Operations and call center improves customer service while dramatically reducing costs

Strategic Intent

To control costs while maintaining excellent service and transforming the organization into a viable service provider to third-party customers

Client Profile/Situation

Central processing center for customer loyalty program of internationally known hospitality corporation
Center serves over 5 million customers
Processes 20,000 customer calls and issues 25,000 award certificates per week
Client suspects that some unnecessary costs had crept into this now mature operation and must be addressed

Key Issues and Barriers

Strong top-down culture led to reactive supervisors who waited to be told what to do, functioning as firefighters.
Performance goals not stated quantitatively nor translated into meaningful organization objectives
Overall productivity was sub-par (60% range).
Daily rework and reprocessing exceeded 25%.

Key Implementation Components

Developed measurable performance goals and translated to all organization levels
Installed new processes focused on inventory management, capacity planning, scheduling and performance metrics
Reengineered core processes to focus on rework, customer service, cycle time and throughput
Designed new organizational structure with customer service teams with lower cost-to-manage, and improved communications
Aligned reward and recognition practices with new results-driven management culture

Primary Results

At the conclusion of this 20-week engagement, the client had realized all of its short-term performance objectives, including these specific measurable results:

A_F-CS2

Transaction productivity increased 18% overall.
Average span-of-control increased by 15%.
Correspondence turnaround time improved 12%.
Data entry and fulfillment cycle time were reduced by 31%.
Inventory costs were reduced by 8%.
Eliminated 5,000 hours of rework activity
Actual financial benefits exceeded target by 23%

Client Perspective

It is difficult to imagine us achieving the magnitude and pace of change without the help of Brooks. Our work together has been an extremely rewarding, productive and enjoyable experience. To any of my peers considering the implementation of major change with a need for results, I recommend Brooks as a resource.
— General Manager