8/11/2016 Project Proposal: Call Center

Prepared by: Yem Socheath

©Copyright 2016 Telecom Cambodia

 I. What is “Call Center”?
When a business becomes large and larger, your service becomes more important and your
customer support become more necessary; Call Center should be concerned and be ready to
build it. We rarely find the Call Center in Small Business Enterprise (SME) even in a government
industry such as state-own enterprise. It does not mean those enterprises do not care their
customers but Call Center is over demand for many SME; differentially, most of government
industries are doing a business in monopoly model, that why customer care seems to be
useless for them.

Within a fair and free market, all the companies in the market try to develop their core
competitions, product or service value propositions, competitive advantages and many other
business strategies to survive in the market. Those companies efforts to retain their customer
and attract the new customers by using many strategies, for example, cost benefit, providing
a convenient, increasing variety, provide the best quality of customer care and support, etc.
Call Center can fulfill almost all those strategies - that is the reason why service industries like
Financial Institution, ISP, or Mobile Phone Operator cannot miss Call Center service.

For those industries and companies that are running Call Center service defined a Call Center
is a centralized office used for the purpose of receiving or transmitting a large volume of
requests by telephone. It mainly responds to customers complain, requests and question
regarding to offering services, both before and after sale. Call Center not only responds such
things but also contact to the relevant back office or Network Operation Center (NOC) to solve
any problem for the customer with an appropriate time.

II. Why Call Center is Import?

Many benefits can be got from Call Center. Many business research found that, an
organization can get the high chance of being profitability if it is able to plan a call center very
well (SAS, 2004).

For Telecom Cambodia, if Call Center can be well-plan, we can gain the most benefits that we
have ever got before. Here are several benefits we are going to get for sure:
- Increase the quality of Customer Relationship Management: We can understand what
our customer need and want. Moreover, our customers feel safe and confident with
our offering services while they can communicate with us at any time.
- Provide new experience for customers: It is the first time for our customers after we
launch Call Center Service. They feel comfortable and convenient for asking asking
communicating with us for any kinds of concerns.
- Allow customers to communicate and share our expert to them: It is not only sale,
products or services information, but it also technical consultant. Our experts will
provide them all kind of technical advices and pass their problem to relevant back
office.
- Improve our service delivery: Time, cost, and service operation will be more efficient
by applying Just In Time operation policy (JIT)
- Increase our reputation throughout our call center service handle: The more we
handle our customers the more we increase our flexibility and reputation.
 III. Design the Call Center
1. Call Center Model

When we decide to start the Call Center, it initially requires us to think about our business
whether we are service or product provider. For Telecom Cambodia case, we are a service
provider industry; therefore, our Call Center should be design as a Customer Centric model
rather than Product Centric Model. For the differences of product centric vs customer centric
please have a look at figure-1.

Figure-1: Product Centric Vs Customer Centric

Telecom Cambodia

Source: https://blog.marketculture.com (2012)

2. Develop Customer Access Strategy

There are several question with which we need to concern when we decide to start up our
Call Center. Those questions can be a navigation to develop our customers’ access strategy.
- Customer profiling:
o Who are our customers?
o What are those customers needs?
o How can those need be best served?
- Customer Communication: How will we communicate with our customer?
- Query types: What types and categories of questions are anticipated?
- Access channels: What channels can be address our customers’ issues?
- Service level objective: Requirment resources: People, Technology, and databses...?
- Organizational Processes: Exteral/Internal Organizational Practice (EOP/IOP).
 3. Establish cost for call center

Reduce nonsense calls is the prior step for Call Center Policy. The clear instruction should be
handle directly in the time of service or product offering. By doing that, the simple and
repeated question can be reduced. Additionally, providing an incentive for customer to use
other low cost alternative can be another way to reduce cost for Call Center transaction; for
example, VoIP or customer’s mobile phone.

IV. Build the Call Center

1. Estimate call volumes and volume-ramp up of operation

Use the following formula and assumptions to estimate call volumes

- Assume 5 events per customer account per month
Assume that after 3 months in business, there will be 1,000 customers using the
service
- Assume 3% of those customers result in contacts with the call center
This would result in 150 calls to the center in one month (1,000 * 0.03 * 5)

Further assume that 20% of these calls would be escalated

- This would result in 30 escalated calls in the month.
- Then assume that of those 5% of those calls would be escalated to management
Which would result in 15 calls per month.
2. Establish call Center hours of operation

When building a new call center, best practice is to start with reasonable hours that will meet
customer needs, and then build to 24/7 if there is demand
- Use report logs to determine whether additional hours are required
- Also talk to other call centers in the area to determine their hours and peak call times

It is suggested that opening hours for a new call center be from 6:00 to 21:00. Three staggered
shifts are recommended to cover peak time traffic hours around meal times. This approach
maximizes the staff available at lunch and dinner hours
a. 6:00 to 15:00
b. 10:30 to 19:30
c. 12:00 to 21:00

Once operational, ascertain peak call times and alter shifts if necessary. The CC Modeler Pro
will assist with making predictions about these alternative scenarios.
3. Estimate Call Center Size

Ensure that call volume and staffing projections are aligned with marketing and sales
strategies, which will be attracting new customers and pushing up call volumes. Ongoing
communication with these departments is vital to the Call Centre’s success.
It is important to make preliminary estimations of staffing requirements by taking into
account:
• Staff absenteeism
• Staff days off
• All shifts
• Management involvement

It is useful to train some of the TC staff as part-time call center help that can be used during
peak hours, if required. This is a good fall back option as the call volumes increase.

3.1. Refine Call Center Size Estimates

It may require to use a call center calculator; some are easily available online, for example CC
Modular Professional. It can enter estimated call volumes, call handling times, and wrap up
times into the calculator to get the number of staff required. The tool also allows the user to:
Determine staffing requirements for each day, at various times during the day, simplify
forecasts and investigate various scenarios, such as the impact of an additional 5% of calls. It
can also handle multiple shifts and planned breaks to optimize staffing requirements.
 4. Model the organizational structure of the call center (Now and Future)

Head of Operations

Call Center Manager NOC Manager

ICT OSP Transmission

Team Leader
Team Leader Team Leader Team Leader
NOC

ICT
Customer Service
Senior Consultant Senior Consultant Senior Consultant Administrator

Transmission
Customer Service
Customer Service Customer Service Customer Service
Administrator
Consultant Consultant Consultant

OSP
Customer Service
Customer Service Customer Service Customer Service Administrator
Consultant Consultant Consultant

Quality Assurance Workforce

Trainer
(QA) Management

4.1. Working flow

TC s Call Center Working Flow

Schedule Call
End A A
Back as per TAT

Call not picked up Problem solved

Call Picked
Call Center Management

Picked up Consulting Software/Hardware Problem

Customer Up
Callled
Software/Hardware Problem

Inbound ICT
Outbound

Determine
Greeting Determine
Start Call Types Contact OSP Consulting B
Customer query tpyes
Mode

Transmission Problem solved

Email A

Outbound Call Review Email Consulting Software/Hardware Problem

A Problem solved
NOC Management

ICT Deparment

Transmission and
B Optical Network Problem Solved A
Department

OSP Department
5. Map Layout of the Call Center
- Create a vibrant environment with inviting break rooms, secure storage for personal
items, proper lighting, and aesthetically pleasing furnishing.
- Position work stations to maximize productivity
o Workstations locations should foster teamwork and open communication
o Team members will be more productive if they sit together with their team
leader
- Consider workflow and ergonomics to minimize absenteeism and injury
o Workstations should be large enough to accommodate the necessary workflow
o Includeergonomicaccessoriessoworkstationscanbecustomizedfortheagentco
mfort
▪ Examples include: chairs with multiple adjustments, adjustable
keyboards and monitors
- Acoustic engineering is vital to reduce noise levels for both staff and customers
o Consider installing sound absorption fillers on walls, sound blocking screens
between stations, and sound masking on the ceilings
o Wiring and cables should be totally concealed, yet easily accessible
6. Obtain Appropriate Hardware & Software
- Advanced technology results in streamlined call handling which reduces call times,
associated costs, and improves customer satisfaction
- Hardware worth considering includes:
o A local area network (LAN) for the call center
o Desktop computers for agents
o An automatic call distributor for call routing to specific agents or terminals
o A predictive dialer, which will automatically dial batches of numbers for
outgoing calls from the center
o And voice solutions, such as IVR, voice logging, voice recording and messaging
systems
- Software that enhances a call center includes:
o Customer relationship management systems
o Call center interface –
o Workforce management solutions, recommended as the call center grows
o Management information systems
o Voice over IP recording systems to monitor agent calls

6.1. Additional Hardware Considerations

- Ensure there is computer telephony integration system (CTI) that can provide agents
with call information, automatic dialing for outbound sales calls, and phone control
capabilities such as answer, hang up, hold, and conference
- Choose headsets carefully - clarity of sound, noise reduction and comfort are
important
o It is preferable to buy headsets that have ear mufflers on both sides
o Purchase a double jack for each team leader, so they can train and monitor
agents. This adaptor allows two phone headsets to be connected to one phone.
- It is necessary to have call recording systems to monitor quality of calls and for
regulatory compliance. These recordings must be kept for several years.
6.2. Representative Diagram of Call Center

7. Perform User Acceptance Test (UAT)

- UAT is the final step before “going live” with the call center, it confirms that the center
set-up is going to meet requirements
- Expect the testing to take time, expect that problems will emerge
o Schedule testing and problem resolution appropriately to ensure that enough
time is available to address the most critical issues before the call center is up
and running
- Include management and other personnel as well as call center staff in the UAT team
to ensure that obvious problems are not overlooked because the call center team is
too close to the situation
- Create, then follow, test cases to ensure all aspects of the call center are working as
expected
o Ensure that test cases mirror real world scenarios to simulate the live
environment
- Record all bugs, problems, or other issues that arise during testing.
- Create spreadsheet that tracks remedies for identified problems as well as the status
of their resolution
8. Create a Risk Recovery Plan
- Identify a location and back-up strategy that can be used if the call center is inoperative
for any reason. Options include:
o Hot Site – a duplicate of original call center site and data
o Warm Site – smaller copy of original with backups that are not real time
o Cold Site – available space is identified, but there is no prior hardware or
software set up. While the least expensive option, this takes the longest to get
up and running
- The most important characteristic of the alternate venue is the ability to transfer the
telephone lines from the original call center.
 - Script answers for questions about the reason for the risk
- Practice your plan
- Pay attention to your staff in the case of a disaster, make sure they have water and
food - an item that is easy to overlook.
9. Human Resources Management

If Project Approved
If Call Center project can be approved, we may need to study more detail for the following
case:
1. Project Financials
a. Startup expense and funding
b. Sale Plan
c. Personnel Plan
d. Financial Plan
2. Project Life Cycle
a. Document Purpose
b. Project Information
c. Objective and Summary
d. Background
e. Scope
f. Resource Requirement
g. Estimated Cost
3. Project Management
a. Background and Summary
b. Project Scope Study
c. Work Breakdown Structure
d. Project Schedule Management
e. Project Cost Management
f. Stakeholder Management
g. Project Risk Management
h. Procurement
i. Quality Evaluation
j. Closing