moths timeframe)
8.07 2.3 71.49
Abandonment Rate 36% 5.64% (Feb
2014)
24.52
Hold Time 60 sec(2013) 19 sec(Feb
2014)
68.33

37. Hypothesis Testing to Compare Results
37
Attached is the sheet with result from Hypothesis
Testing:
Since t-Stat is larger than t critical two tail value,
we reject H0, hence we can say that there has been
changes in Onboarding Turn Time after applying
our changes.
Thus, the claim on Abandonment rate and turn
time has reduced is true.
Hypothesis Testing
6/8/2017

38. Control Chart
38
Failure Point or
Risk
Prevention Check Point or
Trigger
Corrective Action Process Owner
No. of onboarding
specialists not
proportionate with
traffic of customers
Estimate and plan
for sufficient
number of on
specialists to
address customers
Map each Customer or
each customer enquiry
with On boarding
specialists
Monitor real time traffic,
Employ more on boarding
specialists based, so that
no customer is unattended
Onboarding
Specialist
One customer or
customer enquiry
assigned to more
than one specialist
Not more than one
on boarding
specialists assigned
to one customer
Alerting to update
entry when more than
one specialist is
mapped to a customer
Every customer should be
assigned to a specialist
and also make sure the
customer is assigned to
same specialist in future
Onboarding
Specialist
Some recorded
customer voice
messages are not
attended
There should be
control to make sure
that auto voice
messages are
attended by
specialist
Notifications sent to
onboarding specialists
to remind auto voice
messages
A target to be set for the
on boarding specialist on
the number of auto voice
messages to be attended
in a day or week.
Onboarding
Specialist
Database downtime
window interrupts
customer service
Ensuring that the
database is backed
up periodically
Trigger when unable to
access the web
onboarding website
Plan for database
maintenance when
customers load is less.
Automated
Inability in
maintaining partial
form data at
database level
Saving data at
periodic intervals
with timestamps
included
Checkpoint while
saving data to ensure
data correctness and
integrity is achieved
Saving the partial data-
flagging as intermediate,
and storing complete form
data in database
Automated
Fails to upload
user data forms
automatically
Maintain data
isolation, while
handling
concurrency
Trigger to revert back
to consistent state
before failure occurred
Ensure that form is
accepted with data
uploaded completely or
not at all to ensure
required data is captured
Automated

39. Future Project Ideas
39
 Perform data analytics on the customer service data to design a
model that predicts the number of onboarding specialists to be
employed based on factors like network traffic, time of call etc.
 Extend the service as an online chat facility with enhanced help
support clues.
 Identifying customers, capturing interests and preferences of
customers and target to sell more customized software products.
 Innovative campaigns and promotions to increase the customer base.
 Provide added benefits for existing customers who renew their
software contracts.
6/8/2017