Improving operational measures in a financial institute call center: a case study

Abstract

This article presents a case study that shows the impact of a proposed method of performance measures in a call center service system in one of the largest financial institutions in Israel. It proposes a policy for load-reduction in the peak hours coupled with an improvement in the automated routing of customers’ calls. The case study shows the system's current state, and offers improvements to shorten the overall service time while increasing utilization of service personnel in order to decrease the abandon rate (AR) and increase service quality. The article starts by introducing the financial institute and its telephone service structure, the unique characteristic of the current service system, the different types of customers and their characteristics, the utilization of the system and emphasizes the phone call duration and AR. In addition, the article shows a simulation of the current state with an analysis of current service. It compares the current system with an alternative service system that aims at improving the main performance measures including average wait time (AWT), service personel utilization time, and customer abandon rate. The proposed system includes additional "back office" with a callback system to reduce churn rate, and improved the IVR routing. The proposed service system was simulated and all the service measurement was tested statistically. The results indicated a significant improvement in terms of service measurements between the current and the proposed system. Operators’ utilization increased, while abandoning rate decreased significantly.