iSeva - Information Systems Department

Transcription

Company Profile: iSeva: Leveraging the Offshore Model for Improving Multi-channel Customer Care
iSeva
Leveraging the Offshore
Model for Improving
Multi-channel Customer Care
www.ebstrategy.com
Copyright © 2004 E-Business Strategies. All rights reserved.
www.ebstrategy.com
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary .................................................................................................................. 3
Overview of iSeva ...................................................................................................................... 4
Business Model ............................................................................................................................................. 4
Telecommunications Infrastructure .......................................................................................................... 4
Technology Expertise .................................................................................................................................. 4
Quality Certifications ................................................................................................................................... 5
Current State of Offshore Customer Care ................................................................................. 5
The Business Pressures................................................................................................................................ 5
The Market Opportunity for Offshore Call Centers .............................................................................. 7
The ROI from Offshore Customer Care ................................................................................... 7
iSeva’s Services .......................................................................................................................... 7
Customer Relationship Management Services......................................................................................... 8
Customer Service Consulting ..................................................................................................................... 8
Systems Integration ...................................................................................................................................... 9
iSeva’s Offshore Transition and Project Management........................................................................... 9
Knowledge Transfer Between Organizations.......................................................................................... 9
Quality Management During the Transition............................................................................................ 9
Offshore Project Management................................................................................................................... 9
iSeva’s Customer Case Studies.................................................................................................10
Financial Services Industry: Optimizing the Mortgage Process.......................................................... 11
High-Tech Technical Support.................................................................................................................. 12
E-Business Strategies’ Analysis and Conclusions ...................................................................13
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The Market Opportunity for Offshore
Call Centers
For simplicity’s sake, we assumed that:
A U.S. call center agents earn $12 per hour,
While a contact center’s function is critical, its
location is not.
Offshore agents based in India earn a base pay
of $1.50 per hour, and
If a customer has a question about a product, does
the call center agent answering the telephone or email query have to work for the company that sold
the product or even be in the same country? In
today’s global economy, the answer is no.
Technology has reduced the importance of location
and has succeeded in fueling a mega-trend — the
offshoring of customer care.
An agent typically works 2,000 hours per year
(40 hours per week; 50 weeks in a year; with 2
weeks vacation).
This means that the yearly salary of a U.S. call
center agent before benefits and incentives
works out to be $24,000 while an Indian agent’s
yearly salary is $3,000.
The number of companies outsourcing and/or
offshoring their contact centers is rising steadily, as
are the number of vendors taking advantage of this
dynamic, among them iSeva. Enterprising vendors
can handle almost every aspect of customer care,
from closing a sale and answering customer queries,
to recapturing lost customers and performing
customer analytics. Figure 1 highlights some of the
specific customer care processes that companies
frequently offshore.
With the base pay rate of around $0.65 per hour,
iSeva can afford to reward its top performers with
hefty incentives and benefits. According to iSeva
President, Vaibhav Tewari, agents can make as much
as $120–$150 extra each month through incentives
for remaining with the company, meeting or
exceeding targets, or working night shifts. Tewari
estimates overhead (medical insurance, free
transportation, subsidized cafeteria) for each
employee runs around $60 per month.
Within the expansive area of customer care, iSeva
chooses to target two key verticals: financial services
and technical support.
E-Business Strategies estimates total annual
compensation for an iSeva top performer would be
around $5,000, while the fully loaded cost of a U.S.
call center agent would be approximately $40,000.
The ROI from Offshore
Customer Care
iSeva’s Services
A high-quality workforce. Operational expertise. An
intimate knowledge of technology. These tools
enable iSeva to deliver a range of superior customer
care services. The business can tailor services to
companies’ exact needs across channels and
customer segments.
The most tangible advantage of offshoring customer
care is the cost savings. Tables 1 and 2 quantify the
possible savings in labor costs from offshoring
contact centers.
Number of Call
Center Jobs
1
50
100
500
1,000
Total Annual Salary
in U.S.
$24,000
$1,200,000
$2,400,000
$12,000,000
$24,000,000
Total Annual Salary
in India
$3,000
$150,000
$300,000
$1,500,000
$3,000,000
Total Annual Savings
$21,000
$1,050,000
$2,100,000
$10,500,000
$21,000,000
Table 1: The Labor Savings from Offshore Customer Care Centers (Yearly Salary without Benefits or Incentives)
Source: E-Business Strategies
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Executive Summary
and administrative (SG&A) costs.
Customer care. Companies know it’s important, but
sometimes the resources simply aren’t there to
Many businesses, however, have exhausted
provide satisfactory service. To solve this inadequate
traditional cost-cutting methods and are turning to
resource problem, offshore customer care (in
offshore outsourcing strategies, which are slowly but
Canada, India, and Philippines) is emerging as one
surely becoming an
solution. In this company
entrenched part of modern
profile we examine the
management.
E-Business Strategies’ Perspective
business trend and focus on
iSeva, which is emerging as a
Along with the intense
• Offshore customer care presents costleading provider of offshore
reduction opportunities that companies
pressure to cut costs, the
customer care.
need to weigh against a variety of
Internet and an abundant
operational risks.
supply of educated, wellToday, iSeva’s reference
trained employees located in
• Planning for these risks beforehand will
customers include:
help companies avoid the inevitable
lower-cost foreign countries
problems that follow the deployment of
A leading security software
are the other underlying
new processes.
company, which depends
reasons why customer care
on iSeva for voice- and e• Partnering with an experienced vendor
offshore outsourcing is
like iSeva on offshore customer care
mail-based customer care
becoming a widespread
can minimize the overall risks for U.S.
and technical support.
business practice.
and European corporations.
One of the largest financial
Initially, companies tended
institutions in the world,
only
to
outsource
which relies on iSeva for
manufacturing and IT
complete mortgage origination support
application development and maintenance. In the
including customer handling, document
last three years, their focus has broadened to include
preparation, vendor management and closing
business processes such as customer care and backsupport, phone-based customer support.
office transaction processing. Customer care
The biggest consumer Internet service provider
offshore outsourcing is feasible for most processes
(ISP) in the United States, which engages iSeva
that are standardized, easily measured (in terms of
for inbound phone-based technical support,
service levels), centralized, and, in many cases, hightelemarketing, and outbound customer
volume.
acquisition.
Still not sure about whether offshore customer care is right for
Why have they selected iSeva? More value for less
your business? Read on as we discuss it in depth and highlight
— the universal cry of customers and the goal of
the business model, products, and services of iSeva, a pioneer
companies. With customers refusing to pay higher
in offshore customer care.
prices, companies have resorted to squeezing their
cost structures typically by reducing sales, general,
For a comprehensive discussion of offshore customer care, please see:
Offshore Outsourcing: Business Models, ROI and Best Practices (Mivar Press, 2004)
by Marcia Robinson and Ravi Kalakota.
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iSeva: Company Overview
the company’s locations, it can immediately shift
work to other locations with no interruption in
business processes. The multishore model adapts to
the changing requirements of clients and frees them
from investing in a huge team of employees. If there
is a sudden need for more resources, iSeva can
supply them at once and later relocate them to other,
more convenient locations.
Billing itself as a complete partner for electronic
customer relations management, or eCRM, iSeva has
been competing in the burgeoning outsourcing
industry since 1999. Headquartered in Dallas, Texas,
with offices in the Silicon Valley and operations in
Bangalore, iSeva has strictly focused on companies
in the financial services and consumer
high-tech markets. To these markets,
iSeva: A Global Presence
iSeva offers customer care and
acquisition services, transaction
Headquarters: Dallas, Texas
processing, and technology support.
Delivery centers: Bangalore,
Engaging iSeva allows companies to
India (50,000 sq ft campus in
concentrate on other aspects of their
Koramangala, Bangalore)
core business while the outsourcer
Alliances: the Philippines and
assumes primary responsibility for
Ireland
customer service.
Telecommunications
Infrastructure
Modern customer care and
telecommunications infrastructure are
inextricably linked. Customer care
centers that are not supported by
redundant and scalable
telecommunications infrastructure
have little value. When iSeva first
acquires a client, the first step it takes
is to reroute the new client’s telephone and data
communications to its contact centers in India. Its
wide area network (WAN) between India and the
United States has multiple, redundant private lines
from established telecom providers such as AT&T.
Regular investments in a college-educated
workforce, enterprise-grade infrastructure, and
globally benchmarked delivery processes help iSeva’s
clients dramatically decrease their operational costs
and improve the quality of their customer service.
iSeva gives companies the power to leverage
outsourcing as a long-term competitive advantage.
Technology Expertise
On the technology side, iSeva relies on best-of-breed
CRM solutions such as eGain and Clarify to help it
provide clients with the best possible customer
service. The company uses productivity-enhancing
tools in its contact centers to help manage the
workforce. It also routinely invests in technology
that enables it to continuously monitor and improve
the quality of customer service it delivers.
Business Model
Operating fluidly across several countries, iSeva has
adopted a global or multishore delivery model to
best serve clients. With headquarters in the United
States, operations and delivery centers in India, and
partnerships in Ireland and the Philippines, iSeva can
innovatively distribute and manage engagements
across multiple locations. If disaster strikes any of
Description: BPO firm specializing in customer care for financial services and
consumer high-tech industries
Founded: 1999 (Delaware ‘C’ Corporation); offshore operations in India started
in March 2000
Fast Facts
Employees: 800
Web Site: www.iseva.com
Ownership: Private; e4e is a major shareholder
Origin of Name: The word “seva” means service in Hindi.
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Quality Certifications
Quality assurance is of paramount importance to all
companies, and iSeva’s clients are no exception. The
service provider addresses these concerns by
performing a quality assessment for 100% of
projects, defining and documenting process flows
for each project, monitoring agents’ performances to
ensure they meet SLA stipulations, and certifying all
iSeva processes as compliant with ISO 9001:2000.
Current State of Offshore
Customer Care
Why Do Companies Offshore Customer Care?
• Reduce operating expenses (wages, healthcare
costs, facilities)
At some point, all customers must deal with a
contact center. The size of the contact center
industry underscores the broad role it has played in
modern business and in the rise of companies like
iSeva. Contact centers have a variety of names
including service centers, customer care centers,
support centers, and multi-channel support centers.
All are used interchangeably to describe the support
aspect of the customer care industry.
• Expand hours of service
• Improve quality and processes
• Support global operations
The Business Pressures
When you listen to companies explain why they have
chosen to outsource customer care three reasons
always surface: cost, flexibility, and quality.
According to E-Business Strategies research,
organizations spend an estimated $160–$180 billion
annually in direct expenditures to run contact
centers. Included in this figure are ongoing staff and
telecom costs, as well as capital expenditures on
technology and facilities. Finding, targeting,
supporting, and retaining customers, the core
themes of customer care, is a large and expensive
business. That expense is one key reason why
companies have begun outsourcing their contact
centers to offshore third-party providers.
The greatest expense of customer care centers is
labor. Companies become interested in offshoring
business processes to lower-wage countries such as
India because talent is available for a fraction of the
price it is available for in the United States. ISeva
hires only college-educated agents and has a
recruitment ratio of 1:20, a number that has doubled
with the rapid growth of industry in India. The
• By managing your business processes so you can focus on core competencies
How Can a
Customer Care
Provider Help
You?
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• By streamlining and improving your processes so you can realize significant cost
savings
• By helping you to adopt to the ever-changing needs of your business
• By ensuring control so that the service seems like it’s being delivered from
facilities across the street
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average monthly base salary of these agents is about
5,000 rupees, or $110. Top performers at iSeva
receive incentives on top of their base salaries, which
can be as much as 5,000–7,000 rupees per month.
The salary cost for a U.S. call center agent is around
$12 per hour, or $2,000 per month. The cost
difference is substantial, especially if you factor in
several thousand agents.
highly educated labor force is readily available. If
properly trained (iSeva’s new hires undergo 128
hours of induction training and 70 hours of product
training) these high-caliber workforces can be a
powerful advantage in improving overall service
quality.
One of the major problems contact centers regularly
encounter is turnover. People are the largest
component in a contact center, and retaining the
best people is key. Bringing a new agent up to speed
can take many weeks of costly training. In the
United States, many people perceive call center jobs
as dead-end, and turnover is high. Attrition rates in
India are rising as the offshore industry there grows,
so companies interested in offshore customer care
should pay particular attention to vendor’s employee
turnover rates and the steps they take to retain
valuable employees. iSeva takes pains to retain star
employees by rewarding them with frequent
incentives and by cultivating a rewarding, innovative,
stimulating workplace.
iSeva can easily handle large volumes of incoming
customer requests — voice and data — at peak
times. iSeva’s agents can serve as a release valve for
companies whose in-house centers may experience
an overflow, such as when a company rolls out a
new marketing campaign or product. Staffing for
peak times translates directly to costs. With offshore
resources more flexible and available, handling these
special situations becomes easier.
In countries such as the United States, filling call
center positions with university graduates is a
difficult, costly feat. However, in many countries, a
Offshore Customer Care Categories
Support
Support
Marketing
Marketing
Sales
Sales
Customer
Customer
self-service
self-service
Outbound
Outbound
E-mail
E-mail
Inbound
Inbound sales
sales
Billing
Billing query
query
resolution
resolution
Telemarketing
Telemarketing
Technical
Technical
Support
Support
Customer
Customer
Analytics
Analytics
Data
Data
verification
verification
Profitability
Profitability
analysis
analysis
Application
Application
processing
processing
Quality
Quality auditing
auditing
Outbound
Outbound sales
sales
Order
Order taking
taking
Account
Account
activation
activation
New
New customer
customer
registration
registration
Complaints
Complaints
Surveys
Surveys and
and
polling
polling
Inbound
Inbound e-mail
e-mail
Web
Web chat
chat and
and
Web
Web callback
callback
Co-browsing
Co-browsing
Reporting
Reporting
Address
Address
updates
updates
Complaint
Complaint
analysis
analysis
Help
Help desk
desk
Campaign
Campaign
management
management
Problem
Problem
resolution
resolution
Customer
Customer
winback
winback
Figure 1: Offshore Customer Care Processes
Source: Offshore Outsourcing: Business Models, ROI and Best Practices
www.ebstrategy.com
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addition, outbound e-mail campaigning and analysis
capabilities help target offers for effective customer
acquisition and retention.
Customer Relationship Management
Services
Outbound Phone Services help iSeva’s clients take
advantage of telesales and collection opportunities.
Web Chat and Collaboration Services assist
As part of induction, all iSeva’s college-educated
customers in completing forms and placing orders in
representatives undergo rigorous training in telesales.
real time. Web chat reduces the load on
The company also relies on technologies such as
overburdened call centers while offering customers
predictive dialing for efficiency, and sophisticated
fast, personalized service.
data capture and analysis
Clients have used iSeva’s Webcapabilities for a thorough
based contact services to
“Most of the players in India — that
understanding of end
provide general Web site
includes Daksh, that includes everycustomers. Typically, companies
assistance or to close “hot” sales
body — have gone for the scale game.
sign up for outbound phone
by checking out customers with
They are everything for everyone.
services when they want
full shopping carts or.
They will provide support to any and
assistance with customer
every company. We have focused on
Self-Service helps customers
two verticals: financial services and
acquisition, retention, winback,
consumer
high-tech
support.
Our
dohelp themselves. iSeva’s systems
and satisfaction surveys; fund
main expertise is a key differentiator.”
integration capabilities ensure
raising; collection calling and
that customers can find the
billing; telesales; and
- Vaibhav Tewari
answers to common questions
President, iSeva Inc.
telemarketing.
through Interactive Voice
Inbound Phone Services are
Response (IVR) and Web-based
available 24/7 and handle a spectrum of inbound
FAQs, thereby reducing the load on contact centers
customer needs such as billing inquiries, technical
and enhancing customer satisfaction through
support, and order taking. Adopting technologies
immediate access. iSeva’s self-service applications
such as ‘screen-pop,’ computer telephony integration
work well in a variety of situations such as customer
(CTI), and customer relationship management
account information, Web site usage and navigation,
(CRM) software ensures that customers receive
and service request logging.
prompt, accurate, and personalized attention. iSeva’s
Customer Service Consulting
reps also try to take advantage of cross-selling and
upselling opportunities.
iSeva has a dedicated client services group consisting
of professionals with experience from some of the
E-Mail-Based Customer Service is an inbound etop IT consulting firms in the field of CRM. iSeva’s
mail response service that iSeva developed to help
consulting group, which has worked on some of the
its clients’ customers use e-mail assistance
largest CRM consulting engagements, recommends,
effectively, thereby reducing the need for costly
designs, and integrates a technology solution to
investments in other customer service channels. In
Number of Call
Center Jobs
1
50
100
500
1,000
Total Compensation
in U.S.
$40,000
$2,000,000
$4,000,000
$20,000,000
$40,000,000
Total Compensation
in India
$5,000
$250,000
$500,000
$2,500,000
$5,000,000
Total Annual Savings
$35,000
$1,750,000
$3,500,000
$17,500,000
$35,000,000
Table 2: The Labor Savings from Offshore Customer Care Centers (Yearly Salary with Benefits and Incentives)
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deliver effective CRM services. The company also
has logged considerable experience in CRM program
and project management.
Systems Integration
Once the CRM requirements are well defined, iSeva
will determine how to incorporate the new
technology solution into the client’s business. iSeva’s
client services group manages the design and
implementation of the technology solution and is
well versed in leading CRM technology such as
Siebel, Clarify, and eGain.
During this phase, iSeva’s process and operations
group works closely with clients to ensure that
customer service processes are mapped to the
technology solution identified and a gap analysis for
the identified solution is performed. iSeva
documents relevant policies and guidelines for
training purposes, and works with clients to identify
quality and efficiency parameters important to them.
What Do iSeva’s Customer Service
Consultants Offer?
• Horizontal and vertical domain expertise
• Onshore, nearshore, and offshore strategy
• Process mapping and re-engineering
• Project management and process migration
Offering all these services has transformed iSeva
into a one-stop shop for customer care. Its clients
don’t have to worry about losing knowledge to
different vendors during each phase of a major
offshore CRM project.
licenses or operations of client-owned applications
or infrastructure, then all in-scope systems must be
identified and documented. Licenses, maintenance
agreements, hosting, and telecom infrastructure may
be part of the transition. Documentation, such as
training manuals and escalation procedures for
recurring problems, also figures prominently in
knowledge transfer.
iSeva’s Offshore Transition and Project
Management
The real work for iSeva and its clients begins once
the contract is signed. Transition management is a
critical factor in the success of offshore initiatives.
Transition management is defined as the detailed,
desk-level knowledge transfer and documentation of
all relevant tasks, technologies, workflows, and
functions slated for offshore outsourcing.
Quality Management During the
Transition
Quality management describes the processes
required for making sure that the contract is
fulfilling the business objectives for which it was
undertaken. It consists of quality planning,
assurance, and control. To guarantee quality, iSeva
received its ISO 9001 certification. Possessing this
certification puts many of iSeva’s clients at ease
because they know that iSeva will deploy a
consistent, high-quality process for analysis, design,
development, quality assurance, reporting, and
project monitoring and management.
The transition period is perhaps the most difficult
stage of an offshore endeavor, taking anywhere from
three months to a year to complete, so it’s important
that the vendor has established methods for
transition and project management.
Knowledge Transfer Between
Organizations
Knowledge transfer is the tricky task of bringing the
vendor’s employees up to speed on the internal
procedures and processes it will handle for the
client. It also involves technology transfer and
documentation. For example, if iSeva assumes
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Offshore Project Management
Building an offshore partnership requires much
effort and delicate handling by management. Any
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business model that distributes work across multiple
locations and involves many hand-offs requires close
coordination to manage service levels. It’s difficult
enough managing a project onsite; that problem is
amplified when a project is
undertaken on another continent.
Let’s see how iSeva has fared in managing the two
engagements that are described in the following
customer case study section.
iSeva’s Quality Certifications
iSeva’s Customer
Case Studies
The distance between iSeva and its
iSeva received ISO 9001:2000
clients puts a greater importance on
certification in July 2001 and
In stark contrast to offshore
project management to ensure
was the first call center
outsourcing giants such as Daksh or
deadlines are being met and
company in India to achieve it.
Wipro Spectramind that claim broad
reporting is timely and accurate.
industry knowledge, iSeva prefers to
iSeva has instituted the project
management process in Figure 3 in order to
differentiate itself based on its considerable expertise
eliminate confusion and guarantee clear
in providing end consumer technical support for
communications with the client.
software, as well as financial services such as
mortgage sourcing, servicing, and processing.
Clients and third-party offshore providers that don’t
pay attention to project management —
Clients such as a Fortune 10 global financial services
organizational changes, complex cultural dynamics,
company, a leading security software product
and inertia towards status quo — will struggle to
company, and the largest consumer Internet service
benefit from offshore outsourcing. Established,
provider in the United States can attest to iSeva’s
well-thought project management process flows like
experience in both of these domains. The two short
the one in Figure 3 are a necessity, not a luxury.
case studies, one from the financial services industry
Program Management
Business Process Migration
Outsourcing Platform
Design and Implementation
System
Integration
Web-based
Customer Care
Design
Requirements
Analysis
Business
Analysis
iSeva
System
Integration
Transaction
Processing
Technical
Support
Value
Added
Services
Table 2: Figure 2: iSeva’s Services
Source: iSeva
www.ebstrategy.com
Voice-based
Customer Care
Customer
Acquisition
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and the other from the high-tech industry, help
explain why businesses seeking assistance with
projects in either of these areas often turn to iSeva.
Financial Services Industry: Optimizing
the Mortgage Process
Cracking the top ten of the Fortune 500 list is an
occurrence that most companies can’t imagine. One
reason why ten lucky companies attain these coveted
spots is their willingness to hand off their back
rooms to other organizations that make them their
front rooms, as Peter Drucker and GE’s Jack Welch
have noted. These corporate giants aren’t afraid to
rely on trusted third-party providers such as iSeva to
get the job done in the most cost-effective, qualitycontrolled manner possible.
Financial Services Client
A household name and a full-service financial services
company.
Project Profile:
iSeva entrusted with handling inbound customer support
calls and telesales for multiple divisions in North America.
Project Highlights:
1. iSeva handles more than 100,000 customer
interactions a month.
Such is the relationship between iSeva and a Fortune
10 global financial services company. The two
signed a contract in which iSeva agreed to provide
customer support and acquisition services in
subprime lending for the financial services company.
Client
Customer
Support Mgmt.
2. Inbound customer care and help desk call volumes
exceed 50,000 monthly.
3. iSeva also handles about 30% of sales and customer
acquisition for one of the divisions.
Relationship
Manager
iSeva Quality
Manager
iSeva
Operations
Manager
Client
Customer
Support
Supervisors
Client
Customer
Support Group
iSeva Contact
Center Head
iSeva Customer,
Application, and
Infrastructure
Support Teams
iSeva Shift
Supervisor
iSeva
Client
Figure 3: Project Management at iSeva
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For more than two years, iSeva has managed one of
the longest running financial services marketing
campaigns for its client’s consumer finance
mortgage division.
angry customers and, eventually, decreased revenues
and market share as word spreads.
Technology businesses, however, often don’t
consider customer support a core competency and
will look outside company walls for an experienced
third-party vendor who is able to support their
products or services in a cost-effective, efficient
manner. That was the case when a leading small
office and home office (SOHO) networking product
company engaged iSeva to provide voice and e-mail
support for its connectivity solutions.
In particular, iSeva is responsible for acquiring new
customers and cross-selling through outbound
telemarketing; handling inbound inquires that arise
with mailers and other marketing activities;
completing loan applications according to federal
Form 1033; managing the lead list and compliance;
and sending warm transfers to the client’s loan
officers. iSeva’s responsibilities add up to 5,000
hours of outbound services and 1,000 hours of
inbound services each month.
Since the engagement began, iSeva has helped the
financial services company realize impressive gains.
The cost per $1,000 of loans booked has dropped by
50% in 12 months. The lead management process is
optimized with iSeva maximizing the 100,000
contacts it makes each month and efficiently
distributing the 2,700 leads generated monthly
among branches.
High-Tech Client
A leading SOHO networking product company.
iSeva has also had a chance to prove to its client its
ability to scale quickly: The BPO company added
100 hours per day in four weeks and inbound
support in six weeks, more than meeting the
requirements of the service level agreement, or SLA.
Project Profile:
The goal is to provide inbound support to North American
and European customers over the phone.
Project Highlights:
1. iSeva handles approximately 40,000 customer
interactions on average per month.
High-Tech Technical Support:
Increasing Customer Satisfaction with
Better Customer Service
2. More than 80% of interactions are complex and last
more than 12 minutes.
3. iSeva helped its client to achieve a 40% cost
reduction.
No technology company is complete without help
desk support for panicked, confused customers.
Failing to provide fast, friendly, knowledgeable
customer support guarantees technology companies
List of Mortgage
Processing Tasks
that can be
offshored:
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4. End customer satisfaction has exceeded the initial
target of 90%.
Sales and Marketing Support
Mortgage Origination Support
Document Preparation and Verification
Appraisal Follow-up for Credit, Title and
Property
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Closing and Funding Management
Status and Customer Management
Underwriter Support
Compliance and Audit
Lead List Management
E-Business Strategies’
Analysis and Conclusions
When the networking company’s residential and
corporate customers across the United States reach
for the phone or send e-mail to report a problem
with their router, wireless modem, wireless local area
network (LAN) hubs, or dial-up modem, an iSeva
representative often is waiting on the other end.
E-Business Strategies’ research indicates that, for
most companies, multi-channel customer contact
management is an area ripe for optimization.
Currently, most organizations’ contact centers are so
wrought with inefficiency that they don’t know how
much they spend on customer care. Savvy
businesses are turning to offshore customer care to
eliminate the unnecessary costs related to inefficient
enterprise CRM processes and reduce total costs
through systematic, strategic sourcing of customer
care services.
iSeva handles 60% of the networking company’s
technical support during the week and 100% on the
weekend. During these customer exchanges, iSeva
reps strive to increase customer satisfaction by
resolving issues on the first call. First-call resolution
is an important metric to monitor in addition to
average handle time. (See Table 3 for the definitions
of some commonly used metrics in the call center
industry.) If an issue isn’t handled on the first call,
the customer will keep phoning until it is, and ten
thirty-second customer calls quickly add up in
contrast to one thorough two-minute call.
Based on discussions with Fortune 1000 companies
deploying some level of offshore customer care
solution, E-Business Strategies identified five criteria
for choosing an offshore customer care vendor:
business health, references, operational expertise,
technology, and project management expertise. Let’s
evaluate iSeva along these dimensions.
The networking company’s decision to enlist iSeva’s
help with customer support has paid off. Since the
company hired iSeva, it has reported a 40% cost
reduction, call abandons have decreased by onethird, and customer satisfaction has risen above the
company’s target of 90%. The technology company
also benefits from iSeva’s product feedback, which it
gathers during customer interactions and periodically
relays to the company’s development team. In
addition, iSeva has proven its ability to handle
multiple product launches and promotions, which
allows its networking client to bring more products
to market faster and free of worry about its ability to
provide the necessary customer support.
Business Health. Few corporations are willing to
partner with a vendor whose future may be in
jeopardy. Several consecutive quarters of generating
cash flow add to iSeva’s reputation as a stable,
financially viable company. iSeva’s primary investor
is e4e Inc., a $250 million, full-service technology
holding company. Headquartered in Santa Clara,
California, e4e also has a Bangalore-based subsidiary
called e4eIndia.
Metric
Definition
Average handle time
Total talk time + transfer time + hold time + total wrap time / total
calls handled
Number of calls that can be handled without escalation
Total calls transferred / total calls handled
Total sales / total sales calls offered
Number of attempts to sell / total sales calls offered
Percentage score obtained on scoreboard used for daily call monitoring
Agreed-upon call volumes for the month
First call resolution
Transfer rate
Sales percentage
Attempt percentage
Quality
Monthly call volume
Table 3: Defining Common Call Center Metrics
www.ebstrategy.com
- 13 -
References. Customer care dealing with customer
Technology Expertise. The offshore customer
and technical help desk support is a front-line
care market has evolved to become more technology
process. Unfortunately, from the outside looking in,
based; underlying service quality still relies on the
it is often difficult to assess the quality of a vendor’s
experience and methodologies of the technology
support standards. E-Business
staff. A sample of what expertise
Strategies urges corporations shopping
companies need to consider in an
iSeva
Market
Opportunity
for offshore customer care solutions
offshore vendor includes technology
Industries Adopting
to obtain references. It is also
specialists who maintain an in-depth
important to ask about historical
knowledge of networks, servers, and
Insurance
customer retention rates. A vendor
applications.
Equity research firms
that loses a few customers owing to
Benefits and retirement
Project Management Expertise.
market consolidation or bankruptcy is
plan administrators
Offshore customer care requires
not outside the norm, but retention
Retail
extremely detailed project managers
rates below 95% deserve attention.
Travel and
who constantly monitor the nittyiSeva possesses a solid, easily
transportation
gritty details of day-to-day actions.
Banking and finance
referenced client list.
iSeva maintains a tight information
Pharmaceuticals
Operational Expertise. Corporations
loop with the customer’s staff,
Telecom
have to understand that they will need
offshore teams, and general project
to rely on vendor actions for day-tomanagement teams. The people
day customer care functions. As a result,
behind the offshore customer care solution make
corporations should partner with vendors who
this relationship a virtual extension of the
demonstrate domain-specific business process
corporation, eliminating the communications gap
management expertise. iSeva has several analysts
between the organizations.
dedicated to understanding how processes work so
After closing 2003 with 200% growth in revenues
that changes can happen quickly. iSeva also provides
and a strong pipeline of prospective clients, it’s
Web-based reporting interfaces so that worried
apparent that iSeva has successfully delivered
clients can monitor the operational metrics at any
exceptional offshore customer care to the financial
time.
services and consumer high-tech support markets
and will strive to do so in the future.
The information contained in this report represents the current view of E-Business Strategies (EBS) on the issues discussed as of the date of publication. It should not be interpreted to be a
commitment on the part of EBS or Sun Microsystems, Inc. and EBS cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information presented after the date of publication.
E-Business Strategies (EBS) is a technology research and management
consulting practice.
E-Business Strategies, Inc.
4080 McGinnis Ferry Road
Suite 603
Alpharetta, GA 30005
Phone: (00-1) 678-339-1236
Fax: (00-1) 678-339-9793
Email: [email protected]
Visit us on the Web:
www.ebstrategy.com
www.ebstrategy.com
Since its inception, the company’s focus has been on the 3C's — Conceptualize,
Communicate and Create. Known for our real-world experience, consultative
style, and pragmatic approach, EBS provides strategic guidance to clients by
delivering analysis, market research, white papers, and consulting services.
EBS is committed to helping its clients overcome market challenges and improve
their business practices. EBS specializes in e-business, mobile solutions, business
process outsourcing (BPO), offshore outsourcing, CRM, and Supply Chain
processes and technology architecture.
Focused on information technology enabled solutions, the company offers cuttingedge research, customized ROI consulting services, and innovative educational
programs. EBS services are designed to give companies the ability to sense, adapt
and respond quickly to changes in the marketplace.
- 14 -

iSeva - Information Systems Department

Transcription

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