Shifting a Kiwi institution offshore

What you can learn from the 018 experience–  By Bruce Cotterill, Yellow, CEO.The big pictureThe business world today is very different to that of just five years ago. It’s not uncommon to work with partners and suppliers who are based in a different country altogether. This is a result of the broader trend of globalisation, which has itself been largely driven by advances in technology, and in rising education and skill standards in developing countries. Here in New Zealand this trend has been most evident in our call centre industry. Seamless communications technology and lower offshore labour costs make the case for partnering with an overseas provider a strong one. Whole new industries have sprung up in places such as India, Malaysia and Indonesia, where there are increasing numbers of well-educated people working for global ‘business process outsourcing’ specialists. Offshore call centre workers are talking every day to the Kiwi customers of many local and international companies including, as of June this year, Yellow’s 018 directory assistance service.Making the decision to go offshoreIt’s Yellow’s responsibility to provide 018 – and the 0172 international directory assistance service – to New Zealanders and, rightly so, Kiwis have an expectation that the service is of a consistently high standard. Yellow inherited 018 and 0172 following our sale by Telecom in 2007. What many people don’t realise is that the service has in fact been outsourced for a number of years, and won an international directory services award in 2006.However, in recent times, the 018 service has been experiencing gradually declining call volumes. Again, this is largely the result of increasing use of technology – in our case people are accessing White Pages information over the internet more and more through White Pages online. Additionally, because we send search results to callers from mobile phones via SMS, details can be saved in their phone’s address book and therefore users tend not to call 018 again for that number.Falling call volumes mean falling revenue and, short of putting our prices up, it simply wasn’t economic to continue operating the service from New Zealand. And so, late in 2007, in conjunction with our 018 and 0172 outsource partner Teletech, the decision was taken to begin planning a move from Teletech’s base in Palmerston North to its regional ‘centre of excellence’ in Manila, in the Philippines.As well as stacking up financially, a move to Manila would also allow us to access the wider technology resources of Teletech and the potential to add new directory-based services in future – something which would have been out of the question if the service had remained here in New Zealand.The next phase – managing a successful transition while maintaining high service levels – would be crucial.The transition commencesEighteen months in the planning, the transition phase commenced in June this year. A gradual transition period of 12 weeks was initially decided upon, for two key reasons:

• A gradual ‘ramping up’ of call volumes would allow new Manila staff to build their knowledge
• It would allow a decision to progress or not to be made each week, depending on Manila’s performance.

A comprehensive training programme was developed by Teletech’s New Zealand managers, who then delivered it to new staff in Manila as they were hired. Despite the quality of English language spoken there, it was obvious that the main challenge facing new staff would be understanding Kiwi accents, and making themselves understood to callers.In addition, building knowledge of New Zealand businesses and geography was – and continues to be – an important aspect of the training programme.The all-important customer experienceGetting the customer experience right is a focus across the entire business for Yellow. It was clear we would face some challenges on this front in shifting 018 to Manila, despite investing significantly in ongoing operator training. Our ongoing call monitoring and user research, which provides us with daily reports, would show whether we were meeting expectations. It was perhaps no surprise that early feedback showed the service was not meeting some people’s expectations; it was sometimes taking too long to deliver search results and, in some cases, incorrect information was provided to callers. This was largely due to the difficulties callers and operators had in understanding one another.Our response was to work harder with Teletech to extend and further improve the operator training programme, based on caller feedback. Our monitoring is showing service improvements month on month. We have confidence in Teletech and know that eventually service levels will reach the desired level, but in early September the decision was taken to extend the transition period – in particular, the training – to ensure we get the customer experience to where it should be.ConclusionMoving 018 to Manila has been a challenging project, but it will pay off for us. There was always going to be some short-term pain, but we have taken a positive view of the feedback and made sure we used it to make improvements. I was very impressed by the quality of both the facilities and the staff when I visited Teletech in Manila early on in the project. It gave me confidence that we would succeed and, after five months, I am confident that we will continue to make positive progress. Key learningsDo your due diligence on your outsource partner – do they have a track record and the required resources? Take the time to visit them and see their operations for yourself 018 is a uniquely Kiwi service – it has taken time for overseas operators to build up the necessary familiarity with New Zealand. Be prepared to manage criticism, and use customer feedback to improve the service and the customer experience In the event of unexpected problems, be prepared to pause the process and assess what your next step should be.