Great expectations.are they realistic?

A recurring question in the minds of all credit union CEOs is what cost savings, marketing advantages, and service delivery benefits will be realized by implementing a call center? For the answer, management often looks to outside consultants, telecommunications vendors and colleagues who have already initiated a call center, hoping to capture the good, and escape the bad and the ugly! The correct answer, however, resides internally, with the credit union's staff, membership profile, operating philosophy, marketing goals and objectives, and service delivery strategies. Each credit union is unique. I have yet to find a template that has universal application; as a result, I urge credit union CEOs, and all who are responsible for call center implementation, to use organizational systemic thinking throughout the entire development and implementation process. Call centers are a delicate balance of people, processes, and technology. They must be carefully planned, not just evolve as often they do from central call volume overload! The technologies, staffing, and types of activities that are components of call center operations should be a product of deliberate service and operational strategies. All decisions in regard to the call center should support, and be in alignment with, the credit union's overall business plan. The call center is not just another branch. It is an extremely specialized marketing and operational arm of the credit union. The call center is a business in its own right - a very different business than running a credit union. That fact must be recognized. That revelation indicates the staff expertise, the unique processes, and the technology applications needed to successfully implement an effective and productive call center. In assisting credit unions in their call center applications, I offer a few suggestions that may be of help in avoiding the most common call center pitfalls: 1. Complete a comprehensive call center business plan before venturing into call center operations, and include the following: * Specific call center objectives; * All transactions and activities to be conducted in the center; * A cost-benefit analysis; * Telephone system configuration and call routing schematic; * Technology integration plan, including future applications; * Process, procedures, and documentation requirements for all activities conducted in the center * Equipment and space requirements with corresponding schematic; * Staffing summary: expertise needed, training, job description, salary range, and career progression; * Timetable action plan for purchase, installation and implementation of equipment, plus timetable for staffing and training. 2. Recognize that the processes used in credit union operations most likely will need to be modified, and streamlined, to be effective in a call center environment. Think through old processes and be willing to make changes. 3. Have key-staff representation from all departments responsible for various transaction, operations, data processing, lending and marketing processes involved in developing activity procedures and documentation requirements. 4. Have your telephone vendor and your data system vendor coordinate their efforts and ensure technology interface compatibility for all considered applications, current & future such as computer telephone integration (CTI) and sophisticated Internet applications. 5. Learn and monitor the critical call center statistics: service factor, hold time, wait time, number of calls transferred, talk time, abandon calls, length of time before abandoned, number of calls answered, number of calls in queue, and average speed of answer. 6. Send your call center manager to formal call center training; in addition, acquire a call center staffing software program. It is a necessary component of a productive, and an efficient call center. 7. Build into your business plan staffing thresholds triggered by call volume, which allows staff additions when needed, without additional approval. 8. Regulate call volume initially into the call center, to allow staff to become progressively proficient in a live environment. 9. Don't expect initial profitability. Each call center is designed to meet specific objectives - convenience, personal or customized service, and member retention. Increased and additional service use, and profit, are by-products of call center activity. 10. Be cognizant that this is a project in process, and is never completed! Call centers are fluid systems, an organization within an organization, and must remain responsive in a changing operating environment. A call center's effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity is a function of thorough planning; and through that exercise, you can experience the good, without the bad and the ugly!