rca diamond

12
viewpoint Volume 4 Number 1 Mark Keeley Managing Partner, Telecom & High Tech Practice Strategy & Business Analytics 312.255.5642 [email protected] Contact: © 2004 DiamondCluster International, Inc. All rights reserved. This Viewpoint was prepared by Steve Rudolph, Amaresh Tripathy, and Michel DiCapua. Steve Rudolph Principal, Telecom & High Tech Practice Strategy & Business Analytics 312.268.3752 [email protected] OR I. II. III. IV. V. The discussion includes: Need for Strategic Root Cause Analysis in Customer Service Challenges of Strategic Root Cause Analysis Identifying Drivers of Dissatisfaction – Crafting the Solution Benefits Can Your Company Find the Root Causes of Customer Dissatisfaction? A Root Cause Analysis Strategy for Improving Customer Satisfaction Introduction In the largely agrarian 17th century economy, farmers struggled to improve centuries-old inefficient processes. Traditionally, seeds were thrown, or "broadcast," which made it difficult to weed and harvest the crop. Finally, farmers used a "dibber," a board with holes evenly spread apart, for planting crops. A stick would be pushed through the holes, and a seed placed in the hole made by the stick. This was effective and targeted but also tedious and time-consuming. It was during this time that a farmer named Jethro Tull (in addition to inspiring flute-playing rock-and- rollers everywhere), invented the seed drill using parts from the foot pedals of his local church organ. Tull's drill sowed seeds in uniform distance and the runners on the drill made holes that allowed the seeds to be sowed at uniform depths. It also enabled a consistent, precise method for harvesting since the seeds would grow in predictable patterns. Ultimately, his invention enabled mechanized farming and is recognized as one of the driving forces of the industrial revolution. In many ways, customer service operations today are riddled with the same inefficiencies that were faced by 17th century farmers. This paper examines the successful, innovative and cost-effective solution one customer-centric company deployed to identify and address the causes of customer dissatisfaction. “What Can Jethro Tull Teach Us About Customer Service?"

Upload: khoathyp

Post on 14-Sep-2014

53 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: RCA Diamond

vie

wp

oin

tVolume 4Number 1

Mark Keeley

Managing Partner, Telecom & High Tech Practice

Strategy & Business Analytics

312.255.5642

[email protected]

Contact:

© 2004 DiamondCluster International, Inc. All rights reserved.

This Viewpoint was prepared by Steve Rudolph, Amaresh Tripathy, and Michel DiCapua.

Steve Rudolph

Principal, Telecom & High Tech Practice

Strategy & Business Analytics

312.268.3752

[email protected]

OR

I.

II.

III.

IV.

V.

The discussion includes:

Need for Strategic Root CauseAnalysis in Customer Service

Challenges of Strategic RootCause Analysis

Identifying Drivers ofDissatisfaction – Crafting theSolution

Benefits

Can Your Company Find the RootCauses of CustomerDissatisfaction?

A Root Cause Analysis Strategy forImproving Customer Satisfaction

Introduction

In the largely agrarian 17th century economy,

farmers struggled to improve centuries-old

inefficient processes. Traditionally, seeds

were thrown, or "broadcast," which made it

difficult to weed and harvest the crop. Finally,

farmers used a "dibber," a board with holes

evenly spread apart, for planting crops. A

stick would be pushed through the holes, and

a seed placed in the hole made by the stick.

This was effective and targeted but also

tedious and time-consuming. It was during

this time that a farmer named Jethro Tull (in

addition to inspiring flute-playing rock-and-

rollers everywhere), invented the seed drill

using parts from the foot pedals of his local

church organ. Tull's drill sowed seeds in

uniform distance and the runners on the drill

made holes that allowed the seeds to be

sowed at uniform depths. It also enabled a

consistent, precise method for harvesting

since the seeds would grow in predictable

patterns. Ultimately, his invention enabled

mechanized farming and is recognized as one

of the driving forces of the industrial

revolution.

In many ways, customer service operations

today are riddled with the same inefficiencies

that were faced by 17th century farmers. This

paper examines the successful, innovative and

cost-effective solution one customer-centric

company deployed to identify and address the

causes of customer dissatisfaction.

“What Can Jethro Tull Teach Us

About Customer Service?"

Page 2: RCA Diamond

vie

wp

oin

t

2

Despite all of the money spent on customer

satisfaction and CRM systems, many

companies are no closer than they were 20

years ago in understanding the specific drivers

of customer dissatisfaction. With only 16% of

companies stating that CRM implementations

result in "measurably improved business

performance," the most basic questions still

remain unanswered:

Just as Tull's seed drill mated the range

afforded by the broadcasting process with the

targeted precision offered by the dibber,

answering customer service questions

requires a strategic approach that is at once

wide-ranging and targeted.

This paper outlines a root cause analysis

strategy developed by DiamondCluster in

collaboration with a national

telecommunications carrier

.

1

to address

customer service issues

1Krass, Peter, "CRM: Once More, Without Reeling," , March 17, 2003. Citing AMR Research, Krass notes

the following percentages of companies achieving various levels of success with CRM implementations: 12% - Failure:

started but failed to go live; 47% - Implemented: went live, succeeded in the technology aspects, but business change

and adoption failed; 25% - Adopted: Succeeded in both adoption and systems, but could not quantify business benefit;

16% - Improved performance: Reached the promised land. It measurably improved business performance.

CFO Magazine

Why are customers dissatisfied?

Why are customers calling care?

Why do customers defect?

And most importantly: What can we

do to increase customer satisfaction

cost-effectively?

Root cause analysis reveals the underlying

causes behind customer dissatisfaction and

leads to targeted actions to resolve them. It is

based on the understanding that strategic,

rather than merely operational, methods are

required if companies aim to be serious about

solving the challenges of customer

satisfaction.

The strategy follows the design and

implementation of "code-based intervention."

Code-based intervention enables targeted call

monitoring and analysis by employing a

coding schema for inbound calls that is then

matched to actual call recordings. In this way

the carrier can hypothesize about root causes

and subsequently validate, quantify, and

tactically respond to these problems. When

combined with existing primary and

secondary research tactics, code-based

intervention greatly increases a company’s

confidence in decisions that have far-reaching

impacts on customer satisfaction, retention,

and the cost of service.

Implemented for less than $1million, the

solution has allowed the carrier to identify

over $60 million in variable cost savings

within the first 6 months after

implementation.

Page 3: RCA Diamond

I

3

Need for Strategic Root CauseAnalysis in Customer Service

Conventional approaches to customer

dissatisfaction have encountered the

weaknesses of either the broadcasting

technique or the dibber. Traditionally,

companies have used primary research tools

such as customer surveys and focus groups to

understand customer dissatisfaction. They

rely on third-party firms who are divorced

from the day-to-day business operations. A

broad analysis such as a closed-ended

customer satisfaction survey may capture

general feedback: customers are disgruntled

with the company's customer service; or

customers primarily choose products based on

price; or the company suffers from an overly-

conservative brand. But these types of results

are often already obvious or are not specific

enough to be actionable. Additionally, self-

selection or other biases to which surveys and

focus groups are prone may skew the results.

Similar to broadcasting, there is no efficient

and clear way of harvesting actionable

information from this process.

On the other hand, more rigorous hands-on

analysis, such as live monitoring of inbound

calls, suffers from the same issues as the

dibber. It is very time-consuming and

expensive to make the process effective and

actionable. A small sample of calls may give

the listener insightful detail into particular

customer concerns but it may not be

representative of the customer population as

a whole. Conversely, the call may be

representative of the customer population but

due to the broad range of issues covered in

the calls monitored, may not be sufficiently

detailed or actionable.

As the shortcomings of these methodologies

are exposed, the need for a strategic

approach to customer service becomes even

more important. Barriers to switching

between products or service providers are

constantly falling. The growth of the Internet

has empowered customers with access to a

wider range of consumer choices in an

increasingly competitive business

environment. Customers are becoming savvier

in their choices and would not give a second

thought to switching loyalties when faced

with a situation where their needs are not

consistently met. These current realities,

coupled with regulatory changes, such as

number portability in telecommunications and

HIPAA in the healthcare industry, make

dissatisfied customers even more likely to

defect. In short, companies in many industries

need to be able to identify drivers of

dissatisfaction in order to reduce costs,

increase customer satisfaction, and prevent

defection (churn). Moreover, companies need

to strike a careful balance between cost

reduction and the potential loss of customer

satisfaction. In most cases, this is easier said

than done.

“Companies in many industries

need to be able to identify

drivers of dissatisfaction in order

to reduce costs, increase

customer satisfaction, and

prevent defection.”

Page 4: RCA Diamond

4

A wireless telecommunications operator was facing high call

volume in customer service operations and declining customer

satisfaction. The average call per subscriber was above the

industry benchmark. With the cost between $3-$5 per call,

customer service operations were a significant portion of their

general and administrative expense. Realizing that customer

service is a key competitive lever in an industry with declining

margins and high churn, the operator decided to elevate their

customer service operations from a tactical to a strategic level.

The carrier charted a three-step process:

Creating a coding schema for inbound calls, allowing the

operator to categorize the root cause prompting a customer call

and to obtain a "radar view" of the issues;

Developing a statistically significant tentative causal model

for the relationship between coded events and their value (i.e.

hypothesize and prioritize);

Intervening when the causal relationship is established

("deep-dive" analysis) – and creating strategies/tactics to

address and resolve the issues.

The solution integrated statistical process analysis with off-the-

shelf technology already in use by the call centers. It also

required staffing a specialized root cause analysis team to

support the ongoing process. The solution allowed the carrier to

conduct accurate, actionable, cost-effective root cause analysis

for the first time. This paper explores the challenges presented

by strategic root cause analysis, how the solution created by the

organization met their challenges, the benefits achieved, the

obstacles that were faced in implementation and execution, and

the applicability of this solution to identifying drivers of

dissatisfaction in other industries.

1)

2)

3)

Keeping Customer Service a Key Competitive Lever

CASE STUDY

Page 5: RCA Diamond

II

5

Many companies perform some type of root cause analysis to drive out the underlying reasons of

customer dissatisfaction; however, most do not validate and quantify their hypotheses prior to

implementing proposed solutions.

Strategic Root Cause Analysis Overview

A

B

C

D

E

F

An

aly

zeim

pa

ct

of

resu

lts

tod

ete

rmin

efu

ture

imp

rove

me

nts

Gather Data

GenerateHypotheses

Validate& Quantify

DevelopAction Plan

ImplementActions

Track Results

Objective

� A lightweight front-end to existingoperational and transaction systems toallow a faster, more flexible application

� Generate hypotheses as to theunderlying causes of customerinteractions based on available datasources

� Validate hypotheses through directobservation (call monitoring, marketsurveys) and statistical analysis

� Identify the “quick hits” and long-termchanges required to optimize thetargeted customer interaction

� Form teams to implement requiredactions across the organization

� Track the impact of the results anddetermine if the root cause has beenaddressed

Outputs

� Summary of available data; determinelevel of statistical accuracy andactionability

� Brief articulation of several keyhypotheses that need to be validated ordisproved

� Quantification of detailed reasons forroot causes of customer interactions

� Detailed workplan: timeline,dependencies, and responsibilities

� Implementation of identified actions

� Resolution of problem or generation ofnew hypotheses if not resolved

Typical Issues

� Current data sources and collectionmethods require revision to ensureaccuracy and actionability

� Hypotheses often based on incompleteor anecdotal evidence (e.g. Executivecomplaints, one-off call monitoring)

� Resources and methodology notavailable to perform “deep dive” ofstrategic root causes of dissatisfaction

� Determining proper action difficultwithout understanding of specific,actionable causes of dissatisfaction

� Implementation cannot be prioritizedcorrectly without validating scope orscale of problem

� Data sources and tracing methodologynot available to track results and isolateimpact of actions

Challenges of Strategic Root Cause Analysis

Do you ever wonder why you often hear the

message, "Your call may be monitored for

quality assurance purposes," but you seldom

hear, "This call may be monitored for the

purpose of improving customer satisfaction?"

Most likely, the reason is that many

companies perform primary analysis for purely

operational reasons. The carrier in the case

study (p.4), for example, was already

performing call monitoring on a regular basis.

Nonetheless, when it did so, the monitoring

was typically targeted at the agent level,

enabling call center managers to grade their

specialists. Call monitoring for root cause

analysis purposes, on the other hand,

represents a strategic version of primary

analysis. Indeed, many companies are not

accustomed to leveraging a tool such as call

monitoring for strategic purposes such as

understanding and improving customer

satisfaction.

Yet even for those companies that do use

primary analysis to address customer

satisfaction, it is extremely difficult to

validate and quantify the extent of customer

satisfaction issues, forcing most companies to

jump from hypothesis generation immediately

to implementation. Often, problems are

identified through anecdotal information – the

"problem of the moment" that catches the

attention of a customer service supervisor or

department VP.

Page 6: RCA Diamond

6

There are typically two problems encountered

by companies that attempt a systemic

validation and quantification of hypotheses

through primary analysis. The first problem is

that many forms of primary analysis have

basic statistical biases. An outbound survey

of sources of customer satisfaction and

dissatisfaction may evoke responses from

only the most frustrated customers with the

most reason to vent (or, it may be asymmetric

on the other side, drawing responses only

from the most pleased customers who are

happy to contribute a short amount of time to

their preferred service provider). If the first

problem with primary analysis conducted

through surveys and focus groups is the

slippery slope of bias, the second problem is

that primary analysis conducted too broadly

(e.g. through generalized call monitoring)

gives statistically valid and believable results

but which are often too obvious and

generalized to be actionable.

Based on our extensive work with

telecommunications carriers there are two

alternatives they typically consider in

executing primary analysis through call

monitoring that is at once broad enough to

give statistically valid, unbiased results as

well as detailed enough to provide actionable

conclusions. Either the company hires a large

team dedicated exclusively to monitoring and

analyzing large, random sets of calls, or the

company tries to implement sophisticated

automated tools to perform these functions.

Both solutions turn out to have drawbacks.

Hiring a team of call monitors is prohibitive

due to labor costs and the massive amount of

data that requires analysis. Automated call

monitoring tools have various strategic or

technological shortcomings. For example,

text-mining software (which combs through

notes typed in by specialists as they listen to

calls) is vulnerable to inaccuracy, sensitive to

user-defined key words, and prone to human

typing errors. Also, notes entered by

customer service reps often contain the

solution to the problem (e.g. "gave customer

$5 credit"), rather than the root cause of the

trouble (e.g. "customer stated that they were

misinformed of service fee"). On the more

technical side, voice recognition systems

would be useful but may not yet be ready for

implementation.

It is clear that sound root cause analysis is

required to strategically address customer

dissatisfaction, and that such analysis is

dependent on some form of primary analysis.

But it is also clear that conventional call

monitoring approaches either do not make

economic sense or fail to provide significant

and/or actionable value. Instead, a winning

solution for customer satisfaction root cause

analysis would deliver a complete,

statistically valid picture of the issues; it

would lead to actionable recommendations;

and it would be capable of being implemented

at a manageable cost.

“A winning solution for customer

satisfaction root cause analysis

would deliver a complete,

statistically valid picture of the

issues.. ”.

Page 7: RCA Diamond

III

7

Creating a call library of recorded calls coded by call reason allows a team of analysts first to

obtain a “radar view” of major call drivers and then to perform a “deep dive” analysis to identify

actionable underlying causes of customer dissatisfaction.

A Strategic Root Cause Analysis Solution

Workstep

Output

Issues

Obtain “Radar View” ofCall Drivers

Select random sample of CSRs to codecalls with standardized call reasons

Record 100% of these CSRs’ calls

“Radar view” providing directionalguidance as to call drivers

Ability to accurately track month-to-month changes in call reasons

Sample of CSRs cannot contain bias

Sample size of coded calls must besufficient to track changes over time

Create a Call Library

Store 3-6 months of recorded calls incentral database

Match list of coded calls to therecordings of those calls

� Library of coded calls allowing primaryresearch team to select specific callreasons to monitor

� Technical issues such as storagespace for recordings need to beresolved early on

Perform “Deep Dive” Analysisto Identify Call Reasons

Perform primary analysis on specific calldrivers through targeted call monitoring

Perform more complex, secondary analysesusing customer information databases

Actionable, accurate insights into root causereasons of customer dissatisfaction

Validation and quantification of root causesprior to launching initiatives

� A mix of primary and secondary analysisrequired to identify and validate call driversand quantify their financial impact

reason 1reason 2reason 3

1 – Billing education

2 Network coverage

3 Dispute charges

4 Change plan

5 Other

Generate new hypotheses

Validate previous hypotheses

Track impact of initiatives

Identifying Drivers of Dissatisfaction –

Crafting the SolutionThe solution to identifying accurate,

actionable drivers of dissatisfaction is a

comprehensive methodology and underlying

system that begins at the level of reasons for

customer calls and culminates in detailed

customer experience-enhancing initiatives

with quantifiable ROI. The solution involves

statistically rigorous call reason tracking

matched to highly-targeted call monitoring

efforts and is structured on three components:

1)

2)

3)

A call reason tracker which presents a

running "radar view" of the reasons behind

customer calls;

A call library of recorded customer calls

that enables rapid, efficient, targeted "deep-

dive" call monitoring;

A root cause analysis team to perform

"deep dives" into specific call reasons through

targeted call monitoring.

Page 8: RCA Diamond

8

The combination of the "radar view" to detect

the major call drivers with the "deep dive"

analysis to pinpoint the underlying causes

behind these calls gave the carrier an

efficient, results-oriented strategy for tackling

customer service issues. From this strategy

emerged recommended actions the carrier

could adopt to increase customer satisfaction.

Examples of these actions included

improvements to the customer experience for

credit-challenged customers, resolution

management for the most frequent callers,

and evaluation of potential call savings that

could be achieved from specific IT

investments.

To see how these types of recommendations

could be driven from the strategic root cause

analysis solution, let us examine each of the

solution's components in more detail.

The first component is a call reason tracker,

which records call reason frequencies of a

random representative sample of calls each

month. The application is designed to detect

slight but statistically significant deviations

among these call reasons from month to

month. Data generated from this tool proffers

a "radar view" – current and historical – of

call reason patterns across the enterprise,

allowing the carrier to identify major reasons

for customer calls, anticipate growing

problems in the customer base, and quantify

the costs attributable to different call reasons.

For example, "10.9% of all calls in April were

billing inquiry calls" or "7.2% of calls were

from customers inquiring about their minute

balance.”

But while these results provide a statistically

sound view of the big picture, real root cause

insights can only be found in the details. It's

good to know that many customers are calling

with billing issues, but what particular aspect

of the billing process can be repaired to

dramatically lessen this pain point?

Here is where the strategic component of the

solution fits: highly targeted call monitoring.

Once executives have studied the "radar view"

of call reason results and identified issues or

customer segments of concern, a call

monitoring team performs "deep-dives" into

the issue, validating and quantifying

hypotheses for root causes. This team,

comprised of five full-time employees with

analytical expertise and operational

experience, is charged with driving root cause

insights from listening to calls, carrying out

statistical validation of results, and delivering

actionable recommendations. These

recommendations are uniquely tailored to

address specific root causes and come with

quantified projections of the impact that could

be expected from their implementation.

The third component, a call library of recorded

calls, allows for targeted call monitoring and

thus fills the gap between the "radar view" of

the call reason tracker and the "deep dive" of

the call monitoring team. While it is easy to

gather a large set of previously recorded calls

that the call monitoring team could access to

perform the call monitoring deep-dive,

providing the user with a targeted call sample

is a trickier matter. Trying to locate among a

large set of randomly-recorded calls a valid-

sized sample of calls that fit the call reason or

customer segment under investigation is

simply too time-intensive and costly. The

solution to this challenge was a "call library,"

a catalogued inventory of recorded calls,

searchable by call reason or other target

specifications. This innovation has permitted

call monitoring projects with targets as

focused as callers requiring a second

activation call or customers from a specified

credit segment calling on holiday weekends.

Combining these three components to

produce a complete strategy for addressing

customer dissatisfaction yielded significant,

tangible value for the carrier. Findings

generated by the call monitoring team

allowed the carrier to identify critical root

cause themes. Among these themes were

problems in the customer experience for

credit-challenged customers that were

resulting in dissatisfaction and higher cash

cost per user (CCPU) for this segment.

Recommendations based on these findings

led to the development of business cases that

identified $11 million in annualized cost

savings. A separate call monitoring project

confirmed the hypothesis that a decisive

driver behind extraneous calls related to

balance inquiries was misleading or

inconsistent posting times being reported by

different payment channels.

Sometimes the targeted call monitoring can

reject an existing hypothesis. One example

looked at the call reasons for the most

frequent callers. It was assumed that there

were specific recurring issues that drove

these subscribers to call with such regularity,

and that therefore they would have a

substantially different call reason profile than

the rest of the base. In fact, the opposite was

true. While secondary analysis revealed that

less than 4% of callers were responsible for

more than 20% of calls, call-monitoring

efforts revealed that these customers were

calling for quite similar reasons as everyone

else. The findings indicated that many of

these frequent callers called out of personal

habit rather than for a particular reason. The

concomitant recommendation suggested that

the carrier single out, through a review flag on

the subscribers' accounts, those frequent

callers with legitimate issues (a small portion

“Recommendations based on the

root cause analysis identified

$11 million in annualized cost

savings.”

Page 9: RCA Diamond

9

11% of callers who could have used automated options chose to place a live call

instead because they have learned not to trust the systems.

Account

Balance

Account

Information

Minute

Balance

Lost/Stolen

Phone

Password

Reasons for Account Management Calls from Frequent Callers

50%

40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Root Causes Related to Automated Options

Trust/system

update issues

Prefer live rep

Tried but failed

Unaware of

self-serve option

0% 5% 10% 15%

76% of account management calls from frequent callers could have been handled via

automated systems.

call just to chat or simply to inundate the call

center) and resolve the problem, thus

improving the customer experience and

averting continued frequent calling in the

future.

Yet another project demonstrated the

importance of hypothesis validation and

quantification. As noted earlier, a flaw in

some forms of primary analysis is that

anecdotal evidence may bring to the forefront

problems that seem glaring but are actually

not as crucial as other root causes. Without

validation and quantification, the “problem of

the moment” can often lead to a knee-jerk

reaction that fails to consider the full

cost/benefit picture. One example of such a

problem at the company was balance and

billing information provided across automated

systems (e.g. web, IVR). Within the company,

there existed a perception that update lags or

unavailable balance/billing information were

prompting a high volume of calls.

To understand the extent of this problem, the

call monitoring team first measured the

amount of calls attributable to account

management, and the percent of those calls

that could have been avoided. The first graph

shows that for frequent callers calling about

account management, 76% of the calls

concern “Account Balance,” “Account

Information,” or “Minute Balance,” all of

which represent types of calls that could have

been avoided had the caller used automated

systems. The second graph quantifies the

root causes behind why the callers chose to

place a live call rather than use the

automated systems. The findings show that

callers are sometimes not aware that such

systems exist or have learned not to trust

these systems as they sometimes provide

delayed information.

Once the call monitoring analysis had given

an estimate of the call volume that was

attributable to problems with the

synchronization of account balances across

systems, a business case was constructed to

weigh the savings generated from fixing the

problems versus the costs of these

improvements. Since IT improvements often

involve large amounts of fixed and variable

cost, this case serves to illustrate the

importance of targeted call monitoring

determining where to focus human and

capital resources. Using inputs from the call

monitoring effort it was determined specific

fixes would generate cost savings in the

range of $8M-$10M, others would likely

produce less than $25,000 due to the low

frequency with which they occurred, thereby

not justifying a costly IT fix. Without targeted

call monitoring to validate and quantify

specific issues, problems were often

identified through anecdotal feedback,

leading to expenditures that outweighed the

resulting cost savings. The example illustrates

how root cause analysis strategy not only

offers a clean, exact way of locating and

validating call volume drivers but also

presents a method through which to quantify

the extent of the calling costs.

Page 10: RCA Diamond

IV10

While the carrier's root cause analysis solution has been a quantified success

and is easy to understand in theory, execution posed various challenges.

From the program management perspective, establishing a standardized

process that filters, prioritizes, and schedules call-monitoring projects and

dictates the consistent methodology to be followed each time is critical. It is

necessary to employ a system for ensuring compliance among the advocates

that are responsible for tracking call reasons.

Technical challenges include development of a call-matching algorithm,

acquisition of sufficient storage space for the library of recorded calls

(approximately 1TB), and dependency on existing infrastructure capabilities

at a company or on the willingness of management to pursue requisite IT

expenditures. Justification of these expenditures hinges on clear

demonstrations of ROI.

Finally, there are numerous "people" challenges. One of the problems the

carrier encountered was the initial reluctance of executives to adopt a

strategic approach to customer satisfaction. Faced with limited resources,

extreme pressure to deliver results, and short timeframes, some executives

balked at what they viewed as an overly cautious methodology of validating

hypotheses. Others questioned the ability of primary analysis such as code-

based intervention to yield concrete results and significant returns on

investment. Overcoming opposition required building a "proof-of-concept"

prototype. The simplicity of the technical design allowed the team to create a

small-scale call library, storing a month's worth of calls using existing server

space. This low-cost, small-scale solution enabled several targeted call

monitoring projects before the full build-out was approved. The results of

these projects allayed executives' concerns and justified full-scale production

of the call library.

Choosing the right personnel for call monitoring team and getting them to

deliver consistently actionable analyses presented a different type of

challenge. The five members of the call monitoring team brought invaluable

internal know-how; they had excellent operational experience from prior

positions at the carrier that could be leveraged to gain an understanding of

specific problems with internal processes, systems, and service channels. On

the other hand, because their background was predominantly operational, it

was not second nature for them to perceive customer satisfaction issues

strategically and drive action-oriented tactics to resolve the problems.

Targeted training and frequent after-project reviews helped the team

increase its value.

Implementation Challenges BenefitsCode-based intervention to improve customer

satisfaction has produced substantial

benefits. Quantitatively, root cause analysis

enables the operator to optimize spending and

maximize the returns on investment. The call

library was used to make specific, actionable

recommendations for improvement in

processes and prioritizing and quantifying the

benefits of various technology projects.

Code-based intervention is another powerful

weapon in a company’s analytical arsenal. By

improving the precision of primary analysis

through code-based intervention and

combining it with existing secondary research,

the carrier has identified more than $60

million in variable cost savings in the first six

months after implementation for a cost of less

than $1 million to implement and operate.

Qualitatively, the solution has added precision

to primary research. The solution's

methodology and tools allow for ongoing

identification, verification, and measurement

of actionable drivers of dissatisfaction. The

methodology can be applied across the

organization (such as to understand network

problems and churn reasons).

Page 11: RCA Diamond

V

11

Can Your Company Find the Root Causes

of Customer Dissatisfaction?

Any company facing mounting customer

service costs and customer dissatisfaction

challenges could stand to benefit from such a

strategy. Within financial services, for

example, code-based intervention could be

employed to understand precisely why

customers are switching to other banks, or

why customers feel that product offerings are

not tailored to their investment needs.

Cable companies could seek to understand

why subscribers are unwilling to purchase

premium content or why broadband users are

migrating to DSL.

Companies such as software distributors or

appliance manufacturers that field technical

support questions could use this combination

of "radar view" and "deep dives" to draw

attention to the most frequent call drivers and

determine the underlying causes behind

recurring problems.

In fact, any organization with extensive

customer service operations, including

insurance companies, utilities, and some

governmental agencies, could potentially

decrease costs and increase customer

satisfaction by applying the principles of this

carrier's successful approach to customer

satisfaction root cause analysis.

By creating uniformity in the way that primary

customer information is categorized and

stored, code-based intervention can

revolutionize customer service in the same

way that Jethro Tull's seed drill changed the

face of farming. Harvesting primary

information becomes a secondary concern,

allowing companies to focus on what really

matters: identifying and addressing the root

causes of customer dissatisfaction.

Page 12: RCA Diamond

Visit for more information.www.diamondcluster.com