OppMgmt

RAINBOW-FINANCIALS

Operations Management An Overview of key Processes huzefa

2011

BLOCK IB-192, SALT LAKE CITY, KOLKATA - 700091

Operations Management

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Table of Contents Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................... 4 An Overview O verview of Operations ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................... .................. 5 The Telesales Process – An Overview ............................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................. 8 Campaign Setup ............................................................... ..................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................ .......................... 9 Manpower Allocation ........................................................................................................................ ..................................................................................................................................................... ............................. 9 Call Guide and Script ................................................................................................................................................ .................................................................................................................................................. .. 10 Campaign List Generation ................................................................... ........................................................................................................................................ ....................................................................... .. 11 CRM Configuration ................................................................................................................ ...................................................................................................................................................... ...................................... 12 Dashboard/Balanced Scorecard ................................................................................................................................. ................................................................................................................................. 14 Calling .................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................... ...................................... 18 Task Assignment ............................................................................................ ......................................................................................................................................................... ............................................................. 18 Call List Assignment ................................................................. ....................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................... ............. 18 CRM login ............................................................................................ .................................................................................................................................................................. ........................................................................ .. 19 Calling ............................................................. ................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................ ...................................... 19 Call Disposal ................................................................. ....................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................. ........................ 21 Document Checklist (in case an appointment appointm ent is secured) ............................................................... .......................................................................................... ........................... 21 Reconfirmation Call ........................................................................................................................................ ..................................................................................................................................................... ............. 21 FPC Visit ............................................................. ................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................ ...................................... 22 Assignment.................................................................... Assignment.......................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................. ........................ 22 Pre-visit call .................................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................................. ............. 22 Familiarization ............................................................... ..................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................. ........................ 22 Visit.............................................................................................................................................................................. .............................................................................................................................................................................. 22 Submission............................................................................................................................ .................................................................................................................................................................. ...................................... 23 Reporting ......................................................... ............................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................ ...................................... 23 Revisit.......................................................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................................... 24 Database Management ...................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................................................................................... ............. 25 Quality Control.............................................................................. Control.................................................................................................................................................... ................................................................................... ............. 26 QA1 Verifying Appointment Calls ........................................................ .............................................................................................................................. ........................................................................ .. 26 QA2 Document Assessment ............................................................................................................ ....................................................................................................................................... ........................... 27 Call Audit ........................................................................................................................................................ ..................................................................................................................................................................... ............. 28 Coaching ............................................................. ................................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................ ...................................... 30 Sales Processing .............................................................. .................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................. ........................ 32 People Management ....................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................... 33 Recruitment ................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................... .............................................................................................. ........................33 Appraisal ......................................................... ............................................................................................................................... ............................................................................................................ ...................................... 33 Roles and Responsibilities ........................................................................................................ .............................................................................................................................................. ...................................... 34 Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091


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Project Manager ........................................................................................................................................................ .......................................................................................................................................................... .. 34 Team Leader .................................................................................................................................................. ............................................................................................................................................................... ............. 35

Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091


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Executive Summary Rainbow Financial‘s operations department comes under the purview of the Chief Operations Officer (COO) — who reports directly to the CEO. The COO is responsible for management of all call centers, and his chief role is to ensure that each center works with optimum efficiency.

While the COO formulates operational strategies, makes major decisions and sets goals for each call center, the responsibility for administration of the call center rests upon the Call Center Director (CCD). Typically, each call center is administered by a dedicated CCD, but in certain cases a CCD may be in charge of more than one call center. This document defines the scope of operations of a call center — providing detailed description of rules pertaining to each operational process. Also, the roles, responsibilities and discretionary powers of all positions are clearly defined in this document.



An Overview of Operations The entire operation of Rainbow-Financial call center is segmented into following six processes:      

Telesales Database Management Quality control Sales processing Billing and payroll People management

Since telesales is the core functional area, all other operational processes are centered about the telesales process.

Database Management Quality Control • •

Call quality audit Appointment/sale validation

People Management • • • •

Recruiting Training Performance monitoring Appraisal

Telesales Pocess Sales Processing • •

Document verification Data entry

Billing/Payroll • •

Client invoice Staff salary and incentive

The following diagram explains how different operational processes integrate with the telesales process:


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Database

Telesales

Telesales

Telesales

Assignment

People Management > Recruitment > Training

TSR

TSR

Call

Lead/Appt

TSR

QC check

QA validation

FPC visit Sales Sale Billing/Payroll

The efficiency of operations depends on the efficiency of the telesales process, since revenue earnings and high level business objectives are closely linked to the output of the telesales process. Hence, optimization of the telesales process is the number one priority. To assess the productivity of a telesales campaign at a macroscopic level, we use a logical construct called the Sales Funnel. Funnel. Database

Campaign List

Calls

Connected

Contacted

Interested

Lead

Visited

Application

The sales funnel helps in analyzing the productivity of each stage of the telesales process. The absolute value of each stage is expressed in terms of percentage of the starting value, which provides a suitable context for analysis. By using the sales funnel as a performance assessment system, campaign managers can pin-point the cause of underperformance and accordingly take initiatives to remedy the situation. The operation of the call center is controlled and coordinated by the Call Center Director (CCD), who delegates specific functions to a team of managers. Following organizational chart shows the delegation of authority:



COO

CDD

Project Mgr

Training Mgr

QM

QA

TL

QC

T SR

Trainer

Sales Admin

DEO

Authorised Verifier

F PC


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The Telesales Process – An Overview The key players in the telesales process are Team Leaders (TL), Telesales Representatives (TSR) and Financial Planning Consultants (FPC). Each telesales campaign is served by a team of TSRs and FPCs — headed by a TL. Following is the summarization of the entire telesales process:

Call

Applicati on & Collectio n

Campaign Setup

Assingment

Eligible

Contact

Sales Process

Interested

Telesales is an initiative to sell products and services over the phone. It involves contacting prospects through phone and presenting them with a proposal to procure a financial product/service. The TSRs are responsible for this task and their chief objective is to make prospects interested in the offer through application of soft skills and salesmanship. If the prospect indicates his interest in the offer, the TSR then proceeds to verify whether the prospect is eligible for the offer. Upon confirmation of eligibility, an FPC visit is scheduled and the prospect is asked to ready the required documents. The recording of the appointment call goes through a quality check (explained in ‗Quality Control‘), and upon passing the quality check the lead/appointment gets escalated to the TL. The TL assigns the lead to an FPC who visits the prospect at the stipulated time and completes the formalities of sale such as: form fill-up, document collection, payment collection etc.

After the FPC visit and successful closure of the sale, the particulars of the sale (form, documents, payment cheque etc) are passed to the Sales Processing department, which takes care of data entry and document validation. Finally, the particulars of the sale are communicated to the principal company (campaign owner), who then proceeds to provide the stipulated products/service to the customer. The entire telesales process is executed by means of the CRM software to which all executors (namely TL, TSR and FPC) have access. CRM is therefore an essential and an integral part of the process and all outcomes (such as: call response, FPC visit result etc) are recorded in the CRM. Each step of the telesales process has its own set of procedures, protocols and guidelines, so in order to understand the process at an executable level it must be divided into 3 sub-processes namely: 1. Campaign setup 2. Calling 3. FPC visit



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Campaign Setup This involves all planning and preparatory work that must precede the launch of a campaign. Campaign setup involves the following:     

Manpower allocation Script and Call Guide Campaign list generation CRM Configuration Dashboard/Balanced Scorecard

Manpower Allocation Manpower allocation is a significant aspect of campaign planning. It involves designation of TSRs, QAs, Coaches and TLs to a campaign. The manpower requirement of a campaign is based on expected level of business outcome, and is specified by the client. Typically, manpower requirement is specified in terms of Number of seats, seats, which translates into number of TSRs required for the campaign. The Requirement of other staff members (i.e. TL, QA, Coach and FPC) depends on the total number of TSRs being allocated to the campaign. It also depends on the choice of team formation strategy that the client/management decides to implement. Either of the following two team formation strategies may be adopted — depending on specifics of manpower requirement and availability of human resource:  

Super team Multiple competing teams

Super Team A super team is a single massive unit which independently executes the campaign. In a super team all TSRs report to one TL, who is assisted by several subordinate TLs (in other words Assistant TLs or ATLs). For effective management, each ATL is made responsible for a group of TSRs. In addition to TL, ATLs and TSRs, several coaches and QA‘s are required for execution of the campaign. Ideally, super teams should be incorporated under following circumstances:   

When there are 50 or less TSRs assigned to a campaign When there aren‘t many experienced TL‘s f or or independent management of multiple teams When large number of fresh/inexperienced TSRs have been selected for the campaign

Following rules help in determining the manpower requirement of non calling staff for a super team:    

ATL: 1 for every 12 –18 TSRs Coach: 1 for every 20 –25 TSRs FPC: 1 for every 10 TSRs QA: 1 for every 20 -25 TSRs

Multiple Competing Teams If more than 25 – 30 TSRs are assigned to a campaign, then TSRs can be distributed into two or more teams of 10 – 15 TSRs each. Dedicated TL, QA, Coach and FPCs are assigned to each of the team. The biggest advantage of having multiple competing teams is that it creates greater motivation, by fostering healthy completion between various calling teams. In a large campaign exceeding 50 people, QAs and FPCs are not associated with any of the calling teams. Rather, an independent QA team and FPC team serves all calling teams. The independent QA and FPC teams are headed by their respective TLs. Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091


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Ideally, Multiple Calling Teams should be incorporated under following circumstances:  

When sufficient number of experienced TLs are available When the campaign is executed by a greater number of experienced TSRs, as this facilitates equitable distribution of high performing TSRs across all teams

Following rules help in determining the manpower requirement of non calling staff for Multiple Competing Teams:   



TL: 1 for each team Coach: 1 for each team QA: 1 QA per team, 1 QA per 12-15 TSRs (In case of separate QA team). In a QA team, the senior-most QA serves as the acting TL for the team FPC: 2 FPC per calling team, with a dedicated TL in case of a separate FPC team

Team Nomenclature Following rules should be applied in naming of teams:  

Super Team: team name = name of the campaign/principle company Multiple Competing Teams: team name = name of the campaign/principle company + unique identifier (A, B, C, lion, tiger etc)

People Selection The criteria for manpower allocation are specified by the client, but may also be determined internally. Following criteria are commonly used for selecting people for the campaign:     

Cumulative experience: Total experience across all campaigns served in current capacity (position) Niche experience: Collective experience across related campaigns served in current capacity (position) Target achievement: Average monthly/daily target achievement for specified duration Service score: Score based on achievement of qualifying parameters and adherence to quality guidelines Attendance: Percentage of days attended for a specified duration

The experience and track record of the TL is extremely critical to the success of the campaign, so the selection of the TLs should be a well thought decision. But in case of TSRs and FPCs, some exception can be made if a fraction of the selection doesn‘ t meet the exact requirement. As a general rule, it is permitted to have 70% experienced TSRs and 30% fresh or less experienced TSRs in a team.

Call Guide and Script A successful sales call needs to be planned and organized, with well defined protocols that enable the TSR to cater to all possible eventualities. Call guides and scripts help define the scope of the sales call, as they help in understanding what should be said and what shouldn‘t be said. Scripts and call guides are custom developed for each campaign. These are either provided by the client or developed in conjunction with the client. The definition of the term script and call guide is as follows: Call guide: A call guide is a set of statements that guides the flow of a sales call Script: A script is a written conversation which simulates a sales call All TSRs must be provided with a script that is annotated with statements (call guides) outlining the flow of the sales call. It is essential that TSRs follow the call guide otherwise it may lead to discrepancies. Following is the call guide to a typical sales call: 1. Opening: greeting and identification 2. Seek contact: contact: ask for the intended person Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091

Operations Management 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

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Notify purpose: indicate the purpose of the call and seek permission to continue Explain: explain the offer and clarify doubts Determine interest: inquire if the prospect is interested and would like to take up the offer Appointment: collect requisite information if the prospect agrees to take up the offer References: ask for references Close: thank the prospect for his time and end the call

During the course of the call, a customer may ask a number of questions and also express doubts on several aspects of the offer. So, the TSR must be able to tackle these issues diplomatically and at the same time win the prospect‘s trust and invoke his interest in the offer. Therefore in addition to call guide and script, each agent must be provided with an objection sheet containing answers to all possible questions that a prospect may ask. Since telemarketing activity is scrutinized by various government agencies, it is essential that TSRs refrain from making false or inappropriate statements. They should therefore adhere to the call guide and the objection handling sheet at all time.

Campaign List Generation Generation of campaign list is based on a set of rules, which are specific to the campaign. The rules can be categorized as under:  

Source Definition Extraction Criteria

Source Definition Every contact in the database can be identified by its source (how it was acquired?). So depending on campaign requirements, the campaign list can be generated from a combination of following sources:    

Purchased from the open market Provided by the client Acquired through reference collection initiative Acquired through market research

Any contact that ha s been utilized in an earlier campaign will be flagged as ‗used‘ and will have campaign codes attached. This not only makes it easy to find contacts from a desired source, but also to extract contacts that have been used in specific types of campaigns Extraction Criteria Selection of contacts from specified sources is based on a set of criteria which can be categorized as under:      

Location Ownership Occupation Income and taxation Contact mode Earlier interaction

Here are some examples of selection criteria: Category Location Ownership Occupation

Example People living in the district X, Y, and Z People having mobile numbers People having credit cards People who are salaried employees People who are self employed


Operations Management Income and taxation Contact mode Earlier interaction

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People who pay taxes greater than Rs 30,000 People who earn more than Rs 500,000 pa/ People who can be contacted on both landline and mobile People whose office numbers are available People who had been contacted twice in the past for loans People who had been contacted earlier for insurance, but declined because of high premium

It is important for campaign planners (i.e. PM) to effectively convey the extraction rules to the DBA. Extraction rules should be communicated in the following manner: Sample instructions from the client: Targeted customers should have supermarket loyalty card with billing above VND 3M in last 3 months. They should have been selected for at least two campaigns before and must have been contacted at least once (during those two campaigns). Only those who‘s m obile and landline are available are to be contacted. Finally, the customers shouldn‘t be part of any current campaign for mortgage/loans. Format for conveying list generation rules: Step 1: Select desired source

Step 2: Select desired contact mode Step 3: Select desired earlier interaction Step 4: Select desired ownership criteria Result:

(Complete database – Contacts provided by clients) [Pullout] Campaign codes (for earlier campaigns run by client) – Ongoing mortgage/loan campaigns Contactable by mobile and landline Contacted for campaign codes (X, Y, Z) — Campaign codes (success, DNC, callbacks) Holders of supermarket loyalty cards with billing above VND 3M in last 3 months Final calling list

Note: The sequencing of criteria may vary from campaign to campaign, but source definition should always be the first and foremost extraction rule.

CRM Configuration All campaigns are executed by means of the CRM software which facilitates information recording and contact management. Prior to the launch of a new campaign, following configurations must be made to the CRM: 1. Campaign creation: When a new campaign is launched, an entry must be made in the CRM ‘s campaign list and all executors of the campaign (TSR, TL, FPC, Coach, QA) must be authorized to log into the campaign 2. Loading campaign list: The campaign list generated as per the required criteria needs to be loaded onto the CRM. This activity may have to be performed repeatedly after commencement of operations 3. Customization of call disposal screen: The call disposal screen is displayed when a TSR ends a call. It contains check boxes and fields for recording information pertaining to the outcome of the call 4. Customization of on-call screen: The on call screen displays the script and the related data entry form, which enables the TSR to record information as it is provided by the prospect 5. Configuration of call out logic: This configuration sets the priority according to which the contacts are queued for the dialer Call Disposal Screen The call disposal screen captures the outcome of the call and it must be customized in accordance to the needs of the campaign. Following options are listed on o n a typical call disposal screen: Non Connect (NCT) Nonexistent Number (NEN) Answering Machine (AM)  

Connect (CT) Poor Connection (PC) Excessive Background Noise (EBN)  

Call Back Callback Date/Time: Notes:


Operations Management Fax Tone (FT) Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Voice Mail (VM) Unreachable (UR) Line Busy (LB) Not Contacted (NCO) Wrong Number (WN) Contact Not Available (CNA) Call not escalated to contact (NEC) 



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Proper Connect (PC)

   

  

Contacted (CO) Instant Hang-up by Contact (IH) National DNC List (DNC) Currently Busy (BS) Contact listens to the sales pitch (SP)    

Add/Edit Contact Name: Address: Landline: Office: Mobile Add Number: Update

Not Interested (NI) Not Required (NR) Cannot Afford (CA) Does not like (NL) Ineligible (IEL) Docs Not Available (DNA)  

Interested (IN) Will Consider (WC) Consents to Signup (CSU) 

References: Add References







Eligible (EL) Undetermined (UND) Walk-in Collection (WIC) Fax Collection (FC) Successful (SF)   

Unsuccessful (USF)

The call disposal screen should support the following flagging rules:  



The user needs to select at least one option along with a sub-option in order to close a call It is not necessary to flag all calls as successful or unsuccessful, because the prospect may be called several times before determining whether the call is successful or not Callback may be set no matter what the outcome

On-call screen The on-call screen appears when a number is dialed. It contains the script for the TSR‘s reference along with a data entry form that helps the TSR to record information that is provided by the prospect. Some campaigns also have subcampaigns with their own custom scripts. Sub-campaigns are alternate offers that are pitched to prospects that do not like or do not qualify for the main offer. Typically, sub-campaigns are initiated some time after the launch of the main campaign. Selection of prospects for the sub-campaign is usually based on the outcome of the main campaign. The on-call screen must comprise of following elements: 

 

Tab bar: Positioned horizontally at the very top of the screen, this area contains tabs for each campaign and sub-campaign. There should be a control on the main CRM interface, which allows the user to set the default campaign/sub-campaign. The selected campaign is loaded by default every time the on-call screen is rendered Script pane: This pane holds the script which TSRs can refer while calling Information capture pane: This pane contains the form or the questionnaire, where information obtained from the prospect is recorded. The information capture form should be made dynamic, so that conditional information can be recorded with ease. Following is an example of a conditional field: Field Option Selected Conditional Fields Organization: Salaried Position: Working since: Nature of Occupation Type of business: Self Employed No of employees: Business name: Retired Whether pensioner: yes or no



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Callout Logic The CRM supports an automatic dialing mode, where the dialer calls contacts one by one from the list assigned to the TSRs. Callout logic refers to the set of criteria which helps in sorting the calling list in order of priority. Callout logic determines the following two things: 1. Which contact to call at a given given time? time? 2. On which which number (i.e. mobile, landline, and office) should the contact be called? called? The criteria for callout logic are based on business rules and legislature. In India outbound calling comes under the purview of TRAI and other government affiliated organizations which issue special directives pertaining to manner in which telesales is conducted. In some cases even the client specifies some parameters for the callout logic. Typically, callout logic is based on following rules: ru les: Priority 1. Prospects who requested for a callback should be called at the stipulated time of callback callback 2. Prospects who who had said they they would call that day 3. Other people Contact number 1. Office number ifif available, should be the first choice of contact between 09:00 am and 05:00 pm 2. Landline before 09:00 am and after 06:00 pm 3. The above two rules should should be ignored ignored if the prospect has specified specified a contact number

Dashboard/Balanced Scorecard It is necessary to monitor and analyze the performance of each employee on a regular basis. Balanced scorecards are used for this purpose, as they effectively consolidate and summarize all performance related information. In a balanced scorecard, information is categorized under following heads:    

Operational: shows KPIs pertaining to operational efficiency Achievement: shows KPIs related to target achievement Diligence: shows KPIs that reflect an employee‘s dedication Service score: shows key operational, achievement, and diligence related KPIs on a 5 point scale along with their weighted average, which are summed up to calculate a service score

The dashboard interface comprises of four screens (one for each category) that are navigable by means of a tab bar located at the top. TSR Balanced Scorecard Operational KPI Filter: last month, current month, current week, today + advanced filter (for selecting the time frame) Calls per day (CPD):

Average Call Duration (ACD)

Call Wrap Time (CWT)

Leads

Reference collected (RCD)

Presentation NA Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate minimum requirement Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate minimum requirement Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate minimum requirement Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate minimum requirement Today = bullet graph + value


Operations Management Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate minimum requirement

Achievement KPI Filter: last month, current month, set duration Quality Score (QSC)

Qualified Leads (QL)

Lead Quality (percentage of total leads that are qualified) (LQ)

Application:*

Presentation NA 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate minimum requirements 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate target 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate minimum requirement 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate target, incentive

Diligence KPI Filter: current month, last month, select duration Attendance Percentage (AP):

Average Daily Login Time (ADL)

Average Pause Time Per Day (APT)

Parameter (percentage of target converted to 5 point scale) Calls Per Day (CPD) Average Call Duration (ACD) Call Wrap Time (CWT) Reference Collected (RCD) Quality Score (QSC) Lead Quality Qualified Leads (QL) Attendance Percentage (AP) Average Daily Login Time (ADL) Total

Presentation 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line

Service Score Weight (negative weight if 5 point score is 1, zero for 2, positive for 3 and above) 5 10 5 10 15 20 20 10 5

Score

FPC Balanced Scorecard Operational KPI Presentation Filter: last month, current month, current week, today + advanced filter NA (for selecting the time frame) Total Assignment (TA) Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate minimum requirement Travel Expenditure per Visit (EPV) Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate maximum permissible Closures (CL) Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Qualified Closures (QC) Today = bullet graph + value


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Operations Management Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate target Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate minimum requirement

Reference collected (RCD)

Achievement KPI Presentation Filter: last month, current month, set duration NA Conversion Rate (Percentage of total assignment that is closed) (CR) 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate target Conversion Quality (percentage of total conversions that are qualified) 1 month: bullet graph + value (CQ) Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate minimum requirement


Average Visits Per Day (AVD)

Average Percentage (PP)

Parameter (percentage of target converted to 5 point scale) Travel Expenditure per Visit (EPV) Conversion Rate (CR) Conversion Quality (CQ) Reference Collected (RCD) Attendance Percentage (AP) Average Visits per Day (AVD) Total

Presentation 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line

Service Score Weight (negative weight if 5 point score is 1, zero for 2, positive for 3 and above) 10 25 25 15 15 10

Score

TL Balanced Scorecard Operational KPI Presentation Filter: last month, current month, current week, today + advanced filter NA (for selecting the time frame) Team Attendance (TA) Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate minimum requirement Total Leads (TL) Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate maximum permissible Total Closures (TC) Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Team Login Hours (TLH) Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line to indicate target Daily Travel Expense (DTE) Today = bullet graph + value Week = bar graph + average bullet graph (+ value)


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Operations Management Month = line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Graphs must show trend line t o indicate minimum requirement

Achievement KPI Filter: last month, current month, set duration Team Quality Score (QSC)

Total Qualified Leads (TQL)

Team Lead Quality (percentage of total leads that a are re qualified) (TLQ)

Total Qualified Closures (TQL)

Team Closure Quality (TCQ)

Percentage of Target Achievers (PTA)

Presentation NA 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate minimum requirements 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate target 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate minimum requirement 1 month: bullet graph Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate target, incentive 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate minimum requirement 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate minimum requirement


Presentation

Subordinate Assessment Score (360 degree feedback by subordinates) (SAS) Management Assessment Score (MAS)

Parameter (percentage of target converted to 5 point scale) Team Attendance (TA) Team Quality Score (TQS) Percentage of Target Achievers (PTA) Team Lead Quality (TLQ) Subordinate Assessment Score Management Assessment Score Attendance Percentage (AP)

1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line 1 month: bullet graph + value Monthly comparison: line graph graph + average bullet graph (+ value) Note: Trendlines should indicate shortfall line

Service Score Weight (negative weight if 5 point score is 1, zero for 2, positive for 3 and above) 10 20 20 10 10 10 20

Score


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Calling The calling process is composed of several steps, which are can be summarized as below:

Task Assignment

Call List Assignment

CRM Login

Call Disposal

Document Checklist

Reconfirmation

Task Assignment Certain campaigns are inclusive of sub-campaigns. The objective behind a sub-campaign is to offer alternative deals to customers who declined the original offer. Typically, all TSRs are assigned to the main campaign at the time of initiation, and the sub-campaigns are initiated some time after the launch of the main campaign. The launch of subcampaigns calls for re-allocation of TSRs, which is generally based on campaign specific business rules. Some common allocation criterions are:    

Service score in main campaigns Target achievement in main campaign Reference collected Quality score

The criteria for allocation of agents to sub-campaign are generally decided by the client, but it can also be determined internally.

Call List Assignment Once task have been assigned, the TL must allot calling list to each TSRs. Following are the two alternative ways of going about this activity:  

Load balancing: This involves use of CRM algorithms for sequential assignment of contacts Criteria based: This involves custom generation of calling lists for each TSR, based on a set of assignment rules — defined by the TL. For example, those who achieved 100% target last month will contact people whose income is more than 5 lacs per annum, those with relevant niche experience and good service score will contact people who work in I.T sector and earn more than 5 lacs per annum. Criteria based assignment enables the TL to leverage the special abilities and expertise of his TSRs to the fullest

In number of cases, the campaign rules call for criteria based assignment and the client specifies the criterion for contact distribution. But If assignment mode is not specified, then the TL may exercise his discretion and implement either or a combination of the two assignment modes. Call list assignment for sub-campaigns is mostly based on the outcome of the main campaign. So, the TL must first create a master contact list for each sub-campaigns based on call disposal results of the main campaign. Derivation of the master list is typically based on following criteria:   

Prospects who did not like the main offer for some reason Prospects who were not eligible for the main offer Prospects who were not responsive to the main offer

Once the master list has been generated, it must be divided between TSRs. This again may be done using either of the two assignment modes discussed above. Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091


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The custom generated calling list must be loaded to the CRM account of each agent. Following rules apply to this activity:  

The lists should be loaded at the end of the day, so that TSRs time is put to optimum use The quantity of contacts to be allotted, should be determined with due consideration to the number of leftover contacts and number of pending callbacks

CRM login Each TSR is provided with a user-id and password that allows him to access the CRM. After logging-in to the CRM, the TSRs can call-up prospects from the calling list that has been assigned to them. There are however, two alternative modes of calling and TSRs can use either of the two — depending on the instructions of the TL. The two calling modes are: 



Pop-up: In pop-up mode the CRM decides who is to be called, and accordingly contacts are displayed on TSR‘s screen — one after the other. The CRM also takes care of scheduled callbacks, which automatically appear on the TSR‘s screen at the stipulated time Preview: The preview mode allows the TSR to access the calling list and call any of the listed contacts. The TSR can use the provided filtering options to select contacts based on certain criteria such as: callbacks callbacks scheduled between a specific time slot, contacts referred by other customers etc

The TL either specifies a mode of dialing or sets guidelines based on which the TSRs can choose a mode of calling. Preview mode is mostly used in case of sub-campaigns, where TSRs must filter-out a calling list based on the outcomes of previous calls.

Calling While making a sales call, TSRs must adhere to the rules and regulation specified by the client and the regulatory authorities like TRAI, IRDA etc. A well planned call guide together with a script and an objection sheet enables the TSRs to conduct sales calls in a manner that is legally appropriate. From dialing to hang-up, the entire course of a sales call can be split into a number of stages. The following diagram enumerates the stages of a sales call — specifying the possible outcome of each stage:



• • •

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Answering machine/Fax tone Call unanswered Call answered

Dial

• • • •

Contact

• •

• •

Introduction & Consent

•

• • •

Sales Pitch

• •

• • •

Eligibilty Check

• •

• •

Wrong number Required person not available Call not escalated to the required person Required person available TSR pitches the deal to the person answering the call, eventhough he is not the required contact Prospect asks the TSR to call him up on another number

Prospect says he's not interested in the offer Prospect says he's not presently interested in the offer Prospect expresses interest in the offer and permits the TS R to contiune with the sales pitch

Prospect declines the offer after listening to the sales pitch Prospect declines the offer specifying defeciencies in the product/service Prospect likes the offer but says he will avail it later Prospect likes the offer and says he needs t ime to consider it further and asks the TSR to callback at another time Prospect likes the offer and agrees to sign-up for it

Prospect is not eligible Prospect is not eligible eligible because he doesn't possess the required documents Prospect doesn't psossess the required documents, but says he can arr ange for them Porspect does not fullfill all eligibility eligibility criteria, but is extemely interested in the offer and requests for a workaround op tion Prospect is eligible eligible

Prospect chooses a plan and the charges are ccalculated accordingly by the TSR In case of insurance or loan, the value of premium/installment is derived using the provided calculation table

Calculation

• •

Appointment

•

Prospect cannot grant an appointment now, and requests for a callback after an extended period of t ime Prospect grants a tentative appointment, which must be confirmed at a later date Prospect grants an appointment and specifies a definate date and time for the same

As shown above, there are multiple ways in which each step of the sales call may culminate. Hence, TSRs must have a pre-determined action plan for all possible eventualities. The following table enumerates the prescribed action-plan for various outcomes of a sales call: Step

Outcome Wrong Number

Action In case of a mobile number, enquire the name of the person and update contact details with the provided name In case of a land line, inquire the name of the person answering the phone and the name of the person on whose name the phone is registered. Following which, save the called number as two new contacts — against the name of person who received the call (i.e. if he or she is not a child, house maid, caretaker, nurse etc) and the name of the person who owns the called number.

Contact

Required person is not available

TSRs should refrain from being over-persuasive with the enquiry, and mustn‘t question children, house maid, caretaker, nurse etc. Find out who you are speaking to, following which introduce yourself and try selling to that person. If he‘s not interested ask what would be the best time to contact the person — who you originally called for and enter the callback with a note.


Operations Management Call not escalated to the required person

Introduction & Consent

Sales Pitch

Eligibility check

Appointment

Prospect wants to be contacted on another number Prospect says he is not interested in the offer Prospect says he is not presently interested in the offer Prospect declines after listening the sales pitch Prospect likes the offer but says he‘ll avail it later Prospect is not eligible Prospect does not fulfill all eligibility criteria, but is extremely interested in the offer and asks for a workaround Prospect cannot grant an appointment now and requests for a callback after a prolonged period of time

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Be polite and say ―Well, if he is busy, I can call at a more convenient time. What according to you is the best time to contact him?‖ Don‘t be persuasive and just hang -up politely if the person is unwilling to talk... Save the new number as an additional contact against the prospect‘s name. If the new number is the prospect‘s principal contact, then mark the number as default. Enquire for reference of people who he thinks may be interested in the offer. If references are provided, they must be saved a s new contacts. Ask if wishes to be contacted in the future, with regards to this offer. If agrees to be contacted in the future, mark the call as a long-term callback. Enquire the reason behind his decision and if the reason is not connected with product deficiency, then ask for references and add the same to the contact list. Politely enquire the reason and ask when he wants to be contacted. Mark the call as a callback — specifying a tentative time Console him by saying that it is possible that in near future the company may come up with product/service customized customized for people who face similar problems. Say that the rules don‘t permit it, but that you will escalate the matter to your superiors and will revert to him shortly. Following which ask for references and console him by saying that many people face this problem and that the issue has been brought to the company‘s notice.

Ask for the reason, and if the reason is not very strong then try to convince him for an earlier appointment — without being too persuasive. If the attempt fails than book a callback for the requested date and time

Call Disposal A sales call can culminate in many different ways, for instance it may turn-out to be an embarrassing hang-up or a successful lead. So, after making a call the TSRs must record the outcome of the call, by filling-up a call disposal form in the CRM. The practice of filling-up the call disposal form is helpful in following ways:  

It ensures that people who do not wish to be called are not contacted inadvertently It makes it convenient to schedule callbacks — enabling prompt and timely callback to prospects

The call disposal form contains multiple options from which the TSR must select the most appropriate one. The options are grouped into two columns – negative ones to the left and positive ones to the right. Each outcome is accompanied by a set of reasons or causes, which the TSR must select to give a clear idea of the outcome. Following rules should be observed while filling-up the call-disposal form.  

 

TSR must select an option and a sub-option wherever applicable In case a callback is requested, it is essential to include a callback time and add a note describing the need for a callback. Entering a note is a good practice as it serves as a valuable reference at the time of callback In case of wrong number/address, the details should be updated at the end of the call People who sternly say that they are not interested, must be marked as Do Not Call (DNC)

Document Checklist (in case an appointment is secured) If the TSR is successful in securing an appointment, then an additional step needs to be performed post call disposal. Based on his discussion with the prospect, the TSR must prepare a checklist of documents which will be collected by by the FPC during the appointed visit. The checklist must be escalated to the TL and optionally it may even be mailed to the prospect.

Reconfirmation Call If the quality department rejects the lead, it must be reconfirmed and resubmitted for quality analysis. Reconfirmation involves calling the prospect and reiterating the details of the offer and then rescheduling the appointment. The cause of rejection is mentioned in the notification issued by the quality department, so the concerned TSR must make a clean call — mentioning all the details and acquiring the required information, without being manipulative.



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FPC Visit The following steps lead to conversion of appointments into a sale:

Assignment

Pre-visit Call

Familiarization

Submission

Reproting

Revisit

Assignment Details of appointments secured by TSRs go through a quality assessment process, and qualifying leads are escalated to the TL. The TL must then assign the leads to his FPCs based on his discretion the TL may employ any of following modes of assignment: 



Load balancing: The leads are grouped geographically and each FPC is assigned a group. The TL may even take into consideration the road knowledge of FPCs and accordingly assign leads. If there is disparity in the number of leads from various geographical locations, then the TL may assign multiple geographical locations to some FPCs in order to bring about an equitable distribution of leads Criteria based: In criteria based assignment, the allotment of leads is done on basis of expertise level of FPCs. For example, assignment of high value lead to the most experienced FPC and assignment of low value leads to new FPCs. This mode of assignment allows the TL to leverage the potential of expert FPCs.

The TL may choose either or both modes of assignment for lead distribution.

Pre-visit call It is a good practice to issue a reminder to the prospect, one day prior to the date of appointment, and the most suitable person for this task is the TSR who initiated the contact. FPCs must therefore schedule a pre-visit call for leads that are assigned to them. In case the TSR who initiated the lead is not available, then the pre-visit call must be made by the FPC. The pre-visit call must be brief and to the point. It should cover the following two points:  

Inform the prospect that he has an appointment today/tomorrow Provide him the name of the FPC — assigned for the appointment

In certain cases, pre-visit calls may culminate in rescheduling or cancellation of appointments. The probable cause of rescheduling may be some sort of emergency at the client‘s end; however the cause of cancellation can safely be attributed to change of mind. So, if a prospect cancels the appointment altogether, then it is appropriate to apply mild persuasion in order to prevent loss of sale.

Familiarization On the day of visit, FPCs should look into the details of the day‘s appointments in order to familiarize themselves with the needs of the prospects and the nature of agreement reached between the prospect and the TSR. This practice enables the FPC to mentally prepare himself for further negotiations.

Visit It is essential for the FPC to be punctual and reach the prospect‘s home/office on time. time. In case of a delay due to traffic or other such circumstances, the FPC must call the prospect and notify him of the delay. While on visit, the FPC must be extremely courteous and treat everyone with respect. Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091


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The meeting with the prospect should commence with greetings, following which the FPC should directly proceed to discuss the deal. Since, the objective of the visit is to finalize a sale the FPC should brief the prospect on the particulars of the transaction prior to obtaining his signatures on the form. It is a good practice to ask the prospect to verify the particulars mentioned on the form. The next step is to collect the documents and or payment, which must be checked in order to ensure that they are in order. This ends the sales call, but prior to leaving the FPC may attempt to cross-sell or acquire references — without being too persuasive. Following table enumerates the action plans for any contingencies that may arise during the visit: Contingency The designated FPC cannot come to work on the day of appointment The appointment needs to be postponed or pre-poned to suite the FPC‘s schedu le The FPC gets delayed for the visit

The FPC reaches on time or a little late, and finds that the prospect has left Prospect says he didn‘t receive full and correct information about the offer

Upon clarification of the deal, prospect requests some changes in the terms of service and cancels the order if his wish is not granted Prospect‘s documents are not in order

Action The TL should assign the lead to another FPC and the new FPC must call-up the prospect to inform him that he‘ll be visiting in place of his colleague. Call-up the prospect and explain the situation — requesting him to change the date and/or time of appointment. Call up the prospect and notify him of the delay— taking care to apologize and mention the estimated duration of delay. If the prospect is ok with the delay, then the FPC can carry-on with the visit as usual. However, if the prospect says he cannot wait, then a new appointment must be scheduled. Call-up the prospect and ask if he can return shortly else request for a new appointment. Apologize and assure him that the concerned TSR will be questioned for this. Next, explain to him the full details of the offer and then proceed to close the sale. If at this point the prospect declines the offer, then ask for the reason and apply mild persuasion to carry-out the sale. Finally, report this matter is feedback. Try mild persuasion and if he doesn‘t yield , then tell him that you‘d shortly get back with an offer suiting his requirements. Ask him to get his documents in order and fix a follow-up date.

Submission If the visit is closed successfully, then the FPC must return and submit the particulars of the sale to the quality department. The particulars are then checked for conformity and if every thing is in order the material are escalated for further processing.

Reporting After completing the days work, each FPC must login to the CRM and record the outcome of each visit. The FPC‘s interface comprises of following elements:  

Assignment lists Assignment outcome form

The ‗assignment list‘ shows the details of the cases assigned to the FPC along with its current status (i.e. unvisited). Double clicking on a listed case leads to the ‗outcome‘ form where the FPC can record the result of the visit. Following is the layout of the outcome form: Unvisited (default) (UV) Pre-Visit Call Reconfirmed (VCN) Postponed (VPS) Cancelled (VPC) Location Search Location Found (LF) Location Not Found (LNF) Wrong Address (WAD) Punctuality On Time (OT) Late Due to Traffic (LDT) Late Due to Personal Reason (LPR) Late due to Location Search (LLS) Other (Note) Meeting Contact Available (CA) Contact Not Available (CNA) Offer Reiteration

Visited Date: Notes: View Visit History/Change Visit Date Revisit Planner Time: Location: Notes: Doc Checklist



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Prospects Understands the Offer (PUO) TSR Withheld Information (TWI) Agreement Customer Willing to Sign up (CWS) Sign‘s up After some Urging (CAU) Doc Collection All Collected (AC) Some Pending (SP) Some Not Available (SNA) Outcome Successful (SF) Revisit Required (RR) Unsuccessful (US)

Rules for reporting the outcome:    

Outcome of every step needs to be recorded. For example pre-visit call, location search etc IF the visit date is changed at the time of pre-visit call, the same should be updated Revisit can be planned at any time during the process If revisit is required, the time, location and reason must be provided while booking the revisit

Revisit Generally, revisits are required for following reasons:   

FPC couldn‘t meet the prospect Doc collection is pending Quality rejects the doc

If the revisit is made for quality reasons, then the FPC must take care to address the appropriate quality issues, while making the the visit.


Operations Management 

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s

Database Management The Database administrator (DBA) is responsible for the upkeep of database. His duties include the following: List acquisition List acquisition helps replenish the database with fresh leads. Following pointers are to be kept in mind while sourcing contact lists: 



Lists must be purchased from reputed vendors under condition that records that are identical to those already on the database — will not be paid for. If vendors demands upfront payment, then they must be made liable for replacement or payback of unusable records. Vendor must also be made liable for replacement or payback of records that are found to be un-contactable due to following following reasons: wrong number, DND, fax tone Upon delivery of lists, the DBA should ensure that lists are in CSV or TSV formats and that all records mandatorily contain the fields: Name and Phone number

List upload The DBA should observe the following procedure at the time of uploading lists to the database:  



‗Cost‘ field should be appended to each record of the list, and its value should be set to unit price of the list All records in the list must be matched with existing contacts, and successful matches must be ear-marked as ‗unusable‘ Lists of unusable contacts should be returned to their respective vendors, and compensation sought in form of replacements or payback

Campaign Lists The DBA is responsible for generating campaign lists for ongoing campaigns. These lists must be generated on a regular basis, for example daily, weekly, biweekly — depending on the requirement of the campaign. The PM defines the criteria for extraction of each campaign list, and the DBA must accordingly generate them. A campaign list can be extracted from following sources:     

Purchased lists Lists provided by clients Referrals generated during telesales process Lists generated through marketing and promotional campaigns Existing customers

In order to generate campaign lists, the DBA must express the criterion in terms of SQL statements and query the database accordingly. CRM configuration The DBA may be asked to apply SQL logic for assigning contacts to TSRs. The mode of assignment is selected by the TL and DBA must assign contacts accordingly. Following are the two modes of assignment:  

Load balancing: This involves use of CRM algorithms for sequential assignment of leads Criterion based: In this case, the TL defines a set of rules for each TSR. For example: TSR A calls people whose income is more than 5 lacs per annum, TSR B calls people who work in I.T sector and earn more than 5 lacs per annum. If the TL opts for this mode, then the DBA must translate the criterions into SQL statements and generate custom calling lists for each TSR



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Quality Control The Quality control department ensures that the telesales process is carried-out in a manner that is legally appropriate and adheres to the rules specified by the client. The executors of the quality control process are Quality Auditors (QA)) — who report to the Quality Manager (QM). The Quality Manager assigns certain number of QAs to each campaign, and they are required to work collaboratively with the campaign‘s TL. Although QAs work alongside the TL, their duty requires them to be speculative of the actions of the TL and his subordinates. The quality control team must perform the following three functions: 1. QA1: Verifying appointment calls 2. QA2: Document Assessment 3. Sample Audit

QA1 Verifying Appointment Calls Every appointment must be verified by the QA before it is passed on to FPCs. The process of appointment verification comprises of following steps: Retrieval of Call Recordings The first step is to retrieve the recordings of calls that have been marked by TSRs as appointment. The Quality Control module of the CRM enables the QA to easily find and retrieve appointment calls. Next, each appointment call must be stored in separate zipped archives and temporary file names should be assigned to each zipped archive. Logging Appointment Calls Post retrieval, the calls must be logged in a spreadsheet — comprising of following fields:       

Verification Queue Code Date of Appointment Call TSR Code Retrieval Date Call Archive File Name (hyperlinked) Current Status (default: Unverified) Remark

While logging a new appointment call to the queue, care must be taken to designate the Verification Queue Code as the new filename for the zipped archive (containing the call recording). Building Call History There is a possibility that the appointment call was preceded by earlier calls. So in order to have a complete track record of the conversation, the QA should listen through the appointment call in order to determine whether or not it is a continuation of an earlier call. If the call is a continuation, then QA must pull-out recordings of all calls made to that number and add them to the archive. QA should also check for additional numbers saved against the prospect‘s name, and if additional numbers are found — search should be conducted for calls made to those numbers, and their recordings added to the archive. Next, the recordings must be documented in the following way:  



Add a spreadsheet file named Call-History to the recording archive Create following fields in the spreadsheet: Call Date, Call Duration, Recording (file hyperlinked), Call Summary Fill-up the spreadsheet with details of each call recording — excepting the summary field which can wait till the next step



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Appointment Verification Once call recordings have been organized and documented, it is time to conduct the actual verification. But, prior to that another spreadsheet named Verification-History must be added to the recordings archive. This file stores a history of successive verifications, should the call be rejected and then resubmitted after a repeat call. Verification-History comprises of following fields: Verification Date, Verifier Code, Result, and Feedback. Following procedure should be followed for verification of appointments: 





Listen to all audio files in chronological order. While doing this, keep the Call-History file open and include the gist of the conversation in the Summary field After listening to all audio files determine whether the entire conversation was legal. Depending on your conclusion enter appropriate codes in the Result field and then fill-up the feedback field with relevant instruction for TL/TSR Finally, update the Current Status field in the master spreadsheet as Verified or Rejected. In the Remark field enter the codes applicable to the current version of verification

The following table enumerates the result codes, their meanings and associated feedback: Result Code ONEP

Meaning Offer not explained properly

PDUO

Prospect did not understand the offer

AFT

Appointment taken forcefully

TWF

TSR withheld some crucial facts

TMR

TSR Misrepresented

AWC

Prospect grants appointment without committing to sign-up for the offer

Feedback Reject: Prospect needs to be called back and appointment re-scheduled after explaining the offer clearly — ensuring through questions that prospect has understood the offer Reject: Prospect needs to be called back and appointment re-scheduled after explaining the offer clearly — ensuring through questions that prospect has understood the offer Reject: TL to call back and apologies for unprofessional conduct of the TSR. Followed by, re-explanation of offer and re-scheduling of appointment Reject: Callback by TL and re-explanation of offer followed by re-scheduling of appointment Reject: Callback by TL and re-explanation of offer followed by re-scheduling of appointment Reject: TSR calls back, explains the deal and then acquires the prospect‘s commitment to sign-up for t he offer. Followed by confirmation of appointment time.

Result Communication Post verification, the results should be communicated to the TL, so that he can assign FPCs for verified leads and take corrective measures in connection with rejected leads. Verification of Resubmitted Appointments Following procedure must be observed for verification of appointments that were previously rejected:     

Update status in the master file to Unverified Update call history by adding the new calls to the archive and documenting the same in Call-History file Next, listen to the call and enter the verdict in Verification-History Change the status of the master file Report the result to the TL

QA2 Document Assessment Document assessment is the level 2 quality analyses, which involves checking the document and particulars collected by the FPC to ensure its conformity to rules and regulations. Following steps are involved: Information Logging The new verification request must be queued for QA2. So, following details must be added to the QA2 task list:  

Doc Assessment Queue Code Date of Visit Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091

Operations Management  

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FPC Code Current Status (default: Unverified)

After filling-up the above information, the QA must pack the documents into an envelope and label it using the Queue Code. Document Assessment The documents and the payments must be checked for conformity, based on which the QA may select one of the following options: APD DP

Code

Meaning Everything is in order Documents Pending

FI NCP

Form Incomplete Non Conformity in Payment

Feedback Confirmed Revisit required for collection of additional materials Revisit required for completing the form Check/Draft etc is inappropriate, needs to be reissued

Result Communication Post Verification the result should be communicated to the TL, so that he may take appropriate action based on the quality result.

Call Audit The QA must do a sample survey of calls for each TSR and accordingly compute their quality score. QA scores should be calculated every month. The assessment is made after listening to samples of calls made by each TSR. For optimum results, the QA must be careful to select samples of medium length duration, and at least 10 samples must be collected each month for every TSR. The following parameters must be taken into account while assessing the samples:         

Opening Sales skill – interest creation Eligibility check Closure Objection handling Information gathering Telephonic courtesy Script discipline Manipulative tendencies

Scores are allotted against individual parameter on a 5 point scale, where:     

1 point = unacceptable 2 points = bad 3 points = ok 4 points = good 5 points = very good

The overall performance score is calculated as a weighted average. Following is the format for QA score sheet of individual TSRs


Operations Management Parametric Score (5 point scale) Opening Sales Skill Eligibility Check Closure Objection Handling Information Gathering Telephonic Courtesy Script Discipline Ethicality

Weight (negative for 1, 0 for 2 and positive weight for 3 and above) 10 20 5 5 15 15 10 15 5

Weighted Score

Total :


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Coaching Every team has a coach, who monitors the performance of the team. The responsibility of the coach is to identify the scope for improvement and to bring about improvement through training. For this reason Rainbow-Financial follows a Continuous Improvement Program (CIP), which is aimed at constantly raising the performance level of the team. The constant improvement program is implemented in following steps:     

Identifying performance optimization tactics Developing a training program based on knowledge of optimizing tactics Identifying people with scope for improvement Imparting training to TSRs with scope for improvement Tracking the performance of trainees

Identifying Performance Optimization Practices While monitoring performance, the coach has the opportunity to observe how different people work. They are in a position to identify techniques and practices that enhance performance. In this regards, the coach should make it a point to observe top performers and carefully document their strategies. Converting Observations into Instructions Based on his knowledge of performance enhancement techniques and malpractices, the coach must design a training program that‘ll enable mediocre or poor performers to increa se their performance. Selecting Trainees Following technique should be used for identifying people who need training:   

Arrange people in descending order of their service score Select bottom 20% in for the training batch If many people have failed to achieve the benchmark then the size of the batch may be increased

Training Sessions Training sessions of 1 – 1½ hr duration should be held at least twice a week. During these sessions the coach must identify common mistakes and suggest ways of improving them. Following which, the coach should discuss performance enhancement strategies that are used by top performers. Mock calls should be conducted to ensure that trainees have absorbed the instructions properly. Performance Tracking After culmination of the training course, the coach must endeavor to track the performance of trainees for 3 consecutive months. If there is no improvement in the performance of non-target achievers, then a termination proposal may be issued by the coach.

How to Implement the Continuous Improvement Program The coach must undertake the following steps in order to implement the continuous improvement program: 1. Identifying problem areas 2. Determining ways of overcoming the problem 3. Increasing productivity by training low performers Identifying Problem Areas Failure of sales calls may be attributed to several reasons. Identification of major causes of failure is the starting point of the continuous improvement program. For this purpose, the coach needs to undertake an analysis of call disposal data. The best way to go about this is to pull-out the records of all unsuccessful calls (for a specific time interval) and then make a table enumerating various causes along with their respective frequencies. Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091

Operations Management Reason

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Frequency

Sort these in descending order and then select the top 5 - 7 corrigible causes of failure. These should be the shortterm focus of the improvement program. Determining ways of overcoming the problems After determining the top causes of failure, the coach must try to determine ways of overcoming the problems. This can be done in following two ways: 1. Learning from the top performers 2. Forming corrective strategies Learning from top performers: Every team has top performers who are always a notch ahead of others. These people are capable of getting better results, because they have devised certain strategies that enable them to convince prospects easily. So, it is likely that these people would have come-up with strategies to tackle the biggest causes of failure. By learning from the top performers, the coach can enable the rest of the team to improve their performance. However, this is not a straightforward job because top performers will typically not desire to part with their strategies. So, live call barging is one of the best ways of learning the secret strategies of the top performers. In some cases, the top performers are eager and willing to share their strategies, so direct questioning is also an effective way of learning. Forming corrective strategies: Top performers may not have solutions to all problems, so for the benefit of the team the coach may have to work out corrective strategies. In order to do this, the coach must first understand the problem intricately and then determine various causes of the problem. It may be that the team members are doing something wrong, or the prospects are unable to understand the value of the product/service. Whatever may be the cause, it can only be unearthed through many hours of call barging and deep introspection. After determining the underlying cause of the problem, the coach must devise a set of corrective strategies and test each one of them by asking some team members to incorporate these strategies in their calls. If a strategy shows promising results, then it is the best solution to the problem. Increasing productivity by training low performers The whole point of the continuous improvement program is to increase the overall performance of the team by raising the performance of low performers. So, the coach must sort the team members on basis of their performance score and then select the bottom 10 – 20 percent for training. These people must then be instructed on ways of improving their performance. After the completion of the training program, the coach must monitor the performance of trainees and determine whether the training initiative was helpful in increasing performance levels. People who fail to perform after repeated training sessions ought to be terminated.



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Sales Processing The sales processing team comprises of Data Entry Operators (DAE) and Billing Executives. When a sale qualifies through QA1 and QA2, the particulars of the sale are then escalated to a DAE whose job is to scan the document and copy the content of paper forms into electronic forms. The details are then sent to a Billing Executive, who adds the sale to the client‘s invoice and then dispatches the details to the client.



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People Management People management is concerned with the following:  

Recruitment Appraisal

Recruitment Recruitment is an on-going process as attrition rates are usually high in call centers. The following procedure must be observed for recruitment of TSRs: 

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Pre-interview form: All candidates should be asked asked to fill a pre-interview form, which will be the main reference for the interviewer First round: The first round of interview may be conducted by a TL. The objective of this round is to select candidate who possess the desired level of language skills. The interviewer must ensure that the candidate is fluent in English, Hindi and a regional language Voice test: In this round the candidates are subjected to a voice test, where they are provided with a script and asked to read the script over the phone. The evaluator listens to the candidate over the phone and based on that decides to select or reject the candidate HR round: Candidates who qualify the first two rounds are taken for an HR round. This is a one to one meeting with the HR, and the objective here is to discuss the terms of the job and finalize a salary package

Appraisal The people management department is responsible for appraisal. They must conduct regular performance reviews of all employees and accordingly grant them financial and/or positional appraisal.



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Roles and Responsibilities Project Manager The PM is responsible for the following functions: Campaign Resource Allocation Upon receiving high level directives from CCD — pertaining to initiation, change or discontinuation of campaigns. The PM must accordingly distribute available human and infrastructural resources among various campaigns. In this regards, the PM must strive to achieve an optimum balance between the client‘s requirement and the resources at hand. If the resources are in surplus, then the PM in conjunction with the CCD may request the clients to increase the size of their campaigns. Alternatively, the CCD and the PM may decide to allocate few extra seats to some of the high potential campaigns — without adding the extra fixed cost to the client‘s bill. In case of resource scarcity, the owners of low potential campaign may be asked to temporarily reduce the size of their respective campaigns. For each of the campaigns the PM must allocate following resources: Teams: Depending on the size of the campaign (i.e. 20 seats, 30 seats etc), the PM may split the total manpower requirement into multiple teams comprising of 10 – 15 executors (not counting the TL and Quality staff) Team Leader: A TL must be allotted to each team and the selection of TL must be made on basis of compatibility between campaign requirement and TL‘s experience /track record Telesales Representatives (TSR): A team may comprise of 10 – 12 TSRs, and their selection may be left to the TL‘s discretion, However when there are multiple competing teams working on the same campaign, then the PM and TLs should jointly select TSRs for each team. This helps in preventing concentration of star performers in one team Financial Planning Consultants (FPC): FPCs are field agents who visit prospects to formalize a sale, after they have verbally agreed to sig-up for a financial service. The role of an FPC is to complete formalities such as: form fillup, client signature, document collection, payment collection etc. In a small campaign there may be 1 or 2 FPCs working alongside TSRs. However, in case of a large campaign comprising of multiple competing teams — there ought to be 1 or 2 dedicated teams of FPCs headed by their own TLs and catering to all calling teams. Selection of FPCs may be left to the discretion of TLs, who would have to select FPCs keeping in mind the campaign requirements and expertise/ track record of FPCs. Quality Auditors (QA): In addition to TSRs and FPCs, each team should have 1 or 2 QAs, whose role is to listen to recordings of sale calls in order to ensure that quality parameters are not flouted. Additionally, quality auditors must perform quality checks on sample batches of non-sales calls — on a regular basis to ensure general adherence of quality parameters. Although QAs work in tandem with TLs, they are answerable only to the QM and it is the QM who in conjunction with PM appoints QAs for each team. In large campaigns comprising of multiple competing teams — there ought to be 1 or 2 dedicated teams of quality personals (QAs + QCs) headed by their own TLs and catering to multiple calling teams. Quality Coach (QC): Each team must have at-least one QC, whose role it is to analyze the performance and practices of individual TSRs. QCs are appointed by the QM in conjunction with the PM, and like QAs they report directly to the QM. Campaign Lists It is the PM‘s duty to ensure that calling lists are made available for each and every campaign. In this respect, the PM collaborates with DBAs to purchase lists from vendors. The PM defines a customer profile for each campaign and the DBAs are required to generate calling lists accordingly.



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Campaign Operation After having set-up various campaigns and delegated responsibilities to TLs, the PM must indulge in close-range observation of key operations. He must insists on receiving reports from his TLs on a daily basis, as well as hold regular meetings with them to ensure that everything is in order. Campaign Quality Control The PM in association with the QM must finalize the quality parameters for each campaign — based on client specifications and regulations issued by TRAI, IRDA and other government accredited authorities. PM must insist on receiving quality adherence report from the QM on a regular basis, and should take appropriate disciplinary actions if TLs, TSRs or FPCs are found guilty of flouting quality rules. Campaign Monitoring The PM must analyze the progress of all campaigns in order to determine the efficiency and profitability of each one of them. Following KPIs are of interest to the PM:    

Campaign conversion rate: Percentage of called numbers that are ultimately converted into sale Campaign target: The daily sales target for all teams working on a particular campaign Team target: The daily sales target for a team TL target: The target of a TL

Team Leader In a small campaign, the TL is responsible for managing and coordinating the work or TSRs and FPCs. The duties and responsibilities of the TL may be enumerated as under: Training The TL must impart process knowledge to TSRs and FPCs. They must mentor their subordinates by providing live assistance to new TSRs — making their first sales calls. Similarly, they must accompany new FPCs on their first client visits. The TL is also liable to ensure that his team adheres to quality parameters, so quality sessions must be conducted on a regularly basis. In order to enhance the output of the campaign, TLs must keep a tab on competitor‘s offerings and changes taking shape at the campaign owner‘s end. Using thi s knowledge, TLs should come-up with innovative selling strategies and convey them to their team members. Attendance and leave management The TL is responsible for recording his team‘s attendance and granting leaves to team members. Following tasks come under the purview of this responsibility:      

Ensuring high attendance Record daily attendance Keep track of idle time and break time Designate weekly offs to team members Granting or rejecting subordinate‘s leave application Maintaining a schedule of granted leaves: This serves as a reference material based on which the TL can decide whether to approve or disapprove a fresh leave application — as it is important to maintain a minimum level of attendance

Work Allotment Allotting calling lists to TSRs and designating leads to FPCs are the most important tasks of the TL. These tasks need to be conducted methodically as described below: 

Calling lists: The TL must split the campaign list, which is provided by the PM — into multiple calling lists (one for each TSR). The segregation may be based on load balancing model or the TL may choose to custom Rainbow Financial Services, IB-192 Salt Lake Sec-III, Kolkata — 700091


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generate a calling list for each TSR through criteria based extraction of records from the main campaign list. The TL can enlist the help of DBA for calling list generation. Lead distribution: Leads generated by TSRs are passed on to FPCs who then visit the client to close the deal. In order to allocate leads to FPCs, the TL should take following factors into consideration: Road knowledge of FPCs: Sending FPCs to a part of the city that is best known to them helps in o saving time and costs Level of expertise: expertise: Assigning a high value deal to the most experienced FPC makes enormous o business sense

Reallocation of callbacks and follow-ups Callbacks or follow-ups are responsibilities of the TSR or the FPC who initiated the contact. However, if the initiator of the callback or follow-up is absent on the stipulated day, and then the TL may allocate the same to another team member. Supervision This activity consumes a major part of the TL‘s time. Supervision involves walking around the floor and making closerange observation of ongoing activity. It gives the TL an idea about the efficiency of the operations — enabling him to make notes of practices that are praise-worthy or inappropriate. During supervision, the TL can motivate his team members and drive them closer to the target. Also, the TL can offer spot feedback if a team member is found doing things erroneously. Supervision of FPCs must be done over the phone, phone, as they are on the field. The TL should call-up FPCs from time to time and make enquires pertaining to the status of their work. Scoring It is the duty of the TL to keep track of leads as an when they are generated. These must be written onto a display board to indicate the team‘s score. The conversions made by FPCs must be recorded in similar fashion. Reporting The TL must prepare following reports:  

Reports concerning campaign target Individual performance reports of TSRs and FPCs


OppMgmt

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