One Call Solution for Over 2.1 Million Customer Queries per Year

AOK Hessen bases its customer service on an effective call center network for which high expectations have been set.

Problem description

The decision was made at the beginning of 2002: customer service for the 1.7 million customers insured by AOK Hessen should be completely reorganized. Previously, 150 branch offices throughout Hessen (a Land of the FRG) had advised the customers. Standard business hours were from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Increasing customer satisfaction by improving accessibility was the main goal of restructuring. Three call centers would be available to answer customer queries on weekdays from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. and on Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The call center agents would be hired from those branch offices that were to be closed. In addition to the basic preparations (selection of office space, furniture selection, communication), importance was also given to selecting the most suitable technical equipment. During a February visit to the Call Center World convention in Berlin, AOK’s team of experts selected three potential suppliers of workforce management software. In April, the decision was made to purchase the solution of the Ratingen based software house, InVision. In addition to the launch of the project at the earliest possible date, the important selection criteria included the ability to schedule several locations simultaneously and to involve employees in the scheduling procedure.

Project description

The scheduling procedure using the InVision Staff Planning System (SPS) is roughly sketched in the following text. Average call volume and handling time data are imported from the ACD system. If such data is not available because the call center is just starting (as in the case of AOK Hessen), estimated values can be directly entered in the planning system. From this data, InVision SPS calculates quantity, start time and duration of the various shifts that must be manned in order to handle the forecasted call volume. The shifts are then offered to the call center agents within the Infothek module. Each agent, who can organize his working times flexibly, selects his preferred shifts from this offering as well as alternatives for the time period to be scheduled. During the selection process he can see how many agents are required for each shift and how many of his colleagues have already applied for this shift. Thus, he is able to estimate how likely he is to receive the shift he prefers. After the request time period has expired, the capacity planner begins the lottery procedure. During this procedure, the required shifts are assigned to the employees corresponding to their preferences as closely as possible by a random principal. Usually, unmanned shifts remain after this procedure, either because they are not as popular as other shifts or because some of the agents have not entered any requests. Therefore, it is possible to perform a second round of requests in which only the unassigned shifts are offered. As most employees prefer to fill their schedule with as many self-selected shifts as possible, the employees enter their requests for the remaining shifts. Shifts that are still not assigned after the second lottery are subsequently assigned by an automatic assignment procedure to employees whose weekly working time account has not yet been filled by shifts from the lottery. This produces the complete schedule.

Dirk Handschuh, Call Center Director at AOK Hessen, had a clear understanding of the challenges that the call center had to meet. Queries from 1.7 million customers were to be handled in the future by 290 agents in the three central call centers (Pohlheim near Giessen, Offenbach and Kassel) and the additional 450 employees in the remaining 70 branch offices. The expected call volume per year was 2.5 million or 45 000 calls per week.

In addition to these facts, the call center had to regard certain operating policies. The staff council insisted that schedules should be made for a complete month and that no more than 20 hours of overtime should be transferred to the following month. Furthermore, the call center management set high customer service goals. “An answer quota of 90 per cent, a service level of 80/20 [a minimum of 80 per cent of the calls answered within 20 seconds], 95 per cent of all queries processed in one call [almost 2.14 million calls per year], an absence quota of 15 per cent maximum and 24-hour delivery of all requested forms were our targets“, remembers Dirk Handschuh. “Without a professional scheduling system these goals would not have been attainable.“

During the first scheduling procedure in August, one month after the InVision SPS had been installed, problems were encountered because employees were previously used to working normal office hours. Jörg Fiedler, Chief Capacity Planner for the three AOK Hessen call centers, explains “because it takes at least two weeks to allow for the various request deadlines and planning for each schedule, the call center agents were required to choose their working times six to eight weeks beforehand. This was definitely too early and initially caused a low level of acceptance of the scheduling system.” Therefore, the call center management quickly decided to change the system to two to three week scheduling periods. This action reduced the advance time required for the employees to enter their work schedules to three weeks.

Although AOK Hessen initially expected a request fulfillment quota of 80 per cent, currently up to 89 per cent of the employee shift requests can be fulfilled. Only one tenth of the employee work time is composed of working times that they did not enter as their first request. “What more could we want?“ states Dirk Handschuh with a smile.

Results

Jörg Fiedler currently produces work schedules for the 162 employees of the Offenbach and Pohlheim call centers, requiring a net working time of 1.25 days. From January 2003, 128 employees in Kassel will also be included in the scheduling procedure. However, the time required for scheduling will only increase to a maximum of two days. This short period in which a multi-layered work schedule for almost 300 employees can be produced is quite remarkable. “Without an effective workforce management software solution I would probably be unable to create the schedule”, states Jörg Fiedler.

The goals of the new customer service organization at AOK Hessen were ambitious. The positive results achieved with the two presently active call centers already during the first three months point to a complete attainment of these goals. “Our employees accomplish a great deal. We can be completely satisfied,” is the verdict of Call Center Director Dirk Handschuh. Customer satisfaction has already increased so dramatically that in recent surveys, AOK Hessen has been identified as the fastest German health insurance company in answering customer inquiries.