Can It Be Saved?

If your company's prognosis is not good there are several ways of responding. The first step is to look at ways to save both your support center and your company money. Shift many of your lower-valued no-brainer support calls to Web self-service but ensure that you put in clear links to your reps, like 'call me' buttons and prompts for live support if the customer is on a page for too long.

Look at adopting cost-savings and productivity-enhancing methods like Web-based recruiting and contracting out to staffing agencies. They will lower recruiting, training, overtime and productivity costs by cutting back on turnover while providing superior customer-retaining performance.

Nothing lives forever, not even customer support centers. So when faced with the inevitable, how do you downsize It effectively, while leaving the people with some dignity so they won't sue you?

If you go the staffing agency route make sure you avoid potential us-and-them hassles. Be certain that agency-staff and in-house agents have a clear understanding of who their employer is. The agency must take responsibility for all personnel issues related to their staff.

Examine your turnover. As discussed throughout this book, there are ways to keep your reps longer by improving their facilities and by offering career advancement, training, certifications, teleworking, incentives and rewards.

Also, examine where you can relocate your customer support center to cut costs. As chapter 6 reveals, labor cost differences between communities and countries translate into large dollar savings sufficient to outweigh...