SITUATION – We were engaged to support the delivery of a new high security call centre, with agents having no access to documented processes, and an ambitious objective of achieving ISO9001 & National Security Industry accreditations within 3 months. The client was a provider of security alarm systems & home automation, all smart phone enabled, in need of NSI accreditations in order to expand the business.

SOLUTION – We captured and documented the processes and procedures we found in use across the call centre, by observing and questioning recommended experienced operators who had worked in other European call centres owned by the company.

The primary focus were the emergency events procedures, when the agents engaged with the UK emergency services. These were followed by the BAU customer support and complaints management processes and infrastructure testing procedures performed morning and night.

Our deliverables fed into the business documents evidence pack for ISO 9001 & National Security Inspectorate Gold Standard certification covering business processes across applications and infrastructure/ systems, including testing, daily usage and emergency event handling.

OUTCOME – The starting point had been a somewhat erratically performing call centre with zero documented processes, but within 3 months after last minute training sessions, both audits were successfully concluded with zero defects/ corrective actions required noted by the visiting BSI/ NSI auditors.

After certification, my focus shifted to process improvement as the new methods bedded in, to provide an optimal customer experience through standard service calls, exception handling and emergency events, and associated customer aftercare.