Establishing a centralized customer service department

The home-care market is on the move. As a result of the introduction of the Social Support Act (WMO) in 2006, the market for domestic services has changed radically. Now that some home-care services are put out to tender, home-care organizations must operate more efficiently.

Within this framework, a major home-care organization in the Randstad conurbation initiated a reorganization in 2007. One of the most important areas of attention was the establishment of a centralized customer service department. In November 2007, TOTE-M was called in to assist with this. The collaboration commenced with the performance of a review of the plans for the establishment of a contact centre, followed by support in the implementation of the contact centre, which had to be operational on 1 April 2008. TOTE-M assisted the client with the formulation of the customer contact strategy and the key process indicators (KPIs). This was then elaborated in more detail to produce a design and a layout for the contact centre that accord with the principles of visual management. We advised the company on the design of knowledge management, the implementation of quality monitoring, and the staffing, planning and scheduling of the customer service department.

In parallel with this, TOTE-M was involved in the selection of the telephone system, including automatic call distributor (ACD) functionality. We were also responsible for the functional design of the ACD. Finally, the introduction on 1 April 2008 was supervised in accordance with a previously formulated plan.