How can I improve my Back Walkovers?

Ideas to improve call centre service,improve efficiency, cut costs?

• I work in a bank's call centre, and one of our targets, is to come up with an idea, once a month, to either save costs, improve efficiency, or improve service, ie One idea I came up with was that a csa (customer service adviser) must always get a role No if they speak to another dept asking them to action something like to stop a credit card that is reported as lost, I would ask that person for their role No so if the request was not carried out it was easy to trace where it had gone wrong. I'm not just looking for ideas to blame others, the most important ideas are those that will improve our service to our customers

• Answer:

  Frankly, your bank's directors and executives need to come down from their 'Eiffel Tower' into the real world. It is ridiculous to set such arbitary targets. If the order to ' come up with an idea, once a month, to either save costs, improve efficiency, or improve service' was theirs it reflects their thinking - cost saving ahead of improved (customer) service. This will then permit larger salary packages, bonuses and perks for them. A well trained, happy workforce is a company's most valuable asset. Surprisingly it never appears on a balance sheet. If the workforce did appear there, those in the 'Eiffel Tower' may give them more consideration. With proper training, encouragement, and rewards workers could be looking for ways to improve what is done, and how it is done as a matter of course. One of the best ways to improve customer service is to empower the people who take the calls. Many years ago, this was done in a large telecommunications company. The new managing director decided that when a customer telephoned with a problem that the person taking the call would be the one to fix it. A further requirement was that the matter should be resolved to the customer's satisfaction at the time of the call. His personnel were trained to do this and given the power to make decisions on the spot. The matter did not have to be referred up the 'chain of command'. That company's performance and growth improved dramatically over the next few years. Sadly, this situation changed when the managing director moved to another company.