The interim manager's client was an American group in the field of advanced medical technology with an annual turnover of USD 32 billion (2019). The company is one of the largest in the industry worldwide and in the German-speaking region (DACH) it is the technology leader in the sale of high-tech implants to hospitals.
In 2017, following the successful takeover of a major competitor, the business of the two companies was merged - the business continued to develop steadily. Unfortunately, the Customer Service structures did not grow with it - and ultimately caused losses in the millions.
After several attempts at restructuring, the Group headquarters then dismissed managers at several levels of Customer Service and handed over crisis management and restructuring to the interim manager.
Project plan and milestones developed after as-is analysis
The as-is analysis of the work in the 23-strong Customer Service team revealed a dramatic picture. The Customer Service team was not sufficiently available. Among other things, this was due to a high sickness rate with numerous - poorly trained and less motivated - part-time employees. In addition, the employees had inadequate work resources such as processes, tools and documentation at their disposal. In addition, the management of Customer Services was neither present nor effective.
After the analysis, the interim manager developed milestones for a project plan to achieve the following goals:
- Restore the orderly processing of operational business,
- High accessibility and high customer satisfaction
- Increase the level of automation and digitization
- Cost reduction
- Documentation
Quick win by temporarily outsourcing the call center to a service provider
The disastrous situation in Customer Service required a comprehensive restructuring, which would not have been possible under the high sales pressure from the inbound and outbound day-to-day business. In consultation with the client, the interim manager therefore decided to initially commission an external call center service provider who, after brief intensive training, took over the simple processes for a medium-term transitional period. This "quick win" created the necessary breathing space to start the restructuring project with the employees - and led to a short-term reduction in the backlog and an improvement in availability.
Business processes documented and evaluated to the second for each employee
In order to be able to make a valid statement about how many employees are required for the smooth operation of the customer service, each business process was documented to the second for each employee, totaled and statistically evaluated. The interim manager and the teams documented the collaborative processes in process-related swimlanes. The complex work and documentation steps provided extensive statistical data for the development of the target processes and helped to answer important questions for the project?
- What are the actual processes in the customer service
- How many full-time equivalents (full-time positions/employees) are required for all processes?
- Which processes and structures are good, which are poor or inefficient?
- Which tools are in need of improvement (telephone, ERP/CRM/documentation/software)?
In this mandate, the supervisors (team leaders) were unable to fulfill their management role because they were constantly having to "start new fires". The inadequate quality of the work of Customer Services complicated the already complex work on successful B2B relationships in the healthcare sector. For example, channels such as patients, doctors, health insurers and insurance providers need to be dealt with. The corresponding processes and process design are very diverse and can only be understood with in-depth industry expertise.
Developing specific steps for restructuring and coordinating with all bodies
The interim manager developed new processes, taking into account the management's target specifications, the integration of the sales force, the stakeholders of the individual sales divisions along with marketing, HR and the works council. By involving the staff in the change process at an early stage, he also countered resistance. The interim manager outlined the key points for achieving the objectives as follows:
- Increasing the customer service staff by 15 FTEs (full-time positions) plus CS manager
- Dissolving the rigid front office/back office structure in favor of cross-functional, self-regulating teams
- Training and training concept
- Home office concept (e.g. for mothers)
- Renewal/modernization of the telephone system to become a contact center
- Improvement of the DMS (document management software) and other software
- Improvement of communication and department culture
- Training and further education of managers (supervisors/team leaders)
- Reduction of the outsourced processes of the external call center service provider
- Documentation of the target processes (long-term SOP'S).
Backlog reduced to zero and customer service availability significantly increased
After 9 months of the interim mandate, important cornerstones of the restructuring had been achieved.
The daily backlog had fallen to 0. Accessibility, i.e. the service level, was increased to 85 percent despite the lack of telephony technology. The new team structure began to establish itself. Thanks to intensive training and the positive impact on the department culture, the sickness rate in Customer Service fell from 35% to less than 15%. Some of the planned new employees have already been recruited and the interim manager handed over the project to a new permanent Customer Service Director.
Old technology and matrix organization prevent the digitalization that was initially planned
The intensive digitalization of this department remains a challenge. The interim manager and company agreed that there was a need for action here. Important improvements in customer service could not be implemented during the mandate because technology or software used throughout the group (in particular telephone technology and ERP system) prevented this. This continues to result in considerable additional personnel costs, which stands in the way of a reduction in costs (personnel costs). Cross-departmental processes could also only be adapted and improved to a limited extent.
