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REAPING REWARDS: How Spark Response has saved over £56,000 since the launch of its internal Environmental Management System.
Gateshead-based contact centre and eCommerce fulfilment specialist, Spark Response, is reaping the rewards after significantly investing in enhancing its environmental practices and credentials.
Pre-empting the Government's introduction of the carbon reduction commitment, Spark's Quality Manager, Lindsey Pearson, was tasked with implementing the company's Environmental Management System in compliance with ISO 14001, which is one of a series of international standards for environmental management.
Since completing the qualification in 2009, Spark has experienced tangible business benefits as environmental credentials become increasingly important in the procurement and tender process. As part of its work towards attaining the IS0 14001 accreditation the company launched Project Focus, its environmental programme, and saved £26,000 in 2009 with a further £30,000 saving in 2010, equating to a total saving of £56,000 in just two years.
The ISO qualification took almost one year to attain, which included developing and introducing new infrastructure to enable environmental data to be captured, recorded and evaluated on a monthly basis. During this period staff education in terms of the short and long terms benefits of the qualification was paramount to the success of Spark's efforts as during site visits, ISO assessors will speak to staff and canvas their views and knowledge.
Lindsey says: "Attaining a qualification like this is a team effort and it was crucial that we had the whole of our workforce behind the effort. Investing time explaining the benefits the IS0 14001 would bring to the business in the short and long term was particularly important, as in the midst of the recession, not everyone believed that we should have invested time and resources in environmental initiatives."
Costs to get the scheme off the ground were in the region of £2,500 which included placing various recycling bins around the business, holding a Green Day to engage with staff and offering green incentives for people to participate and support the efforts. Procedures were also created to cover new policies such as recycling guidelines and legal requirements. In addition, Spark has four environmental champions who ensure the company's message is communicated across all areas of the business and provide suggestions and feedback for future initiatives.
The benefits to the business since gaining the accreditation have been huge. Aside from the financial benefits, Spark has been able to engage with new suppliers especially those in the public sector that place environmental policies and practices in high regard. Furthermore, Spark's eco credentials now support its wider brand and have provided opportunities for marketing and promotion.
Lindsey adds: "Since gaining the accreditation we have twice now achieved an environmental assessment where there were no non-conformances raised, which is reportedly quite rare and testament to our commitment to maintaining all aspects of the guidelines set out in the IS0 14001 standard. I would recommend that all business look at working towards achieving the status as it support procurement and business development activity, contributes to corporate social responsibility activity, encourages and engenders efficiency while benefiting the environment on multiple levels."
UK WEATHER COSTS US £15K A YEAR
Building on the momentum of achieving ISO 14001 accreditation and the company's Project Focus programme is crucial. In 2011, Quality Manager Lindsey Pearson will focus on improving efficiency in terms of water usage. The company is in the process of investigating ways to recycle and reuse water on site and in particular to utilise rainwater. Lindsey and the team are hoping to install a number of water butts and drainage systems across Spark's site at Follingsby Park.
She says: "In an ideal world, we would have two soak-a-ways installed, one on each of our sites. We would then re-direct all of our drains and gutterings into these, ensuring that all rain water is captured and taken back down to the natural water level below ground rather than into the drains and sewers. Implementing this scheme would save us approximately £15,000 per year in sewerage charges alone. While the installation costs of such soak-a-way systems are significant, we are exploring ways of securing an interest-free loan to support the scheme from the Carbon Trust. It's important to continue to challenge the status quo and find new ways of enhancing green practices and improving efficiency, not least in terms of financial savings."
Spark continues to celebrate the success of its environmental policies and programmes and would encourage other businesses of all sizes to seek advice and guidance from The Carbon Trust and qualified ISO 14001 Environmental Management Consultancies in relation to bolstering eco credentials that benefit the business as a whole.
ENDS
For further information please contact Christina Pounder or Elizabeth Eddy on 01642 584790 or email christina@velvetcommunications.co.uk
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In the third and final article in our series, Trevor Flack, Contact Centre Manager at Spark Response, one of the UK’s leading contact centre and eCommerce fulfillment specialists, explores the benefits of working with a contact centre to maximise and enhance efficiency.
Effective dialogue with your supporter, whether by phone, in writing or in person is the key to unlocking your charity’s full potential. From the direct mail shot that lands on a potential donor’s doormat to the brand ambassador fronting your marketing campaign or the call handler taking donations following your latest appeal, the way you communicate has a direct and lasting impact upon the success of your organisation and its performance in a competitive and challenging arena.
Your contact centre provision is the heart of your operation and its vital that you have can meet the needs of your supporters at all times. While your in-house call handling team may be well placed and versed in managing standard call traffic, working with an independent partner to deliver high profile events or campaigns or to manage seasonal peaks could support the growth of your organisation and help set it apart from its counterparts.
The ins and outs of outsourcing
Outsourcing can offer huge advantages to the charity sector if managed effectively. When looking to outsource for the first time it is essential that a partner is selected based on your specific requirements. Does the contact centre have experience in dealing with charity briefs? What customer service standards does the provider hold? What will be my benchmarks for evaluating how successfully the provider operates and will the provider agree to meet all requirements?
For the provider, it is essential that they are furnished with all possible details in order to handle calls efficiently and professionally. Planning is therefore the most critical stage of any outsourcing partnership. Indeed, forecasting will enable the charity to decide if there is an actual requirement for outsourcing and how best to introduce any overflow support.
While forecasting is often challenging, as consumer activity can be unpredictable depending upon the bigger economic backdrop, such as the recession we are currently operating in, it remains the most crucial element of the process for the contact centre team.
Whether the campaign is for an existing or new client, it is the contact centre’s responsibility to assess the forecasts supplied by you, the client and challenge their accuracy when and where required. Failure to question and evaluate at this stage could have a serious impact upon the success of the activity for the charity.
Once the forecast is agreed then resources should be planned for within 15 per cent of the anticipated response. It is then essential to plan for peaks in activity above and beyond this and ensure measures are in place to provide unbroken service to the charity and its supporters. Planning at this level is vital and whether you are working with a provider or managing all activity in-house, investing in resource management is critical for maintaining customer service standards and helping you to mange any unexpected influx.
In some cases you may be able to produce a forecast, but in this instance your preferred partner would work with you to evaluate previous activity and historical data, as well as referring back to its experience of similar activity for other orgnaisations. In addition a contact centre partners would also allow for unexpected peaks in activity as a result of high volumes of press coverage, a particular event or endorsement. It is the responsibility of the service provider to ensure it is fully integrated into your wider supply chain and aware of all communications activity, potential breaking stories and key dates associated with your charity.
The Evolution of the Contact Centre
As the charity sector has evolved and its operations have become increasingly sophisticated, there has been a need for its contact centre partners to adapt and evolve too. Today, there is a definite need for providers to be technologically savvy in direct response to the growing eCommerce market. As supporters often pledge donations or place orders for charitable products online or via email they expect to be responded to in the same way.
Conversely, as online order volumes increase, contact centre volumes increase alongside. The onus, however, is largely on queries rather than the placement of orders. For example, a charity with an eCommerce operation may take five per cent of its orders over the telephone, but will see 100 per cent of its order queries directed through the contact centre in some way and all cases require a degree of human interaction.
When looking for a contact centre provider you should assess not only the company’s ability to handle standard activity but assess its ability to provide added value. How does it manage call traffic and online activity? What are its credentials in handling eCommerce led charity accounts? These are just some of the questions to consider.
Flexible support
One of the greatest benefits of outsourcing is the flexibility it brings to your business model. While a permanent contact centre partner may work for some charities, a provider that is engaged to supply overflow support is crucial for many other organisations. Working with a contact centre to support an existing in house facility is an effective way of managing resources if you are able to identify is a defined peak in activity for any reason or can predict a surge in the volume of calls. For example, a charitable organisation such as Comic Relief or Children or Unicef may utilise an in-house team for its primary contact centre activity, but an outsourced extension could be essential when it comes to fielding calls and successfully managing activity around high profile and televised events such as Red Nose Day or Soccer Aid.
Similarly other events or activities that draw national attention such as an appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee or a telethon will warrant the appointment of an outsourced contact centre partner that can deliver exceptional standards of customer service immediately.
Once the core team is in place to deliver the activity it is essential that your chosen partner is able to deploy additional support to meet and manage the demand from any unexpected peaks in activity. The cross-training methodology is simple yet highly effective and is utilised by the leading contact centre providers. Before appointing a contact centre provider you should analyse its training and development programmes and feel confident that the call handlers interacting with your supporters and donors are trained to the highest possible standards.
Developing varied levels of skill among its workforce and ensuring that there is an overflow team of call handlers that can join the core team at short notice, is crucial for any contract partner and provides a valuable resource for any campaign, but especially in relation to charity activity.
If a contact centre can agree to adopt an annualised hours approach - a particularly powerful tool when needing to scale activity up or down - it will allow you to benefit from the greatest degree of flexibility as this approach ensures that the workforce is entirely flexible. The contact centre can release staff during quieter periods and quickly deploy them during seasonal and campaign-driven peaks.
Furthermore, minimum call abandonment rates should be of the utmost importance to you and therefore it is worthwhile ensuring that your preferred partner has a wider consumer services team that can be quickly deployed to support the core team during peaks or any surge in activity.
Enhanced service
While contact centre provision and fulfillment services are often viewed as a package, because more often than not, contact centre activity results in the need for fulfillment of some shape or form, the two requirements do not necessarily have to be met by one provider. In some cases, the contact centre may not be in position to provide even basic fulfillment such as the distribution of a follow-up letter or a sponsorship pack. It is therefore vital that you have a clear brief and ensure that your chosen provider can deliver your exact requirements.
There are direct cost benefits to be enjoyed by working with a contact centre and fulfillment specialist, including combining fixed costs such as account management. As the contact centre will be required to communicate with the fulfillment centre at various times, whether to query orders, check products, as well as coordinating returns and replacements, placing both functions with one partner is hugely beneficial from an efficiency point of view, which in turn presents significant cost savings. However again it is imperative that the fulfillment credentials are fully explored and evaluated.
Underestimating the resource and sustained levels of customer service required to effectively manage your communication and direct interaction with supporters is potentially catastrophic, as supporters expect an enhanced level of customer service when donating to a charity. Contact centre operations are a vital cog in the charity communication chain and unfortunately in many cases, are not adapted or improved as often as they should be.
Working with an outsourced and independent partner to ensure that high volume calls and when necessary fulfillment, can be managed successfully is a key tool to differentiate your organisation from others in an increasingly busy marketplace.
ENDS
For further information please contact Christina Pounder or Elizabeth Eddy on 01642 584790 or email christina@velvetcommunications.co.uk
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