·        security - both physical and network

·        quality of workforce

·        the ability to ramp up and be flexible to meet fluctuating volumes

·        agent team's ability to handle complex enquiries

·        multi lingual workforce

Our client experiences large seasonal increases in volume from November through to January requiring the workforce to double in order to deal with increased demand. This requires a very focused seasonal recruitment drive to ensure availability of temporary agents and a rigorous training schedule.

We demonstrated flexibility and agility by handling volumes of up to 150% of our daily target.

Client objectives / key performance indicators:

·        Reduction in number of write backs received due to agent error (ie customers having to ask a question a second time because an agent did not give the required information)

·        Internal quality metrics addressing areas including: security, knowledge base articles; selection, text modification (how the agent customises the email)

·        Contacts per hour

·        Successful completion of quarterly audit

·        Participating in and contribution to partnership summits

As part of their quality programme our client records the number of times a customer has to resubmit an email in order to have their query resolved. To help operational teams to improve their quality and facilitate the training and development of agents, gem's Quality Assurance team developed a 'quality tracker'. This analyses 'write back' emails by recording how and by whom the contact was initially handled, assesses accuracy, highlights recurring issues and identifies training required by team or individual. This 'tracker' was instrumental in improving training, write-back rates and impacted positively on customer satisfaction.