Redesigning Toyota’s Contact Center Brenneise, Daniel BUS 527 5-15-14

The Wait Toyota faced long wait times at their customer service call center. The typical call times were extended due to several reasons: Limited digital access to information Poor organization of available digital information Customers needed to call up to 3 times to get their questions answered.

Gayle Darby Hired to lead the project Change Expert from Toyota’s internal University Involved key stakeholders from the very beginning of the change process. Went through the call center’s own training to understand the job more accurately.

Past Failures -> New Challenges Key Stakeholders were excluded from the processes. This led to a disconnect between new processes and those employing them. Gayle connected the Contact Center Reps with the change agents. Valued the insights of experienced employees, and their perspective on change.

Developing a New Strategy Had software engineers go through change management training classes “They usually come an go throughout the project based on their expertise” -Engineer Connected Engineers and the Customer service reps Changes would be made based on the suggestions of the reps, and implemented that night.

The Results More Customer got their questions answered on the first call Wait time averages dropped by 1 minute Happier customer’s and Representatives Changes would be made based on the suggestions of the reps, and implemented that night. Created a team-based culture of creativity that was modeled in other areas of the company.

Why it Worked Including stakeholders from the beginning Connection between two teams allowed room for creativity Sandbox area allowed workers to train under their own time without the job stresses. The new processes were adopted by the end users and stakeholders involved with the change.