How HCL boosted client’s customer experience via Lean Six Sigma

hcl-infosystemsAnand Prakash, chief quality officer at HCL Infosystems, reveals how the technology company boosted client’s customer experience via Lean Six Sigma initiatives.

Research shows that it is 6-7 times more expensive for companies to attract new customers than to keep existing customers. Furthermore, 65 percent of companies are able to successfully up-sell or cross-sell to existing customers. Needless to say, then that achieving high levels of customer satisfaction is imperative for the success of any organization.

At HCL Infosystems, we are committed to attain and sustain the highest standards of quality and service levels for our customers and partners. HCL Infosystems, through its subsidiary HCL Services, is Service Provider for a leading multi-national Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM). As part of the scope of work, we were entrusted to provide all hardware related services for the client’s laptops.

The client wanted HCL Infosystems to ensuring more than 90 percent Customer Satisfaction score. This customer engagement covered services delivery to Enterprise & end customer (both B2B and B2C), for delivery of services across the country. Customer Experience (CE) is a very crucial parameter in this engagement and is measured through a CE index, evaluated by an independent Agency.

Solution deployed

HCL Infosystems undertook a lean Six Sigma project to enhance client relationship and loyalty, leading to increased business & profitability. The current customer satisfaction index of the OEM was 86 percent which had to be improved to over 90 percent. The business team collaborated with HCL Infosystems’ Quality Team to initiate a Quality Improvement Project for the client using the Lean Six Sigma approach.

HCL’s performance was to be evaluated on the basis of customers’ ratings in periodic customer assessment surveys. HCL used tools such as Root-Cause Analysis, Fishbone Diagram and Hypothesis Testing to analyze the current situation and reach a comprehensive Plan of Action (POA) to improve Customer Experience.

The team designed an exhaustive Plan of action to achieve the desired results:

Real-time audit of all closed calls, with customer feedback

Clear actions were defined for each actionable: 1. Service Provider Fault – Apology to the customer, with a surety of not repeating; 2. Technical Support Delays – Surety to customer of escalation to concerned team; 3. Wrong Customer Expectations – Clarification to customer for contacting the Technical Support team for the issue.

Real-time Heatcheck, i.e. immediate feedback from the customers on satisfactory closure of call.

Real-time Education of Customers on E-survey such as on rating and responses.

Real-time training given to engineers on Soft skills/Process refresher/technical aspects

Consultation to Customer on OS configuration/settings, LCD Cleaning, addressal of customer queries

Surprise Onsite audit for Toolkit completeness

Real-time audit of MD/BQ engineers, with a focus on customer feedback and actions

Daily review with all SPOC, case by case, with focus on Mumbai/Delhi-NCR/Bangalore/Chennai/Hyderabad

Core Team Audits – Onsite / Telephonic audits and corrective action on misses

In-depth root cause analysis and robust CE improvement initiatives undertaken by HCL Infosystems, resulted in customer satisfaction percentage for the OEM increasing to 92 percent in Q1 2016 as compared to 89 percent in the last quarters. The Enterprise CE scored a remarkable 100 percent CE in the same period. Furthermore, the project helped augment client relationship and loyalty, leading to increased business & profitability for the OEM.

HCL received an award for “Best Use of Lean Six Sigma: Field Services in IT” at the World Quality Congress Conference 2016.

Anand Prakash, chief quality officer at HCL Infosystems

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