Customer Success
| Eskom Holdings Ltd. | | Print | |
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Eskom Holdings Ltd. of South Africa is one of the world's leading power producers, supplying virtually all of the energy to its home country and half of the power across the African continent. Its 3.7 million customers initiate over 3 million customer service contacts every year via phone, fax, e-mail, hard copy and SMS messages. In that same period, Eskom itself makes nearly 1 million phone calls and SMS pushes. Providing such service across seven contact centers, in seven different languages, is a challenging feat. Until recently, managing Eskom’s contact center workforce efficiently and effectively was also a major challenge — and performance suffered as a result. Service level adherence (calls answered within 30 seconds) was just 67 percent, and the company had minimal insight into its scheduling practices and strategies. "Agent adherence was not measured and neither was forecast accuracy. Schedules were done by hand with little direct consideration of workload patterns," said Kevin von Berg, corporate specialist of customer service at Eskom. "As a result, our off-peak shifts were heavily overstaffed, and there was little or no variation to accommodate peak contact volumes during the day or even the year." The centers’ lack of effective scheduling practices and an inability to share contacts between the company’s seven contact centers was hindering the operation’s success. To find relief, Eskom enlisted the aid of the IEX® TotalView® Workforce Management system. TotalView has enabled Eskom to improve scheduling and forecasting accuracy, agent adherence and virtual contact sharing, which in turn has improved overall service level consistency and contact center resource utilization. Flexible Scheduling – Climbed Over 75%Prior to a full TotalView implementation, workforce management was in place at fewer than half of the seven sites, and applied only to the individual island of agents at that site. This adversely impacted the organization’s ability to accurately plan for demand --forcing Eskom to rely on best-guess schedules based on contracted shift patterns. The enormous challenge of scheduling hundreds of agents by hand gave the company precious little flexibility. "Schedules were only issued once per year," said Mr. von Berg, “leaving Eskom to fill any variation with expensive temporary help.”Eskom also gained better utilization of its agents’ existing skills once the TotalView Multiskill feature was implemented. "Before implementing TotalView, we had to constantly change agent skills or reprioritize to maintain service levels across all skills," said Mr. von Berg. “Thanks to a better-managed, better-scheduled workforce, service level climbed considerably to just under 80 percent.” Virtual Contact Sharing – Success Rate Close to 90%Eskom's strong focus on creating a regional presence in each of the country’s provinces created a need for seven contact centers. But this approach was not leading to greater customer service. By using TotalView to enable selective overflow and re-routing based on local service level measurements, Eskom has improved results during peak periods by flowing calls to centers with shorter queues and the proper skillsets to handle the call, resulting in a nearly 90 percent success rate for re-routed contacts.Improved Schedule Adherence – Forecast Accuracy Rate of 95%The company has come a long way from its roots with an annual master schedule. Central schedule coordinators monitor forecasts, plans and overall schedule performance while local managers supply schedules to their agent groups. Accuracy is measured both daily and at 30-minute intervals, providing instant visibility and feedback to coaches and floor managers.By tying the detailed skills capabilities of agents with sophisticated planning and forecasting, Eskom has attained a forecast accuracy rate of 95 percent, week-to-week, with fit to schedule averaging 85 percent. Overall scheduling performance has exceeded expectations in 8 of 12 months. "We can now adjust our schedules to meet the needs of the business, as well as the employees," said Mr. von Berg. Benefits:
Client Profile:Company: Eskom Holdings LtdSector: Utility Contact Types: Service, Credit, Payment Contact Volume: Nearly 4 million Site Locations: Bellville, Bloemfontein, Braamfontein, East London, Polokwane, Westville, Witbank Agents: 350+ Website: http://www.eskom.co.za |