Customer service call center to identify the current situation propose solutions to improve call center management at vinamilk

HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT MBQPM NGUYEN THI THUY HIEN CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL CENTER - TO IDENTIFY THE CURRENT SITUATION & PROPOSE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT AT VINAMILK MASTER FINAL PROJECT MASTER IN BUSINESS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Ho Chi Minh City (2018) HO CHI MINH CITY OPEN UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITÉ LIBRE DE BRUXELLES SOLVAY BRUSSELS SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT MBQPM NGUYEN THI THUY HIEN CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL CENTER - TO IDENTIFY THE CURRENT SITUATION & PROPOSE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT AT VINAMILK MASTER FINAL PROJECT MASTER IN BUSINESS QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT Tutor: Jacques Martin Ho Chi Minh City (2018) Statement of authentication I hereby declare that this dissertation is my original work, gathered and utilized especially to fulfil the purposes and objectives of this project, and has not been previously submitted to any other university for any degree I also declare that the publications cited in this work have been personally consulted Ho Chi Minh city, 26/03/2018 Nguyen Thi Thuy Hien Acknowledgements This work was accomplished in full at customer service care department of Vinamilk in Vietnam The research was supported by my supervisors at different periods in various capacities Considerable appreciation goes to my Professor Jacques Martin, who has been wondering about when I would write my final work He reshaped this thesis by offering various instructions on how to improve my research I also wish to thank my subordinates especially Tram who assist me a lot to conduct surveys, collect the results and with me to analyze the root-causes and brainstorm the actions Last but not least, I would like to thank my colleagues and the authorized customers/ suppliers who involved in this work Approval sheet This Project Paper hereto entitled CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL CENTER - TO IDENTIFY THE CURRENT SITUATION & PROPOSE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT AT VINAMILK prepared and submitted by Nguyen Thi Thuy Hien in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Business Quality and Performance Management has been examined, accepted and approved Academic Adviser Practical Adviser Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 1.1 Company’s background 1.2 Vision 1.3 Competitive Positioning 1.4 Product’s profile 1.5 Vinamilk Call Center PART 1: ISSUES ANALYSIS AND SOLUTION CHAPTER 1: POOR CALL CENTER OPERATION PERFORMANCE 1.1 Average On hold time ratio 1.1.1 Issue Analysis 1.1.2 Solution 1.2 Escalation ratio (Average call handoff frequency) 10 1.2.1 Issue Analysis 10 1.2.2 Solution 11 1.3 Poor 1st call resolution rate 17 1.3.1 Issue Analysis 17 1.3.2 Solution 18 CHAPTER 2: DATA SILOS IN VINAMILK CONTACT CENTER 23 2.1 Issue Analysis 23 2.2 Solution 24 CHAPTER 3: HIGH TURNOVER OF AGENT 28 3.1 Issue Analysis 28 3.2 Solution 29 3.2.1 Standards, Missions, and Policies 30 3.2.2 Employee Recruitment 30 3.2.3 Compensation 31 3.2.4 Training 32 3.2.5 Job Description 32 3.2.6 Promotions, Recognition, and Motivation 32 PART 2: IMPLEMENTATION PROGRESS 34 Master Plan 34 2 Improvement Actions 38 2.1 Reduce Average On Hold Time 38 2.2 Reduce First Call Resolution Rate 41 2.3 Data Silos Breakdown 46 Evaluation – KPI re-assessing 47 CONCLUSION 48 REFERENCES 49 APPENDIX 50 List of pictures and tables Figure Contact Center Roadmap Figure Customer service problems Figure Fonolo - cloud-based service Figure Escalation percentage at Vinamilk Call Center 11 Figure Data Silos 24 Figure The steps break down data silos 25 Figure Automation Method 28 Figure Call back rule 38 Figure Customer classification based on Service categories 39 Figure 10 Customer Priority 39 Figure 11 Schedule Adherence 40 Figure 12 Information Research System 41 Figure 13 Information Classification and Storage 41 Figure 14 Information Classifying process 42 Figure 15 Service complaints handling process 43 Figure 16 Product complaint handling process 44 Figure 17 Reporting system 45 Figure 18 Data intergration 46 Figure 19 KPI re-assessing 47 Table - IVR mapping challenges 13 Table - Usage scenario to break down data silos 26 Table - Data Integration Strategy 26 Table - Key Performance Indicators 26 Table - Call Center Implementation Progress 37 Appendices Appendix Six steps of Call Center 50 Appendix Information receiving process 51 Appendix Customer Service Strategies 52 Appendix CS Balanced Scorecard 56 INTRODUCTION Customer Satisfaction is essential to the success of any and all businesses At the time in which technological advances, cultural changes, and escalating customer expectations have rendered post-sale customer support more demanding than ever, the need for exemplary post sale services is greater than ever One of the most innovative methods to ensure all customer interactions result in satisfaction in terms of management of information and communication is the emergence of call centers This demand attributes to the increased level of education amongst the public There is also increased awareness on consumer rights and the expectation on products paid Call centers allow a company to build, maintain, and manage customer relationships by solving problems and resolving complaints quickly Call centers are the focal point of the firm to answer questions by customers every hour of the day throughout the 365 days in the year Therefore, it would appear that all quality organizations that place customer satisfaction and loyalty as their prime focus would strategize on call centers to communicate with current and new customers Enhancing productivity within the call center is the core target of customer service strategy at Vinamilk Vinamilk is the largest powerful dairy company in Vietnam and many of its brands are top selling product in Vietnam Moreover, the Vinamilk’s products also are exported to many countries, such as US, China and Singapore, etc It is worth pointing out that Vinamilk has hug customers in these markets because of the trust on their brand names which supports product with high quality and good services However, Vinamilk is faced with complicated issues in attracting consumers because of trust on their brand names which supports product with high quality and successful marketing 1.1 Company’s background Vinamilk, which is the acronym of Vietnam Dairy Product Joint Stock Company, started running into business in the name Southern Coffee Dairy Company in Vietnam in 1976 Some of its more familiar brands include Dielac, Ridielac, V-fresh, Goldsoy and Lincha There are more than 1500 people working directly for Vinamilk When it comes to dairy product, Vinamilk is known as a leader with 183 distributors and 94,000 selling points through 64 provinces and cities in Vietnam Furthermore, Vinamilk achieves certificates with ISO 9001- 2008 for products with high quality It is pointing out that Vinamilk holds 75% milk market in Vietnam as the achievement of practical business in Vietnam in for a long time In particular, the company ranks in top 15 the biggest Vietnamese brands by UNDP in 20015, Top largest private companies in Vietnam by VNR500 in 2017, top 200 Best Enterprise in Asia by Forbes Asia in 2017 and Top 10 Favorite Bands in Vietnam by Nielsen Singapore in 2016 Finally, the Vinamilk’s products have exported to U.S., France, Canada, Poland, Germany, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia 1.2 Vision The aim of Vinamilk is to keeps the first position in producing milk in domestic market and expands their business overseas To elaborate, CEO in Vinamilk get the goal that the company becomes the one of 50 leading dairy products over the world in next 10 years 1.3 Competitive Positioning Vinamilk has many big competitors in domestic and foreign market, such Nestle, Dutch Lady and Nutifood As a result, Vinamilk compete with these companies by satisfying the customer’s demand with the high quality of nutritional product It is worth pointing out that factories follow strict guidelines for packaging their goods to meet quality standards Moreover, the CEO’s Vinamilk think that in order to remain the leading dairy products in Vietnam, the company need to present a positive ethical image to the public to elaborate, Vinamilk actively contributes to social and community programs across Vietnam and has helped to improve the lives of many Vietnamese people Furthermore, Vinamilk creates Milk Fund to help educated young people, and to empower women, provide social and health care services for people in rural Vietnam 1.4 Product’s profile In order to support the customer’s need, Vinamilk places more value on making profits by selling fresh milk and powdered milk as its main products; and its addvalue products are condensed milk, yoghurt, cream and cheese In each product, Vinamilk brings many choices in favors and packaging size to their customer The catalog’s products are separated into main brands - Vinamilk, Dielac, Ridielac, V-Fresh, Icy, Lincha, Condensed milk and Soy milk 42 We build Information Classifying process to help information flow to appropriate destination: Figure 14 Information Classifying process 43 We build complaints handling process that divide customer complaints into different section: complaints about the service and complaints about the product Figure 15 Service complaints handling process 44 Figure 16 Product complaint handling process 45 We build the Reporting system which include over 200 reporting template that enable management level to quickly measure the team performance Figure 17 Reporting system ‘ 46 2.3 Data Silos Breakdown Data silos breakdown requires us to design the data integration so that all data can be integrated into data warehouse As the result, CSRs can track data in one click of mouse Chanels LTC Contact Center Backend Systems Reporting IVR PBX CTI VOICE Core System SUPERVISOR AGENT Outbound System Billing KB WebChat Data Warehouse SMS Inbound System CRM Quality Assurance Figure 18 Data intergration NAT/SAN 47 Evaluation – KPI re-assessing months after piloting and implementing solutions of technology, training; process and communication enhancement, we conduct the KPI re-assessment to measure the improvement On hold time has been significantly reduced from minutes to minute, which is very close to the standard ratio Next highest improvement is first call resolution, increase from 57% to 66% We see escalation ratio be improved from 1st tier to 2nd tier, where we have some constraints to observe the improvement among other tiers because the limited observing period Last but not least, CSAT customer satisfaction survey result shows the positive 10% increasing, which provide the green light for us to roll out recommended solution to other branch offices of Vinamilk across country Figure 19 KPI re-assessing 48 CONCLUSION When we offer a better run contact center focused on business performance optimization that dynamically changes to meet the needs of the market, the real winner is our customer They get the service they need, when they need it, in the most efficient way possible Call Center systems empowers us to really understand the qualitative and quantitative factors – and their relationships – that drive agent performance, contact center business performance and customer satisfaction As a result, operations, systems and training can be optimized to generate the desired business benefits Effective data integration creates the opportunity to increase sales, upsells, customer retention, customer satisfaction or whichever business metrics will make our contact center a strategic contributor to the business Given that the project to implement suggested solutions has been in progress, its results cannot be updated in this thesis in full Future work to continue is to implement solution for high turnover issue; data silos in Vinamilk Contact Center and re-access KPIs to see the improvement 49 REFERENCES ICT Strategic Plan for the Malaysian Public Sector: Standards, Policies and Guidelines for Establishing a Call Center Version 1: March 2004 Strauss, B & Seidel, W.2004 Complaint management: the heart of CRM Mason, OH: Thomson Publishing Zairi, M 2000 Managing Customer Dissastisfaction through effective complaints management systems The TQM Magazine, 12 (5), pp 331-335 50 APPENDIX IMPROVE AVERAGE ON-HOLD TIME RATIO Process 1: Six Steps of Call Center Appendix Six steps of Call Center 51 Process 2: Information receiving process Appendix Information receiving process 52 HIGH TURNOVER OF AGENT CS Team Balanced Scorecard: CS Team objectives and how they align with strategies Appendix Customer Service Strategies Objectives FINANCIAL F1 Efficiency Ordering to reduce logistics cost Measures % orders achieve Minimum truckload quantity % orders achieve full pallet quantity % loading -unloading time saving CUSTOMER Targets Initiatives - Review volume of individual order 50% and order frequency - Agree with customers the minimum order quantity (MOQ- which is full 70% pallets and truck load required) - Apply MOQ in ordering system so 30% that system can help block orders if not meet the criteria 53 Objectives C1 Increase customer Satisfaction through superior Execution Measures % calls logged in the call center during the month First Response time Average Resolution Time Complaints resolved on 1st contact Total number of solution offer per clients Complaint Escalation Rate C2 Exceed customer % Delivery On time, In expectations in Full, right SKU (CCFOTService delivery Case fill On Time) Targets 98% 90% within 24h 90% within days 80% 90% more than solutions Initiatives Apply Call Center Solutions: + Customer Engagement Management + Basic Routing/Reporting/ Recording + Callback Management + Quality Management + Skill base routing Set up knowledge base management and ensure all front office staff are well trained Conduct monthly training on soft skills and product/ service knowledge + Empower front door/ service staff (schedule of authorization) so that they can flexible solve problems as quick as possible + Random check (guest role/ or tracking recording) 10% + Apply Customer Case fill On Time (CCFOT) measurement and the associated loss tree method to improve the order to delivery process 95% Measure all losses from the point of the original order that the customer raises to the final receipt of the product by the customer 54 Objectives Measures % Returns (master data; order management) % Satisfaction rate C3 Increase customer Intimacy Joint Business Plan (number of meeting with Key Customer to share Business Plan; Frequency) Committed with KPIs shared with Customers Targets Initiatives + Build & daily updated master data of product: active SKU/ price/ promotion/ slide-in; master data of customer (ship to) + Monthly health- check master data 0.50% + Maintain delivery time window of customers + Standardize reason code of recall, main loss and define owners/ responsibility so that root causes can be analyzed and prompt actions + Understand customer’s expectation through survey -> conduct survey on 90% Jan 2018 Base on the results, define actions to raise the bar of satisfaction level + schedule with key customers on monthly/ quarterly meeting Quarterly + agree on the objectives and purpose of meeting + agree on the KPIs with customers 98% for Gold Customers Define Customer Segmentation and 95% for right sets of service for each silver segmentation Agree with customers customers on KPIs 90% for bronze customers INTERNAL PROCESS I1 Increase Operation Process efficiency to increase customer satisfaction Customer database accessibility Order auto validation % Return due to wrong order 100% users access master data base 80% 2% + Build & daily updated master data of product: active SKU/ price/ promotion/ slide-in; master data of customer (ship to) + Transparent master data report to all users of Customer Service + Ensure all users can access to report by provide accounts, conduct training + build application enable auto validate allocation; promotion; price; master data 55 Objectives Measures % Return due to wrong price/ master data I2 Enhance team productivity through technology and lean process % order completed within cut off time I2 Value-added Innovation Number of new service introduced Targets 1% 90% 90% completed Initiatives + evaluate order processing time spent per order + Evaluate team workload; restructure team + Build hand-book (for each function) > process and principles available to read or review apply above application can help gain this target + align with total supply chain on cutoff time of stock updated; + Review lead time of recall of sterilized milk + web online to enable customers place order anytime, anywhere; this web will integrate with company ERP system + build POS for retailers to suggest order (base on history order) and inventory management + Apply 2nd CCFOT for CVS customers + FIFO management (system) for Distributors Warehouse Operation + Zero Inventory Planning for top 10 Key Customers in HCM EMPLOYEE LEARNING AND GROWTH L1 Enhance Employee capabilities & strategic skills/knowledge Training investment per employee (# of course) Competences attainment - % of employees gaining new competences Number of crosstrained employee Percentage of employee with advanced degrees/certificate courses/ years/ - Identify professional skills and soft person skills required based on job descriptions -> skills gaps analyst + Conduct training (external; internal); online course 70% + On the job training (involved staff on projects operation) -> individuals can improved advanced skills through 5% project management : time management skills; planning skills; influencing skills 5% 56 Objectives L2 Talent building Measures Training hours on product and service offered % Potential talents achieve level of leadership competencies Targets Initiatives 100% (all Align with Marketing Dept to conduct new training course on new products products) - Conduct MBTI assessment for team > Understand individuals motivations - Define potential talents through below skills/ competencies evaluation: + Achievement Orientation + Continuous Improvement + Strategic Vision 5% + Team leadership + Develop others + Organization Commitment Raise level of above competencies through developing plans for each individual (on job training; secondment journey; cross functions working) Appendix CS Balanced Scorecard ... OF ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT MBQPM NGUYEN THI THUY HIEN CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL CENTER - TO IDENTIFY THE CURRENT SITUATION & PROPOSE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT AT VINAMILK MASTER... sheet This Project Paper hereto entitled CUSTOMER SERVICE CALL CENTER - TO IDENTIFY THE CURRENT SITUATION & PROPOSE SOLUTIONS TO IMPROVE CALL CENTER MANAGEMENT AT VINAMILK prepared and submitted... strategize on call centers to communicate with current and new customers Enhancing productivity within the call center is the core target of customer service strategy at Vinamilk Vinamilk is the