Contact centre accreditation - is it just a tick in the box?

Lack of accreditation won’t stop a citizen of a particular borough council from calling, and it won’t stop someone from buying a particular brand of mobile phone. I won’t switch my electricity provider because the person on the other end of the phone belongs to an accredited call centre. So why seek accreditation, and what benefits does it bring to a customer service organisation?

I am often asked by contact centre managers if they should enter an award or seek accreditation. Awards look at past successes, and the call centre manager will have a desire for recognition for those successes. Accreditation looks to the future to try to ensure a better experience for customers, by saying that "we do things properly here and it has been recognised". Awards tend to recognise individuals, whereas accreditation seeks to recognise organisations. If an individual leaves an organisation, the award may lose some of its shine. However, an accreditation should still be as valid, regardless of which individuals are present, as it is more about processes and delivery for the whole organisation. Both have their place, but both mean different things and are aimed at different audiences.

Desperately seeking accreditation

There are many different reasons for wanting accreditation. It might be your own ego, or your boss might have recommended it. In the public sector, it could be that a contact centre manager is following the Varney recommendation, or it could be a deliberate move to try and improve customer service. [Sir David Varney’s report entitled Service Transformation: A Better Service For Citizens And Business, A Better Deal For The Taxpayer, published in 2006, led to the creation of the Contact Council to improve service in publicly-funded contact centres.]

Purely having an accreditation won’t change the world for you. But being accredited is a better and punchier way of saying that you follow best practice. For example, it means that the contact centre is reaching recognised standards in processes and delivery. What’s more, there is a price tag that can be put on that in terms of customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and a reduction in complaints and repeat calls. In other words, being accredited will impact the bottom line in terms of happier customers, staying with you for longer, but making less contact with you because they are happy with the service being provided.

Once you’ve recognised these benefits, there are a number of questions that need to be answered before embarking on the accreditation journey.

Am I in a position to seek accreditation?

The first question to ask is whether the contact centre has clear strategies for delivering its services, and whether the business processes and operating model support these strategies. If not, it’s time to go back to basics, as trying to design processes and an operating model around accreditation criteria will mean failure in the long run, as there is nothing underpinning the operation and culture.

If you pass the first hurdle, then ask yourself if you fully understand your customers, and how did you get that information. Do you meet the needs of each customer segment, and how do you service your ‘hygiene’ queries as opposed to your ‘value add’ queries.

Finally, ask yourself if you are performing as a contact centre against your targets. If you are, are your targets too easily achievable, or is it that all your business supporting processes (such as workforce management and performance management) are in place and working well?

If you get a tick in the box for all these, then move on...

Which one to go for?

All accreditations are not the same. Different accreditation bodies put an emphasis on different areas, and so it is important to ensure that you align the objectives and criteria of each accreditation with your own corporate strategy. If they are different, you should look at another accreditation. There are also financial implications to each accreditation.

How will I do it?

Accreditations take time to complete. Evidence has to be gathered, and then the best evidence needs to be assigned to the most appropriate category. Inevitably, there will be gaps in evidence, some new processes may need to be created and documentary proof may need to be produced. Most organisations find it difficult to free up a managers’ time to concentrate on the accreditation work as well as completing their day job. Workshops with stakeholders, evidence gathering, form filling and gap analysis are just some of the tasks needed to be completed prior to submitting an application, and sometimes the gaps are too big and the accreditation is put on hold until they are filled.

Bringing in third parties to help with this is frequently the solution and, in our experience, most contact centres have neither the time or the skills in-house to prepare effectively for an external assessment.

Peter Tetlow is lead consultant, customer management, Analysys which has many years experience of both public and private sector contact centres, and has successfully coached and prepared many of them for awards and accreditation. For more information on how Analysys Mason can help your contact centre with accreditation preparation and application, please click here.

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