A call center represents a collection of processes, or the natural business activities performed that produce value, serve customers, and generate income. Managing these processes is the key to the success and growth of your call center and ultimately your organization.

Unfortunately, most call centers are not set up to manage processes. Instead they manage tasks. Organizations commonly are organized around functions, for example the manufacturing department, the sales department, the human resource department, the finance department. As a result, people tend to focus on local concerns instead of the global process needs of customers. Sub-processes evolve within departments without consideration of other functional areas. Layers of communications are created to ensure desired outcomes, thereby adding to costs and lengthening cycle and customer response times. Subsequently, inefficiency and waste become part of the system. Ultimately your call center will suffer loss in profits, productivity, and competitive advantage. However there is a way out.

Process re-design is a simple yet powerful method of looking beyond functional activities and rediscovering your core procedures. The cornerstone of process re-design is Process Mapping. Process Mapping is a logical step by step representation of business activities, commonly in a diagrammatic form, showing key inputs/outputs.

Process maps enable you refine the complexity of your call center structure and eliminate internal politics hence focus on the processes that form the heart of your business. Armed with a thorough understanding of the inputs, outputs, and interrelationships of each process, you can understand how processes interact in your organization; locate process flaws that create problems; evaluate which activities add value for the customer; and mobilize teams to streamline and improve processes.

Utilized appropriately and effectively, process mapping is a powerful tool to change the entire approach to process improvement and business management. In addition, process maps can greatly reduce the cost of your call center operations by eliminating as much as 50% of the steps in most processes as well as the root causes of systemic quality problems.