PROJECT: INE

Infrastructure and Technology Enhancement

In the Boost Mobile Call Center

Karly Derosena

Managerial Applications of Information Technology

DeVry University, Keller Graduate School of Management

February 16, 2014

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract 3

COMPANY BACKGROUND 3

BUSINESS PROBLEMS 4

HIGH-LEVEL SOLUTION 5

BENEFITS OF SOLVING THE PROBLEM 8

TECHNICAL APPROACH 8

HIGH-LEVEL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN 9

CHANGES TO TECHNOLOGY 10

SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS 10

CONCLUSION 11

REFERENCES 12

Abstract:

A call center is defined as a place where contacts are made and received. It is often the “front door” to a business and is the place where most crucial customer interactions take place. Therefore, its effective and efficient operation is a key ingredient to the overall success of any organization. Call centers are an increasingly important part of today’s business world, employing millions of agents across the globe and serving as a primary customer-facing channel for firms in many different industries. Call centers have been a prolific area for operations management in several domains, including forecasting, capacity planning, and personnel scheduling. In addition, as telecommunications and information technology have advanced over the past several years, the operational challenges faced by call center managers have become more complicated. Issues associated with human resources management, sales, and marketing have also become increasingly relevant to call center operations. In this proposal I am going to discuss the issues that are prevalent due to lack of infrastructure and networking within the Boost Mobile Corporation. The issues that will be address are Agent absenteeism, Staff attrition, Agent engagement, Flat structures, Poor first-call-resolution rates, Inability to improve performance levels Poor integration, Customer Dissatisfaction.

Company Background:

Boost Mobile, one of Sprint’s award-winning prepaid brands, offers wireless phones and services with no long-term contracts. Boost Mobile redefines value for wireless consumers with its Monthly Unlimited with Shrinkage no-contract service, where the longer you stay the less you pay with on-time payments for unlimited voice, text messaging, Web, email and calls to 411.

Boost Mobile offers nationwide service on the Sprint Nationwide Network, reaching more than 281 million people, with no activation or long-distance fees. Boost Mobile offers a selection of quality handsets from LG, Motorola, Research In Motion (RIM), Samsung, Kyocera and ZTE, ranging from entry-level to Android™ smart phone devices available nationwide at nearly 20,000 major retail stores, including Best Buy, RadioShack, Target, Family Dollar, Walgreens and Wal-Mart, Sprint retail stores, independent wireless dealer locations, and on HSN, a leading TV home shopping network. Re-Boost® cards are available at approximately 100,000 locations throughout the United States. Experience Boost Mobile on the Web at MySpace, Face Book and Twitter; and purchase products at www.boostmobile.com.

Business Problems:

Based in Irvine, California, Boost Mobile, LLC, a subsidiary of Sprint (NYSE: S), is a lifestyle-based telecommunications brand focused on offering premium Pay-As-You-Go wireless phones and voice data services to the youth market. Since 2002, Boost Mobile’s quality products and unique branding efforts, which fuse action and urban sports, music, fashion and entertainment, have enabled youth to boost their lifestyle and status, build stronger connections and achieve greater independence. Boost Mobile is now recognized as a brand that embraces diverse youth culture, lifestyles and interests. Boost brand recognition among American youth has generated rapid success, making it one of the fastest growing wireless services in the U.S. Boost has more than 4.5 million customers and is available nationwide where approximately 250 million people live, work and play. Boost-branded wireless phones with its exclusive Nationwide Boost™ Walkie-Talkie service and Re-Boost™ cards are available at locations where youth prefer to shop, including national retailers and convenience stores, and merchants that focus on fashion, music and action sports-related activities. The one unvarying issue that has been linked to Boost Mobile is the customer service from the call centers.

The lack of infrastructure and technology in Boost Mobile Corporation call centers are affecting four vital areas. Those areas are Workforce Management which covers (Agent absenteeism, Staff attrition, and Agent engagement), Quality Management which entails (Agent engagement, Flat structures), Technology Management (Poor first-call-resolution rates, Inability to improve performance levels Poor integration, soaring number of dropped calls), Reporting and Communications (Employee and Customer Dissatisfaction).

High-Level Solution:

Workforce Management

In order to affect turnover, Boost Mobile first need is to identify why employees leave, why employees stay, and the costs associated with retention and replacement. Managers and front line leaders must look at their resources and learn to maximize those resources in the ‘new normal’ work environment. Managers and front line leaders need to ask: How do I retain my employees in the most positive, productive, proactive environment possible? The solution is

HR and front line leaders must work together to make the most of their talent. Everyone from top to bottom must be aligned with the corporate goals, strategy, and the talent and human capital assets. Talent management cannot take place in a vacuum and expect to help business growth and profitability. Managers must play an active role in recruiting the right talent, developing their team, giving productive performance feedback, creating an engaging environment, identifying critical roles, and retaining critical skills and talent.

Quality Management:

In addition to the employee turnover, research gathered from within suggests that employee engagement contributes directly to the bottom line. Engagement is seen as a heightened level of commitment and ownership where an employee wants to do whatever they can for the benefit of their internal and external customers, and for the success of the organization as a whole. Engagement suggests that people are motivated by intrinsic factors (e.g. personal growth, working to a common purpose, being part of a larger vision) rather than simply focusing on extrinsic factors (e.g., pay, bonuses, and rewards). According to an October 2011 Gallup Management study, only 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs.

In contrast, according to a Profiles International study of 8,000 employees in a cross-section of industries, about $350 billion per year is lost because of employee disengagement. Many employees today are stressed due to constantly giving or being asked to contribute 110 percent on the job – to do more with fewer staff, work long hours and handle work-related issues after hours from home. Most people have more stress at home during these challenging times as well possibly taking care of aging parents, less income if only one spouse is working, or other home demands. They are willing to go the ‘extra mile’ for the company, but they are growing increasingly cynical because they see leaders often saying one thing and doing another.

This stress can lead to a condition known as Presenteeism. The term "presenteeism" was coined by Professor Cary Cooper in the mid-90’s, a psychologist specializing in organizational management at Manchester University in the UK. There are many definitions floating around, but generally it is defined as the practice of coming to work despite illness, injury, anxiety, etc., often resulting in reduced productivity or the practice of working long hours without performing real work, such as spending time surfing the web, chatting, or texting.

I recommend knowing the core behaviors, capabilities, and interests of your employees and make strong efforts to place them into jobs in which they best fit. Also survey your employees to identify how the organization might use their abilities better

Technology Management:

The technology and infrastructure recommendations will improve call center efficiency by:

•Automatic Call Distribution (ACD) - Using sophisticated routing policies, route callers to the right queue, with the right priority, and route them to the next available agent with the correct skills

•IVR/Auto Attendant - Guide callers through with self-service applications, using voice or video prompts, to identify the best employee or agent

•Queuing - Checks that incoming callers do not receive a busy signal or no answer, and that any employee - even when mobile - can pick up the call

•UC Integration - Enable agents to manage any situation quickly with peers and supervisors, with integrated chat, presence, email and conferencing; as well as integration with CRM and other business applications

•Agent Virtualization - Virtual pools (ACD groups) of agents can be created that span the globe, ensuring follow-the-sun support with a workforce that can log in from anywhere

•Monitoring and Reporting - Ensure a quality experience by monitoring agents, utilizing whisper messages, barge in and emergency escalation when needed, and gain insight into performance with both historical and real-time reporting

•Agent and Supervisor Clients - Web agent and supervisor clients provide a next generation look and feel for call center management, providing a comprehensive yet easy to use interface that helps end users efficiently manage their fast-paced workflow, from anywhere with an Internet connection.

Benefits of Solving the Problem:

The implementation of the enhanced infrastructure and Technology will:

• Improved quality of the system arising from more accurate user requirements and Input.

• Avoiding costly system features that the customer service agents did not want or cannot use.

• Improved levels of acceptance of the system and an enhanced workplace satisfaction.

• Greater understanding of the system by the customer service agents resulting in more effective use and higher productivity.

• Increased customer satisfaction

• Increase the effectiveness and efficiency of contact center services

• Perform better against competitors

• Improve customer loyalty and engagement

• Eliminate waste and reduce costs

• Develop agent skills

• Benchmark and analyze contact center operations

• Integrate social media and social care in the customer interaction strategy

• Create a 360-degree view of the customer

• Meet service-level targets

Business Approach:

Remote agents offer a host of benefits. The Boost mobile Organizations will suddenly have access to a much greater pool of talent, often at a lower cost. The agents who work remotely often will be more satisfied with their work environment and are likely to remain employed longer, reducing turnover and training costs. Boost Mobile will also have much more flexibility for managing spikes and reductions in agent demand, and they will save money both on real estate costs and by maintaining fewer public switched telephone network (PSTN) trunks. In the event of a disaster scenario, agents can keep customer contact afloat if the main contact center goes down. The Telework Advisory Group for Worldat Work (the association of human resources professionals worldwide) predicts that remote agents can save Boost Mobile organization $25,000 per teleworking agent when compared with traditional staffing alternatives.

High-level Implementation Plan:

Virtual contact centers aren’t technologically complex. With a minimal setup (a desktop or notebook computer for the agent, a fast Internet connection, a headset and access to the contact center network), remote agents can have the same functionality as onsite agents. With UC and a phone system or predictive dialer system, supervisors can monitor calls and communicate with agents as required.

Changes to Technology:

New call treatment and routing features make for a smoother experience for all.

Queue prioritization: Pushes designated “priority” calls ahead of other calls

Custom greetings: Answers call with customers’ names or other categorized unique greeting

Conditional Routing: Assesses queue conditions before routing calls to avoid burdening agents

Last-agent routing: Ensures that customers are reconnected to the same agent they spoke to earlier

Queue music preference: Varies the wait music being played according to customer information

Summary of Recommendations:

By participating in this call center training course Boost Mobile will develop awareness, competence and support for improved retention throughout their organization. Agent turnover will no longer be a silent killer of call center productivity. Boost Mobile will learn new ways to actively engage agents on all levels and build a culture of retention with long-term payoffs and higher profits.
Attend this one-of-a-kind training course and learn how to: • Identify why your agents join, stay and leave • Use key technology that will help build internal allies in your fight against turnover • Drive retention with goals and accountabilities for all leaders, including first-line supervisors, and customer service agents • Calculate the business and financial costs of losing talented agents and quantify the value of keeping them • Assess the strengths and weaknesses of your organization's current retention strategies • Develop retention strategies that go beyond pay, benefits and recognition programs to create a culture of competency and commitment • Build concrete plans that can be immediately implemented in Boost organization

CONCLUSION:

Customer service agent employees are the backbone of any contact center success and managers are the critical muscles and nerve centers that hold the framework of the business together. When turnover is high, business leaders face increased costs associated with recruiting, selecting, and training replacements. Other, more-difficult-to-quantify effects also arise, such as declines in productivity, morale, customer satisfaction and innovation.

As the technology and infrastructure improves and the demand for many skills increases, reducing turnover will become increasingly important for the Boost Mobile organization. Talented employees who stay during the challenging work environment may find better offers from other organizations. Making changes now in the employee experience may encourage them to stay, re-engage, and grow with the current company. Tracking turnover is a must, but analyzing the data, leading effectively, and proactively managing turnover is a win-win situation for employees, for Boost, and Boost’s bottom line.

References

1. Contact Center (2013, February 23). Retrieved from the EDTECH Magazine website:

http://www.edtechmagazine.com/higher/sites/edtechmagazine.com.higher/files/the-customer-comes-first.pdf

2. Barlow, J. & Moller, C. (1996). A complaint is a gift: using customer feedback as a strategic tool. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. 3. Klenke, M. (2004). Business school essentials for call center leaders. Nashville, TN: The Call Center School Press. 4. Reynolds, P. (2003). Call center staffing: the complete, practical guide to workforce management. Nashville, TN: The Call Center School Press. 5. Van Bennekom, F.C. (2002). Customer surveying: a guidebook for service managers. Bolton, MA: Customer Service Press.