How Coforge optimized Travel Call Center Operations for one of the largest Airlines in the Middle East
Overview.
Our customer is one of the largest airlines in Middle East. The airline operates more than 1,000 flights per week to over 120 destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America.
The Travel Call Centre operations had to be optimised to improve operational efficiencies, eliminate hands off, streamline processes and identify areas of improvement.
The objective was to study the client’s contact center operations and recommend initiatives that would result in improved current operational efficiencies by 35%, streamline processes and automate.
There were several challenges that the team faced on a day-to-day basis which were divided into 3 areas, People, Process and Technology. Some of them were:
People Minimum skills were not defined for any customer-related jobs. There was a lack of analysis and no key performance attributes for measuring hiring effectiveness had been identified.
Process The sales approach was observed to be more ‘suggestive’ than ‘assertive’, and plagued with long wait times for in-cue customers. There were technology limitations in IVR, knowledge management, integrated CRM etc. and no distinction between agents by calls type or skills.
Technology Telecom infrastructure was due for refresh and lacked modern functionality. The recording system was ad hoc and manual. There was no CRM to capture customer information. Complaints were escalated using paper forms and the WFM tool was missing.
Solution.
The consulting assignment involved study of client’s Contact Center Operations including General reservations, international, process management and the existing IT being used to support the operations. Based on the study we conducted, recommendations were made for further improving operational efficiencies. A review was done of the existing process and gaps identified through data analysis. Coforge conducted interviews, held discussions with owners and SMEs to understand functional and transactional flows. Functional study of the call center included hiring, training, operations, Quality, WFM and technology. Our team also studied the dispatch process to reduce interactions between call center agent and dispatcher.
Coforge had to enhance user experience, reduce calls through channel shift, recommend IVR processing in cancellations, streamline existing processes and optimize costs for the call center.
Coforge mapped existing applications and tools, identified challenges in current technology and proposed technology enhancements.
The impact.
9%
Reduction in number of calls through IVR processing and channel shift
16%
Reduction in call time through automation and removing non-value adds
80%
Reduction in dependency between call center agents and dispatch team
65% to 80%.
Agent utilization improved
The recommendations by Coforge resulted in
Reduction in number of calls by 9% through IVR processing and channel shift
Reduction in call time by 16% through automation and removing non-value adds
Reduction in number of calls through various automations
Reduction in dependency between call center agents and dispatch team by 80%
Agent utilization improved from 65% to 80%.
Coforge managed to change the game for the call center by diving deep into the processes and functioning. The issues and challenges were segregated into 3 categories namely people, process and technology and then addressed. 24 opportunities were identified and categorized, and recommendations were proposed for each. The ProcessGym team along with the Operations and Quality teams optimized costs for the call center
