How I Cut 25% of my Support Center Costs—while Boosting Customer Satisfaction

by Beverly Adamo, (former) Vice President, Client Services, AboveNet

One of my responsibilities as head of client services for AboveNet was to organize and focus the 24x365 network call center. The firm had grown quickly, and we'd recently acquired another company. Operations had become undisciplined and the support systems were a patchwork of applications that didn't communicate well with each other. As my support center manager put it, we were "flying blind."

 Our executive management knew there was a problem, but they lacked the hard evidence that would support a fix everyone could agree to. Management was at an impasse, and the inaction was costing us, in terms of sub-par customer service and unnecessary spending.
As the new VP, I understood that we had to do something, and I knew that the longer I waited the more I'd come to be identified with the problem. It was clear that we needed an objective business case that would shift the focus of the debate from subjective opinion to facts and get us all on the same page.

We engaged with Intervox Group to help us evaluate our cost structure using a rigorous, fact-based framework that would withstand all challenges. Their activity based costing (ABC) Contact Center CATScan™ tool proved to be exactly what was needed. Intervox consultants spent the first few days interviewing executives, analyzing system reports and observing live customer interactions. A key outcome of these interviews was determining what our business drivers were -- those variables by which success was measured in business terms and which drove demand for support resources.

Intervox Group consultants then worked with our managers, supervisors and front line staff to define and organize all of the activities that comprised our operation. Together, we identified 15 separate activities and 75 distinct sub-tasks. Each was linked to the resources used to perform that activity or sub-task. Variable and fully allocated costs were then derived for each process—right down to the penny.

The Intervox analysts then linked these activities to our business drivers—new activations, installed customer base and the like. We then ran "what if" scenarios showing the impact of changes in the business drivers on the resources needed to support the business.
From running a few scenarios we were able to quickly ascertain where the biggest "bang for the buck" would be and where our focus should be. The answer jumped out at us: the biggest opportunity—in terms of both cost savings as well as customer experience improvement—was in streamlining the work referral / handoff process.

The result: a permanent cost elimination of 25% (fully realized in less than a year) and a measurable improvement in customer service (from streamlining and automating processes). It took the rigor of the ABC methodology—and its use of common business language to communicate results to all stakeholders—to get everyone on the same page and committed to a common course of action and, most importantly, from all accounts, still pleased with the decision six months out.

About Beverly Adamo
Beverly Adamo started her career in HR and moved to high tech when she joined systems integrator RFI. She went on to hold various positions of increasing responsibility in technical support management at Synoptics, (later Bay Networks and, still later, Nortel Networks), from where she joined AboveNet Communications, where she was VP of Worldwide Client Service. Bev has recently completed her Masters Degree in Organizational Management and current serves in the public transportation industry.

(c) Intervox Group 2005

For a free white paper on using Activity Based Costing in the contact center go to ABC White Paper. For an overview of the Intervox Contact Center CATScan™ click on CATScan data sheet.

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