The AA saw a strong business case could be made for not offshoring any more contact centre functions – and even repatriating its sole centre back to the UK.
Coming home after being abroad always takes some getting used to, and not just in the sense of watching your summer tan fade as autumn closes in. This is well and truly when the post-holiday blues take hold. Don’t you just hate the feeling?
But, in the case of the Automobile Association (AA), the UK’s fourth emergency service, the process of flying back to the UK from abroad set it firmly back on the right road.
Before we breakdown the mechanics of that strategic decision, however, let’s firstly step back in time to two years ago.
After the AA was bought by two private equity firms, CVC Capital Partners and Permira, in 2004, its new owners, sent through a review process of all the AA functions, including its contact centres. More specifically, the board looked at the option to bring the AA’s offshore operation back home from India.
Although offshoring had its advantages for the roadside service, there were stalls in delivering for consumers and bosses wanted to take the customer service up a gear.
Jim Austin, general manager for the AA’s Cheadle contact centre, admits that it seemed like the right time to bring the centre back from overseas.
"It was felt that there was a lack of an element of close control, the customer empathy wasn’t right, and the calls weren’t being handled in quite the way we wanted them to be."
Factor that in with the negative public perception of foreign contact centres and the AA saw a strong business case forming. Not only would it not offshore any more contact centre functions – it could even repatriate its only offshore operation back to the UK.
The time scale, from the decision being made last year to the actuality of making it happen, was swift, as Austin explains:
"A project team from the AA got together in the first quarter of this year to work on a number of processes to bring things onshore straight away."
Having all of its contact centres in the UK became a metaphorical lean sheet for the motoring organisation, as teams worked on finely tuning its service engine.
One of the components of the process of doing an offshore u-turn for the AA was how it could rework its technology infrastructure to incorporate an automated dialling system into its Cheadle site, near Manchester – as a way of making up for the loss of offshore labour. "We had the option of buying in a dialler capability, but the investment was significant. So, for reasons of speed and return on investment, we went with a hosted solution from Ultra Communications," adds Austin.
Previously, the AA had worked with the technology provider on its separate Bristol-based driving school business.
"They had a need to automate their dialling stations and get rid of as much paper as possible," summarises Darren Sullivan, general manager for Ultra.
"As with most dialling systems, the AA was after reliability and performance in addition to increased functionality and flexibility."
Speed was also of the essence. In a matter of weeks the Ultra dialler went live (in May this year) with agents being able to simultaneously see the AA’s in-house applications on screen as well, for optimum user friendliness and agent efficiency. Around thirty agents at a time at the Cheadle contact centre now use the dialler as part of a total of around a 600-strong agent operation.
The AA’s new solution subsequently forms a central part of its revitalised onshore customer service offering, and it is used for a variety of outbound calls – new sales, cross sales, upselling and care calls, all of which help to improve the AA’s brand awareness and boosting the bottom line.
For example, a current campaign involves contacting Nectar loyalty scheme members to see if they would be interested in joining the AA. The dialler can be accessed remotely to keep a check on how the campaign is going. It can also show how an existing campaign is performing, for example if saturation point has been reached and numbers are being dialled on multiple occasions.
This evaluation can be useful on a number of fronts. Questions can now be asked. Is there a part of the marketing mix that needs to be tweaked to make the campaign work better, or do the agents have the right set of skills?
The onshore partnership between the AA and its technology partner Ultra is ongoing and includes a
technical support help line, which not only provides peace of mind for the team, but also delivers crucial cost savings because the AA does not have to employ or train new and existing staff with a high level of specific software know-how.
And, as Austin added
"(Recruitment and training) might have taken six months, so by using an up to date solution without the level of investment instead, it aided the speed of implementation.
The AA has several years of experience in outbound campaigns, but there wasn’t the base of technical expertise."
Additionally, staying in touch is part of the service.
"We meet with the AA about once a month and are in contact with them every couple of days to see where they would like to see improvements," says Sullivan.
"I would describe it as a long term, ongoing relationship," concludes Austin.
"At our regular meetings, we talk to Ultra about development opportunities. Call blending is one area for example – our inbound service is good, as is our outbound service, so we are looking at the pros and cons of combining the two at the moment as part of our continuous business plan."
So, a few months in, how has it been for the AA?
"Very good," says Austin.
"We have increased productivity. We have better sales conversion and our customer feedback is better as well."
Home sweet home, eh?
‘On the Road to Recovery’ - Case Study Special, CCF Magazine, October 2006