Operational Problems. Measurable Results.
CXPro Connection focuses on improvements that can be seen in the operation, experienced by the Customer, and measured by the business.
The work has included reducing staffing requirements, lowering operating expense, improving productivity, increasing self-service adoption, reducing attrition, identifying costly process failures, developing organizational talent, and helping organizations get more value from technology.
The objective isn't to deliver recommendations. It's to create measurable improvement.
Make the invisible visible. Put economics around it. Then do something.
Finding Capacity That Was Already There
29% Lower Staffing Requirement. $750K in Annual Salary Expense Returned.
Initially, The Commission on Graduates of Foreign Nursing Schools (CGFNS), appeared to need its existing staffing level to support Customer demand.
A deeper analysis showed otherwise.
By examining workload, staffing requirements, productivity, and how resources were being deployed, the operation identified an opportunity to meet demand with a 29% lower staffing requirement.
The change returned approximately $750,000 in annual salary expense while maintaining the capacity needed to support the business.
The lesson wasn't simply to use fewer resources.
The larger lesson was that historical staffing levels did not necessarily represent what the operation actually required.
Before adding resources, cutting resources, or accepting the current model, understand what the workload really requires.
Historical Performance Isn't the Same as Capability
26% Reduction in Average Handle Time
An operation's historical performance can easily become the standard everyone assumes is normal.
But what the operation has been producing isn't necessarily what it is capable of producing.
Performance analysis and operational changes produced a 26% reduction in average handle time, at TruMerit, creating additional capacity from the resources already in place.
Before deciding what performance should be, establish what the operation is demonstrably capable of.
Growing the Business Without Growing Customer Care at the Same Rate
Self-Service Adoption: 63.8% → 82.5%
Over approximately five years, Wedgewood Pharmacy increased self-service adoption from 63.8% to 82.5% while the company grew approximately 20% annually and roughly doubled in size.
Customer Care grew at only a fraction of the rate of the business.
The objective wasn't simply to move contacts away from agents. It was to make ordering easier for Customers while creating the operating leverage needed to support substantial business growth without proportional labor growth.
Customers using self-service also ordered more frequently and more deeply.
Efficiency and Customer Experience Can Grow Together.
Making Turnover a Problem to Solve, Not a Cost to Accept
80% Year-Over-Year Reduction in Attrition
High turnover is often treated as an unavoidable cost of running a Contact Center. It doesn't have to be.
By addressing the operating and management conditions contributing to employee turnover, the organization achieved an 80% year-over-year reduction in attrition at Wedgewood Pharmacy.
The result wasn't only lower replacement cost. Greater workforce stability also meant retaining more experience, reducing disruption, and creating a stronger foundation for consistent performance.
Turnover may be common in Contact Centers. That doesn't make it inevitable.
Small Process Failures Can Carry Seven-Figure Price Tags
More Than $1 Million Recovered From a Process and System Defect
At MBNA, analysis uncovered a duplicate-credit problem that was quietly creating substantial financial loss.
The issue was not simply a Contact Center efficiency problem. It was a process and system defect with direct business economics attached to it.
Correcting the problem recovered approximately $1.1 million in one year and $1.3 million in another.
The costliest Contact Center problems aren't always the ones showing up on the Contact Center scorecard.
Technology Creates Value When the Operation Changes With It
Contact Center Telephony SME for a $12M+ Transformation
As the Contact Center telephony subject matter expert for Aetna's $12M+ Vision 2020 transformation, Gary helped connect technology decisions to how the operation and Customers actually behaved.
The work included geographic routing and analysis of Medicare call flows that revealed approximately 40% of calls were non-saleable.
Rather than simply routing those contacts through the existing model, the work helped identify opportunities to transfer appropriate Customers to partners while directing qualified opportunities where they could create value.
Technology is only valuable when it improves what happens in the operation.
A Contact Center Can Produce More Than Customer Service
Approximately 12 Employees Advanced Into Other Roles in About 24 Months
At Wedgewood Pharmacy, the Contact Center became a source of talent for the broader organization.
Over approximately two years, about 12 Customer Care employees moved into Inside Sales and other roles across the company.
During that period, Inside Sales was able to fill its talent needs internally rather than relying on outside hiring.
The result was more than employee development. The Contact Center was creating organizational capability while providing employees with visible paths for growth.
Great managers don't hoard talent. They produce it.
Different Problems. A Consistent Way of Thinking.
These results came from different companies, different problems, and different parts of the operation.
Some began with workforce management. Others involved performance, Customer behavior, technology, process failures, employee retention, or talent development. In several cases, the opportunity was not where the visible symptom initially suggested it would be.
The common thread was not a predetermined solution.
It was a disciplined way of finding the real opportunity, understanding its economics, making the change, and measuring what happened afterward.
Make the invisible visible. Put economics around it. Then do something.
Your operation has numbers like these too. The question is whether anyone has found them yet.