Six Sigma Design Class
Designing Six Sigma Call Centers and Help Desks
2 Day Class
This 2 minute video explains that variability and sigma have the largest impact on call centers.
James C. Abbott is the leading call center author, developer, teacher, and engineer who you will be fortunate to have as your instructor. James is unique in that he is not only the leading expert and developer in call center and help desk design, but he also has the ability to convert the most complex topic so that everyone can understand and use it. As one recent student from Prague Poland said, “The whole seminar was very well prepared. The issues were told very clearly to me. Slides were very clear and Mr. Abbott has a great knowledge of what he says. I will recommend this class to people in my company who are in a Six Sigma projects.” James currently has four call center books in www.Amazon.com top twenty call center books.
Dawn Greenman from John Hopkins University – Applied Physics Lab said about James Abbott’s design class: “James Abbott is a charismatic teacher. The class is very good. Good info and examples which can be applied to many organizations. It is a tough concept to wrap your head around when you really need to almost change your existing thought processes. He does a great job of unraveling the mystery.”
If you still have questions, call me at 864-297-9598
Objective:
Popular folklore has it that help desks and call centers are easy to design and manage—all you have to do is pick up the phone and talk. In reality, every type of contact center is complex and requires engineering work to perform satisfactorily. A proactive and all-encompassing approach assures that the center performs at optimum levels.
The Abbott design method is a proactive and integrated approach; it assures the facility starts and stays at a six sigma level to assure peak performance, low cost, minimal waits, and high customer satisfaction. This course covers this proactive design approach through science, engineering tools, techniques, and methods.
Who Should Attend: Anyone want to make dramatic cost savings. Anyone wanting to reduce cost while providing a fantastic customer experience. This class is for anyone wanting to make their center a leader in their industry. This class is for individuals who are Black belts or are working to become a Black Belt. This class is also for CIOs, COOs, VPs of operations, and Help Desk directors, managers, designers, and managers on the fast track.
Why You Must Attend this Class: Understanding variability, 21st century methods, factored organization, and center designs will radically enhance your career and boost your center. This class will revolutionize how you think about call center. You will see and understand options that you never dreamed were possible. As Jay Clark from John Hopkins University – Applied Physics Lab said; “It works! We have already implemented.”
Attend both Design and Metric Classes in the same week
While Taking this class, consider adding the Call Center Metrics, analytics, and reporting class. By taking both classes together, you will maximize your knowledge and skill.
Paula Mezo – Purdue University Call Center Manager said, “These two classes (Call Center Metrics, Designing Six Sigma Support Centers) have been the best, most applicable, I have attended since becoming a call center manager.” —
You will take home:
A copy of James Abbott’s book Designing Effective Call Centers, a $95 value.
Abbott Notes for the key concepts and principles
Walkabout© design templates
One recent student said, “Training materials- book- reference guides yellow cards, etc. invaluable!!”
Team Participation:
If you have 3, 4, 5, or more members of your team, they will benefit from taking this class together. To facilitate team awareness, Bring James Abbott to your location. For more information about team participation in this class click on this link
Topics
Understanding variability, sigma, and queuing science impact on your center
In your call center, do you monitor, manage, and design to reduce variability? If not, it is the most important issue in your center effecting every aspect of your center. In this class the mystery of variability will be unraveled and you will understand the why, what, and how for reducing your center’s variability. With your sigma reduced you will see huge cost savings.
Six Sigma Designs in the Call Center and Help Desk World
You will understand what a six sigma design is and how it applies to the call center and help desk world. Understand how Six Sigma works with real world call center and helpdesk examples. The typical call center design has the one option of adding or reducing headcount. With a sigma design, you will take home a vast array of options to use at your center.
The Huge Cost Savings from a Sigma Design and it requires fantastic customer service
Saving money is important to every company. Providing an exceptional customer experience on every call is critical to the business. Having a workplace that people enjoy creates a stable and competent workforce. In this class we will show you the methods to achieve all three simultaneously. We will show you a cost comparison of a typical center compared with a Sigma Design center. In a sigma center the cost WILL be dramatically lower than a typical center. Come to the class and see how to accomplish the savings.
Strategic Call Center and Help Desk Engineering of lanes, layers, and processes
Having the latest, greatest, state-of-the-art equipment does not guarantee an effective center. This class will give you additional tools and techniques for developing the process sequence, setting targets, leveraging technology, and much more. You will learn to use factoring to organize your processes, services, and products to eliminate problems. We will teach you this proactive method for designing and engineering your center that yields optimum performance, cost, and delivery. You will understand the principles and concepts that make this approach work also provide the flexibility for future changes.
Understanding the Science of the Call Center World
You will study the science behind effective center so that causal relationships are clearly understood and anticipated. Since centers must function in a business climate of rapid change and reduced business life cycles, this class will teach you how to design a robust center that thrives in that environment.
Defining Effective SLAs – Development and Use
Understand the multi-dimensional aspect of service level agreements. Learn where SLAs must be used and how to set them. You will study the strategic impact of SLAs and how they affect every person in your center.
Order and structure to keep things simple through Factor Tables
Order and structure form the foundation for an effective call center. Like your card hand in a card game, your call center must have order for call type, processing times, skills, emotion to name a few. Factoring is the tool to build this structure. You can’t have a winning team without this order and structure that factoring provides. Factor tables are the tool to reduce the volume of documentation and make the process simple.
Maximize improvement while minimizing risk
Putting all the pieces together is the ultimate challenge. You will take away a plan that allows you to answer the question “How do I get started?” We will outline reasonable expectations for every step in the journey to an effective center. We will explain the implementation strategy that will Maximize Returns and Minimize Risk.
Many New Options for your management team.
Learn The Many New Options that will be available to your management team to keep your center optimum. Options that will delight your customer. Options that make your center a great place for your agents to work. All with Huge cost savings.
The Culture Change Strategy
Getting started properly is a key component to the culture shift. Understand the strategy that will provide maximum reward for your center while simultaneous minimizing the risk the change risk.
Allow James to bring his classes to your location.
For a free price quote
call me at 864.297.9598 or
Email me at: james.Abbott@EffectiveCallCenters.com
Agenda:
Day 1
Go Big and Design Basics
- Go BIG! Achieve the unbelievable
- Understand the three dimensions of our goal and how to achieve all three
- Call centers and help desks have many myths. Understand them and be prepared to avoid them
- Call center Architecture
- The four roadblocks to improvement and how to break through them
- The difference between efficient centers and effective centers. The four traits of an effective center and which two must be designed into the center
- Understand how to build the foundation
- We will explain Process Management Principles that provide a “True North” for operations
Understanding Six Sigma and queuing science impact on your center
- What is a Sigma, why Six, and why they are important
- Sigma Design in the Help Desk and Call Center world
- Understand the concept of lanes and layers and what and why they work
- The sigma methodology for call center simplification and optimization
- Why technology has not solved your center’s problems. Understand why technology must be driven by design and not the reverse.
- Life cycle and its impact – what it is, what has happened over time, the s-curve
- The details of queuing science and metrics and their impaction your call center operation
Dramatic cost saving and fantastic customer service come together
- Cost comparison of a typical design versus a sigma design and how much money is lost when you ignore sigma and variability. Know how huge the sigma design cost savings are.
How to start a successful six sigma program
- Mission and vision established with customer focused objective
- Defining the call center product
- Define the processes
Develop Effective 21st Century SLAs!
- We will bring your SLAs into the 21st century
- You will understand who uses them and who develops them.
- You will understand the multidimensional aspect of service level agreements.
Introduction to the Call Center Design
- You will understand the four steps to engineer your center and how to execute them
- Factoring and segmentation of your operation
- Process design and dependency development by building Walkabout® Dependency Diagram
- Metric
- Selection
- Anatomy – Understand product and process anatomy concepts and why they are important
- Division of Labor – physical, functional,.and decisions
Day 2
The Engineering details in-depth coverage
- Building and using the Umbrella Walkabout
- Order and structure are the foundation to an effective operation
- Product and process anatomy will be built
- Factoring your business and customers to make it easy for everyone to understand
- Building Dependency diagram
- Metric Blueprint and Settings
- Selection of the right resources
Center structure with lanes and layers
- Learn how to reduce variability with lanes and layers
- Solve our simultaneous equations to convert levels into lanes
- Build the control logic for flexible operations through dynamic lanes
- Division of labor will be applied to lane and layer construction
- Understand the importance of product and process anatomy and how too build them
Coefficient of Value
- Understand how to balance center importance versus customer expectations
- Detail coverage of queuing science
Integrating the design
- Putting all the pieces together for a integrated operation
- Outsourcing and how to use it in a sigma design
- When is outsourcing appropriate
- Understanding outsourcing issues and how to avoid them
- Understand the components of outsourcing
- Vender selection and contracts
- Understand the pitfalls of outsourcing and how to avoid them
- Build vendor appropriate SLAs
Factor tables
- Factor tables are the tool to reduce the volume of documentation and make the process simple
- You will use the factor tables in:
- Dialogue
- Control logic
- Decisions
- Settings
- Learn when factor tables are required
- Learn how to take a factored anatomy and build a factor table
Understand the vast array of management options
- Include variability in your staffing
- Dealing with change
- Agent career, path, and training
- Flex lanes to keep the center running at efficient levels
- More Things You Can Do with a Sigma Design-
- You will understand and be able to deploy the many options and decisions that are available
- Building a knowledge dissemination system for the anatomy and factor tables
Strategies for smooth culture change
- Learn strategies for Integrating the strategic design into your center for maximum improvement with minimum risks