Savvy CFO's know how performance problems, delays, and inefficiencies take a huge bite out of profits. But cutting headcount is often not the best answer to increased profits. Improving performance is.
What if you could gain 30-45 more productive minutes a day for each of your employees? What if you could eliminate costly errors, and stop inefficient practices and "re-inventing the wheel"? What if you could "clone" your best performing employees and work and really work smarter not harder to meet customer commitments? Those are the results that matter. Streamlined businesses are achieving tangible, hard-dollar results as well as improved morale and less stress.
A large, marketing services firm was experiencing a high number of recurring errors in their direct mail group. After investigating the problem, they discovered that the "star" performer—who had a very low incidence of errors—followed a different procedure for completing his work than the others did.
By applying Operations Mapping techniques to standardize the best practices from their star performer across the entire work group, managers were able to reduce overall errors by 75% and saved $30,000 a month for an annual savings of $360,000. Using Zavanta software, they were able to capture best practices from their experts and give everyone in the workgroup access to the most effective method of completing the job. Doing so improved performance dramatically.
Call Center Dramatically Reduces Call Handling Time
The billing call center at one large managed care provider had 70 reps who handled 2000-3000 calls per day. They were experiencing difficulties answering member's questions promptly and accurately. Their "white binder" reference guides were ineffective in providing accurate answers quickly. When faced with a situation or questions they couldn't answer, call center reps often had to put calllers on hold to "consult with their neighbor reps" or else they had to guess at an answer which was often incorrect.
Using COMPROSE Zavanta software and Operations Mapping techniques, they were able to replace their outdated reference guides with more "user-friendly" web-enabled policies and protocols. Their CSRs now have up-to-the-minute policies and procedures instantly available and can answer members' questions faster and more accurately. This reduced their call handling time so dramatically they needed to set a higher performance standard.
The Quality Director of a fast-growing $30M manufacturing firm with 150 employees was concerned with the high number of customers the company was losing because of inefficiencies in their back office. Customers were receiving incorrect shipments with the wrong parts or missing parts. Calls to their customer service department were going through the roof causing everyone to scramble at the last minute to correct errors.
Having a strong systems background, the Quality Director knew the root of their problem was inadequate training and lack of standardized processes. Employees exchanged "how to" information by word-of-mouth. Daily operations were "run by opinion" creating widespread confusion and inconsistency.
Utilizing COMPROSE consulting and software, the firm was able to literally "systemize" customer service. They created and deployed a business system that everyone could easily follow. This not only corrected their service problems, it also gave them a very effective new-hire training system —something they never had before.
The Quality Systems Coordinator for an international pipe coating corporation found that a certain installation error was causing a 60% inspection failure rate which resulted in increased waste and re-work costs.
Using Operations Mapping techniques and COMPROSE software to streamline this task they were able to eliminate this error entirely. Because their subject experts could quickly capture their unique procedures so everyone was "on the same page," the company found they could reduce errors in many areas and also improve communication between the company and its clients
