News & Research: Client Successes

Case Study: Service Center Assessment

ScottMadden worked with a large pharmaceutical company's sales, facilities, IT, and call center organizations to assess customer service problems related to inbound calls from customers, develop and prioritize business process improvements, and plan for implementation.

• The company had recently reorganized its sales force and was preparing for changes in the way incoming calls would be addressed
• The company had only anecdotal information on the volumes and reasons for calls being received from healthcare professionals
• The company's many call centers were acting independently from its sales offices, with insufficient coordination and information sharing.  End-to-end handling of customer calls (including fulfillment of requests) was segmented, inconsistent, and not customer focused
• Processes and knowledge bases were not kept current to reflect business needs generated from years of growth and acquisitions
• Call management systems and integrated voice response systems did not reflect leading practices
• Operational performance management targets and processes were not defined.  There was no overall accountability for planning, maintaining, or measuring the customer calling "network"

• Defined the scope of the problem and established cross-functional stakeholder team
• Collected and analyzed operational data.  Where automated reports were unavailable, collected data manually (to fill the gaps)
• Documented existing business processes, roles, systems interfaces, and problem areas (e.g., inefficiencies, service issues)
• Researched and reported on leading practices for integrated voice response systems
• Developed and prioritized business process improvement recommendations based on benefits, cost, and change management considerations
  
• Created implementation plans for a series of strategic initiatives, including performance management, technology improvements, and centralized call center management

• Increased customer satisfaction and reduction in complaints due to improved call handling and faster fulfillment of customer requests
• Reduction in operating costs through elimination of redundancies and process inefficiencies
• Increased customer self-service as a result of short-term business process improvements, saving money while satisfying needs quicker
• Identified opportunities to improve return on investment for technology spend
• Focused targeting of customers by the sales and marketing group due to longer-term improvements enabling the capture of caller information