Call Center Design for Lion Financial Services

Andy Carr, the founder of a small consulting firm that specializes in telephone call-centers, is completing an analysis of call center operations for Lion Financial Services (LFS). LFS operates three call centers that collectively employ 170 agents and handle 30,000 calls per week. Agents are organized into different pools, according to their training and experience; complicated rules are used for routing calls among the three centers and their constituent pools. Carr's analysis and recommendations touch upon a variety of issues: capacity requirements, including the mix of agents by skill category; training programs, promotion ladders, and the definition of agent pools; call routing protocols; potential benefits of physical consolidation; and most prominently, the degree of call scripting that is appropriate in designing the LFS work system. Carr believes that by developing a small number of call blueprints, training agents in their use, and measuring adherence to the blueprints in call-monitoring programs, LFS can improve the quality of service it delivers and reduce the experience and educational levels required of its call-center agents. Concerns are raised about the creation of a factorylike atmosphere.