Case Study: Cost Reduction for Troubled Airline Company
Client Objective
The Client is a domestic and international airline company, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, with more than 140 aircrafts and servicing 100 destinations in the United States, Mexico, Canada and Europe
The airline’s rapid growth resulted in large operating losses, and by 1986 the company was on the verge of bankruptcy. The airline was the first to use extensive “cross-utilization”, in which employees were trained in a variety of airline jobs. For example, pilots are trained in dispatch, baggage handlers and flight attendants being trained as gate agents.
The client’s objective was to drastically cut cost so they outsourced the answering services, reservations and call centers. The airline entered into a partnership agreement with Rushmore Corporation d/b/a: ALL TEMPS 1 Personnel for staff augmentation services. The role of ALL TEMPS 1 Personnel was to provide staffing services for a 300 seat call center. Our capacity averaged 100 seats for 24/7 365-days a year.
Approach
ALL TEMPS 1 Personnel developed a recruiting process that delivered a staff chosen based on a combination of applicable job experience, education and organizational culture match. This resulted in a strong partnering environment that positively impacted the following Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s):
| Performance KPI | Goal | Actual | Calcultion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Service Level and Average Seconds to Answer | 70 calls within 20 seconds 70/20 | 73 calls within 20 seconds 73/20 | The number of calls answered within the targeted time |
| Cost Per Contact | 10 calls per hour/$14.00 $1.40 per call | 11 calls per hour/$13.58 $1.23 per call | Cost per call per agent |
| Average Handle Time | 145 seconds on the phone +35 seconds of admin work 180 seconds average handle time | 141 seconds on the phone +37 seconds of admin work 178 seconds average handle time | The time interacting with customers and call processing time |
| First Call Resolution | 650/1000 = 65% FCR | 650/1000 = 65% FCR | The amount of contacts resolved in the first call. # of FCR calls/Total # of calls |
| Abandon Rate | 8% | 7% | Abandon Calls/Total Incoming Calls |
| Turnover | 25% | 21% | # of people leaving/# of positions |
The aforementioned results are typical of our performance in a very competitive call center environment such as Phoenix, Arizona. To maintain a consistent level of service quality, we constantly monitored the performance of individual call center/contact center agents via our KPI’s.
Organization
The organizational chart included the Call Center Manager at the top with agents aligned with supervisors in a ratio of 15 to 1 direct reports. The contract relationship provided ALL TEMPS 1 Personnel and our client with the experiences and resources that are customer centric and flexible enough to meet the changing needs of our partnership. This resulted in the world class call flow pictured below:
Results
Our on-going process of improvement created a strong partnership with airline and improved customer satisfaction experience when making, changing and managing the reservation process.