A step in the right direction
The Hindustan Times, January 2, 2003

If ISO 9000 is a world-approved quality benchmark for the manufacturing sector, Customer Operations Performance Centre (COPC^SM) is the acceptable standard for BPO operations. Notably, users themselves designed the standard, as opposed to academics. Unhappy with the quality of service that was available, a group of technology buyers (Dell, Microsoft, American Express) joined hands in 1995-96 with a bunch of leading sellers (Clientlogic, Convergys) to devise a standard — the COPC^SM certification — with which any third party service provider in India must comply in order to win an account with them. 

Since last year, Quality Assurance of India (QAI) has offered COPC^SM certification to about a dozen-odd Indian clients. Though the majority took it to impress their US clients, a few are also doing it out of quality-consciousness.  

COPC^SM is essentially a pass or fail test, or what QAI's Consulting Partner, Umesh Vyas describes as the jatka against the halal model of CMM® and PCMM®, QAI's other two quality models for the software sector. This means that you don't acquire this certification in steps or grades. Either you are a good service provider, or you aren't. The COPC^SM certification will vouch to your overseas clients that you are good as a call centre.

There are 32 parameters that a company has to comply with in order to get a COPC^SM certification, the main ones being: client satisfaction; end-user satisfaction; timeliness, quality and accuracy of responses; efficiency, speed and productivity; telecommunications and computer infrastructure; people policies relating to recruitment, compensation and training; attrition; staff satisfaction and resource utilisation.

The process begins with a baseline assessment of the call centre's current services moving on to a gap analysis, structural and training support, followed by a final audit, after which the 'pass' certification is awarded. In between, COPC^SM consultants talk about such issues as process control, transaction monitoring, staffing and scheduling, data security, contingency planning, defining and verifying skills. While abroad, the audit and implementation takes about 18 months, Indian companies have met the specified norms much faster, probably because we do not have a history in telephone-based customer care and are starting with a clean slate. However, there are still a few serious problems, such as the lack of a middle management rung. “This makes scaling up extremely difficult. As you widen your base, there has to be someone to control those processes. But, because we are new to this sector, we don't have enough experienced talent for that level. For such companies, holding on to bigger accounts has become very difficult,” explains Vyas.

The result is that very often, it is the call agent who gets promoted to the shift supervisor's position, even though the skill-sets required for the two positions are very different. So he ends up as a help desk for other agents. “It's like promoting your best sales man to a manager's position. The result is you don't just lose a good salesman, you also acquire a bad manager.”

A shift supervisor, according to Vyas, does not require a neutral accent or good communication skills. Instead, he needs good leadership skills and a quantitative aptitude.  “Someone with a background in industrial engineering is more suitable for this job.”

Another problem endemic to Indian call centres, according to Vyas is of over hiring. “Because labour is cheap and attrition high (40-50%), to guard against laxity and absenteeism, companies were hiring more than they needed. Yet, they were unable to meet schedules. Happily, the change in the pricing strategy (from per seat to transaction-basis) is moving them towards a more rational use of manpower,” says Vyas.

Another observation that Vyas made during his visits to Indian call centres, as a quality consultant was a “sense of temporariness” in the call agents. “I would see an M.Tech in Computer Science answering e-mails or a B.Tech in Finance making outbound collection calls and I would think to myself, 'My God, aren't these time bombs, ticking to explode at the first given opportunity,” he says.
“The cost and language advantage that we presently enjoy is not going to carry us for very long,” says Vyas, “There is no room for complacence. The Philippines and China are already nipping at our heels.”  

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