IT Success!: Towards a New Model for Information Technology

10.14. One year later

There was a 50% increase in the number of questions answered, with the first-call resolution rate still above 90%, and customer satisfaction still at 99%.

During a major product launch, the number of calls per day increased fivefold during the first few weeks, providing vital feedback which enabled quick corrective action, e.g. for product packaging and documentation. As new questions were also logged (i.e. those not yet in the knowledge base), multiple occurrences could be identified, and new FAQs could be set up literally on a weekly basis following product launch.

The only black spot on the horizon was a classic case of resistance to organizational change. This concerned the sales force, who did not initially adhere to the project, out of a fear that this channel could, over time, threaten their livelihood by replacing their face-to-face channel as the main source of information for physicians. Despite official communication to the contrary, there was an implicit boycott of this new channel by the sales force, to such an extent that a significant part of the sales force did not even, as requested, publicize the service to their physicians during their visits! It took almost two years before the sales force came to accept that the one-stop-shop contact centre was simply one more component of the channel mix, and in no way threatened the traditional face-to-face sales channel. By then, they themselves had become frequent callers to the contact centre, now ...