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Amateur or Professional – You Get What You Pay For
by Craig Bailey
We have all heard the proverb "you get what you pay for."
While we may have taken this to heart in our personal lives, we need to
make sure that we don't forget the essence of this and how it impacts our
customer relationships. Here is the scenario…
A managed services provider (MSP) has a customer who, due to cost
constraints, bought the lowest cost solution to meet immediate business
needs, with little room for growth. After 3 years, the solution provided
by the MSP has become outdated (technology out of rev, etc.), making it
increasingly difficult for the MSP to support. The result is that the
customer experiences persistent, business-impacting problems. While
various attempts have been made to suggest upgrades and add-ons, the
customer keeps bringing the conversation back to the "immediate problems"
being experienced. In essence, the customer is managing the MSP instead of
the MSP managing the customer's experience.
How the account team (service representatives and account manager)
responds to this situation can be delicate, but is absolutely critical.
Too often the service team dutifully performs daily fire-fighting to
resolve the persistent issues and constantly takes heat from the customer
related to the recurring problems. All the while, the team is commenting
(internally) on how outdated and ineffective the customer's solution is.
The posture of the MSP team is "well, this is the customer's solution that
we must support per contract, so let's just keep at it." This is insanity,
continuing to do the same thing yet expecting a different result.
A professional responds to this situation by taking very proactive steps,
including:
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Acknowledging the reality of the situation. The
solution that we are providing the customer, while good at the time of
implementation, is now outdated causing unacceptable business impact to
my customer. And, the relationship is becoming increasingly unprofitable
as we expend more and more resources reacting to the problems that
result.
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Engaging the entire account team to define a
recommended solution to the root-cause (an upgrade/redesign).
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Meeting with the customer to discuss the current
reality and…UPSELLING.
If the customer decides not to heed the advice of the MSP,
then an alternative outcome, although much less desirable, may be to part
ways with the customer. That is, if/when a relationship no longer provides
mutual benefit, then it is no longer healthy and should be terminated.
Continuing down the same path without making foundational changes will
only cause both businesses increasing financial impact, and stress to the
personnel involved.
So, key principles to remember include:
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Set clear expectations up-front about what your
product/service can do, what it can't do, and when it will be necessary
to discuss upgrades/add-ons for supportability and the customer's
anticipated growth.
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Don't let the daily noise cloud judgment or take focus
away from the root-cause problem.
-
The customer should and does get what they pay for –
and they know it!
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Definition of insanity – continuing to do the same
thing, expecting a different result.
View previous articles in this series.
Exploring Outsourcing: The Outsourcing
Agreement
by
Kurt Jensen
Creating an outsourcing
agreement with a vendor can be challenging. While the intent is to create
an ongoing relationship, agreements often have the flavor of being
transactional in nature. Working through an agreement can become
especially daunting if your company doesn't have enough contact center
expertise to be familiar with common terms or requirements. Below is a
high level list of features and considerations for a contact center
outsourcing agreement.
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Primary Cost Drivers – the essence of any outsourcing
agreement involves a discussion of primary cost drivers such as volume,
average handling time and service level (formulas vary). Expect an
'agent minute' or an 'agent hourly' or an 'incident' rate to equate into
the total cost equation.
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Forecast – the forecast is an extremely important
requirement for both parties. Accurately projecting call volume based
upon historic figures provides the outsourcer a baseline expectation
from which to model staffing coverage. From a client perspective,
forecasting provides an estimate of upcoming expenses. Expect to lock
into an upcoming month forecast 35-50 days in advance.
-
Performance – performance incentives or penalties are
often tied to meeting service level, abandonment rates or average
handling time over a certain period of time (often a month). Performance
expectations are often enhanced by a termination for non-performance
paragraph. Expect talented outsourcers not to hesitate to agree to
performance incentive or penalties.
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Term – the term of the agreement is often accompanied
by an auto renewal feature. While this places some burden on the client,
it is often countered by a termination for convenience paragraph. Expect
an auto renewal and termination for convenience to be in the 60-90 day
range.
As the agreement process moves forward, it is important to
capture cost details associated with the program. For example, if a new
product is introduced and average handling times will spike for 30 days as
a result, how will that impact costs over the program's lifetime? While it
may seem simple, one effective method of capturing such details is
creating a road map of year one with the vendor, taking one month at a
time and anticipating cost impacting events such as:
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Attrition training – based upon employee attrition
rates, what is the monthly cost of training attrition (if applicable)?
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Programming (e.g. web, chat, IVR, etc…) – if chat is
set for launch at month six, what are the programming costs before and
after?
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Increased/decreased handling time - will new products
or policies drive handling times up or down?
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Volume – are any significant events anticipated to
impact volume (product shut downs, intros, etc..)?
The added bonus of walking through the first year is the development of a
high level road map which can be used to set goals. An example goal might
be: "Keep average handling time steady through new product release."
Having the road map will promote addressing the goal in advance and
provide a direct cost benefit at the same time.
Contact us if you would like to share outsourcing or RFP experience.
If you are thinking about outsourcing, we can help you manage the process,
while you focus on your business!
View previous articles in this series.
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Contents
+ Amateur or Professional
+ Exploring Outsourcing
+ Recommended Reading
+ Speaking Engagements
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View previous newsletters
Recommended Reading
As a complement to our
current series on Exploring Outsourcing, we recommend the CRM
Magazine article
Considering Offshore Sourcing? Take Time to Do It Right by David
Raia. The article presents 5 principles to remember when considering
outsourcing, to allow you and your company to get the most benefit (and
least risk) from an outsourcing arrangement.
Speaking Engagements
CCI
President Craig Bailey
will be a speaker at PDMA's (Product Development and Management
Association) 7th Annual
"Voice of the
Customer" conference on December 7-10, 2004, in San Francisco CA.
Presentation materials will be available for download from CCI's website
closer to the conference date.
About Customer Centricity, Inc.
We strengthen overall company performance through
better service delivery and management.
We boost efficiencies in front-line customer service and technical support
teams, order processing, fulfillment, field service, logistics and other
key operations functions.
In short, we align the resources of your organization to exceed your
customers' expectations in the most effective and efficient manner
possible.
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