Implementing Six Sigma in BPO's and Customer Contact Centers

Six Sigma has proved quite beneficial for the servicesplace, which continuously track changing customers'
sector because rather than making direct alterations inneeds and expectations. When existing business
the product or service, it concentrates more on makingprocesses are tweaked based on VOC, it becomes
improvements in existing business processes, whicheasier for the organization to do justice to customer
automatically improves the quality of final outcome, beneeds and expectations.
it a product or service. This is like tackling the root2. Assigning the right person for the right job: Six Sigma
cause that might be creating problems related tomay be mainly associated with the improvement of
quality.business processes, but in BPO's and customer
Determining Quality Levels In BPO's And Customercontact centers, it goes a step further and takes on
Contact Centerssome of the responsibilities of the HR department. Six
In BPO's and customer contact centers, customerSigma helps in classifying call center professionals
input and feedback is first quantified so as to developbased on their current skills and expertise, which in turn
a better understanding of their needs andhelps management in assigning the right person for the
expectations. Based on the quantification, Six Sigmaright job. The point to remember here is that such
professionals then chalk out various levels of quality toclassification is not done in a way that undermines the
be achieved over the planned period ofabilities of call center professionals. It is done in such a
implementation, which usually ranges from three to sixway that professionals who are less skilled do not feel
months, depending on the complexity of theoffended. Offering free training and making available
implementation project. The basic aim is to makeother avenues of professional development to those
continuous improvements in business processes so aswho have been classified as less skilled, solves the
to achieve the highest possible quality levels.problem of employee dissatisfaction, if any.
How Six Sigma Is Helping BPO's And CustomerApart from these, Six Sigma also helps in improving
Contact Centersinternal operations of BPO's and customer contact
1. Giving prominence to Voice of the Customer (VOC):centers, something that automatically leads to a
The ultimate aim of BPO's and customer contactreduction in the overall cost of operations. This may
centers is to increase customer satisfaction, a tasknot affect customer satisfaction, but it does help
that can only be accomplished if customer needs andBPO's to maintain competencies, which has become
expectations are met. This is why in a Six Sigmaquite essential considering the increasing competition in
organization, automated feedback systems are put inthe BPO industry.