Business Turnaround
Opportunity: A Fortune 200 telecommunications company asked Lakeru to take responsibility for their second largest call center.
Click to read moreThe call center scored lowest in the company in all key performance metrics, had strained relations with the Communication Workers of America (CWA), had a public altercation with the union that resulted in an employee walkout, and the walkout was captured by local media on TV and newspapers causing an embarrassment to the company. The General Manager for the call center had newly been dismissed.
Approach: The leadership team had been traumatized by the removal of their leader and the public altercation that aired on local news.
Click to read moreLakeru pulled the existing leadership team together to help ease their nerves and rebuild trust within the group. During this time, they had an opportunity to share how they were feeling and engage in the rebuilding process. He also met with union leadership to introduce himself and discuss areas of common concern and joint interest. He spent several weeks meeting with small teams of employees to get to know them, get their input, and paint a vision for turning the business around. Throughout this time, Lakeru and the leadership team built a strategic plan for the business.
Recommendation: After meeting with leadership and frontline employees, Lakeru made the following recommendations:
Click to read more- Acknowledge frontline employees as the most important employee in the call center and all other positions are there to ensure their success.
- Develop and publish the strategic plan and goals for the call center for all employees to read and understand. In addition, establish goals for all employees (irrespective of department) and align them with the overall call center objectives. Everyone within the business would know their goals and how their performance directly impacted the center’s success.
- Prioritize comprehensive and consistent communication at all levels. Team meetings were essential to conducting business and were mandatory.
- Embrace the union as a collaborative partner rather than an adversary. Disagreements became opportunities to actively listen and seek solutions, with the ultimate goal always being to help frontline employees to best serve customers.
Results: In 12 months, there was an entirely successful turnaround of business on all fronts, with minor changes made to the leadership team:
Click to read moreFinished 110 percent to objective for the current year, exceeding an aggressive revenue target for the year.
- This reflected growth of 245 percent over the previous year
- Overcame an early $2M revenue deficit and last place ranking (16 of 16 call centers) within the division to finish the year as the no. 2 call center
Repaired and strengthened a badly strained and cantankerous relationship with the local CWA union.
- Created an environment of open communication and cooperation
- Built trust and jointly defined the focus and mission for the business.
Met extremely challenging service level targets (90 percent of all calls answered in 20 seconds) set by the Public Utilities Commission for 11 out of 12 months in the current year.
- This level of success had never been previously attained by a consumer call center in the company.