1Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
New Quality Assurance Standards for the
BPO Industry – Carrot or Stick?
Keryn HouseCEO
ContactinGauteng
7 June 2007
2Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
Contents
� South Africa’s call centres serve a significant domestic market, in
addition to a growing international market.
� Bad experiences with call centres can damage the brand of a
company and lose customers.
� South Africa has taken a stand in working with the industry and
SABS to create a new set of standards for the call centre and BPO
(business process outsourcing) sector.
� Keryn will expand on the benefits and challenges of these standards
for the industry, and the international and local implications of the
quality initiative on job creation, profitability and brand equity
3Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
Brand Damage?
Overall
score
(not an
average)
Edgars Fashion Hotline 19 seconds 4,5/5 4,5/5 4/5 4/5
Woolworths 10 seconds 4/5 4/5 4/5 4/5
McCarthy Call-a-car 13sec 5/5 5/5 5/5 5/5
DHL 17sec 5/5 5/5 5/5 5/5
Fedex 1 minute; 10 seconds 2/5 4/5 5/5 3/5
FNB 30 seconds; 1 minute 3,5/5 3/5 4/5 4/5
Go Banking 35 seconds 3,5/5 4/5 5/5 4/5
Dial-Direct 15sec 5/5 4/5 4/5 4,5/5
1LifeDirect 40sec 4/5 4/5 4/5 4/5
Multichoice 4 min 30 sec 3/5 5/5 4/5 2,5/5
Autopage 1 minute 1/5 4/5 4/5 2/5
Virgin Mobile 30sec 0/5 5/5 5/5 3/5
Not answering call: 45min
(2nd time around) 10sec
Telkom 45 seconds 1/5 2,5/5 2,5/5 1/5
TelkomInternet 7 minutes 23 seconds 2,5/5 3/5 3/5 2/5
Joburg Connect
Time taken to get through greetings:
30 seconds Time taken to answer call:
45 seconds 2/5 0/5 1/5 1/5
13sec
Time taken to respond to urgent
escalation: 63 hours
Source:
www.fin24.co.za
Colour
code
SA call centre score card
Courtesy
of agentTime taken to answer call
First
Impression
Ability to
answer query
Vodacom 0/5 5/5 5/5 1/5
SA Revenue Service 4/5 0/5 4/5 1/5
25 May 07
4Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
The tip of the “iceberg” (Positioning) drives the execution of all the brand elements,
including those that are not “visible”.
Companies must manage all the brand elements (or risk lack of credibility in their market)
Source: Harvard Business Review, adapted by Perry and Associates & CiG.
Brand Name
Advertising & Promotions
Logo’s or Emblems
Brand Identity Products / Services
Internal & External Environments
External & Internal Communications
Training & Development
Information & Knowledge Management
Perceived Quality
HRCRM
Brand ValuesIT / E-Commerce
Business Process
Investor Liaison
Brand Loyalty
Brand Assets
“Brand”
Target Segment
Positioning
Benefits
Substantiation
Exe
cuti
on
Positioning
Tangible Expression
Internal Resources
Str
ateg
y/P
olic
y
Call Centre?
5Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
What are the Standards?
‘The Standards’ are a framework of management
principles, practices and processes for BPO – and
they require that specific ‘performance metrics’
are measured…
…Until published they are called ‘A Recommended
Practice’ (ARP-99)…
…Once published they will become official
standards called ‘TC-99’
6Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
A working group of industry representatives has been working on these standards for almost 2 years, supported by the Business Trust and the dti
Source: www.sabs.co.za
7Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
Benefits of Adopting the Standards
�Your basic guide to running a good BPO operation
�A marketing competitive edge for your company
�Operational success – bottom line impact!
�Benchmarking of your operation
�Management information
�Industry information
�Agreed definitions of performance measures
�Avoiding ‘school fees’
8Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
Challenges of Adopting the Standards
�Unconscious vs Conscious incompetence?
�Investment in time, expertise, training and
infrastructure
�Shortly, anyone will be able to buy the ARP (draft
standards) online from SABS at a minimal fee.
So best start now!
9Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
Example of ARP-99 Metrics: Inbound Performance
95%60%70%85%90%90%Non Fatal Error Accuracy
97%40%65%85%80%70%Fatal Error Accuracy
10%15%20%2%0%0%Attrition
10%29%15%10%8%5%Absenteeism
180s90s190s185s175s180sAHT
Max 80%88%66%75%68%65%Occupancy
-25001100180012001000Volume
3%45%30%25%10%5%Abandonment Rate
70/3047%68%62%75%80%Service level
TargetMAMFebJan
Source: Industry working group
10Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
Implications for the Local BPO Industry
�Raising the image of the sector to the South
African consumer – Too often we hear the man on
the street say (often on air): “I hate call centres”
�Raising the profile of the sector in the economy* as
a quality value-add to efficiency and job creation
�Growing the pie for all in outsourcing – including
executive buy-in
* BPO is a strategic sector for SA, and part of ASGISA
11Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
India:� Expanding to Tier 2 &
Tier 3 cities� Managed analytics and
build service
Southeast Asia:� Investments in Malaysia and Thailand� Competitive rates to U.S., Japan and
Australia� Centrally located in Asia/Pacific
Canada:� Less labor arbitrage� Still good fit for U.S.
Ireland:� Financial services� High tech� Strong service levels� Less cost-effective
Philippines:� Customer care� Retention focus, less
extension
Eastern Europe:� Language skills ahead of written skills� Fear of geopolitical instability in region� Increasing expansion by key suppliers
China:� Language constraints for English� Cultural constraints for Japanese and
South Korean customers
Pros and Cons of Primary (and Emerging) Offshore Contact Centre Locations: Note South Africa still does not feature per Gartner…
Latin America:� Mexico offers cultural and language affinity for
U.S. Hispanic market� Proximity to U.S., improving English skills� Expansion by leading providers� Good for CRM and BPO, too
Source: Gartner Summit 2007, Dallas
12Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
Implications for the International BPO Industry
�South Africa has only recently started attracting
international attention as a BPO destination - the
dti launched the new BPO investment incentives
in March 2007 (‘GAS’)
�ISO has expressed interest in these standards as
there is no international BPO standard
13Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPOSource: SA BPO Value Proposition 2006
Our market positioning is one of a low cost but quality destination –these standards are an integral part of our differentiator from
competitor countries…
“South Africa
is also a very
attractive location
for us”
Pramod Bhasin
CEO, GenpactC O S T
Q U
A L
I T
Y
Cost-basedoffshore
India, Philippines,Jamaica and
Malaysia
Onshore USA, UK and
The Netherlands
Value basedoffshore
South Africa
South Africa:
- A fair balance
between cost and quality
- An excellent
nearshore option
for Europe
due to time zone
14Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
City of Johannesburg –Committed to BPO & Call
Centres
…And from a regional perspective, City of Joburg’s BPO incentives are world class…
1. BPO Skills Incentive (BTEC from Edexcel)2. BPO Inner City Precinct Incentive
Note these regional incentives are in addition to the national BPO incentives
15Global Brands Choose Gauteng For BPO
A closer look at the province of Gauteng and the City of Johannesburg
Gauteng province has 3 of the 6 metropolitan areas of South Africa - Johannesburg,
Pretoria and Ekurhuleni (Johannesburg International Airport). 60% of SA BPO
operations are in Joburg Metro.
Key: Numbers indicate number of call centres in 2005 research by GEDA
CiG believes that these new industry standards will demonstrate Gauteng’s quality offering in a way we have never done before…and they will raise our game even further