A new stage for the project

The model developed over the past few years enabled a dealership to extend its sales reach and begin selling auto savings plans by phone in different regions of the country.

Digital campaigns generate the leads. The call center makes it possible to handle them through a centralized operation. And an initial version of the system supports the team's organization.

That experience shows the model's potential.

It also raises new questions about how to support its growth.

An initial version that made it possible to get started

The original system was created alongside the operation.

Its initial goal was to address the team's first needs, organize leads and support a way of working that was taking shape.

Each resource was added in response to a specific need. This initial version made it possible to get the operation running and remains the starting point for learning how it works.

As the call center grows, new needs are emerging that we are still trying to understand.

Understanding the operation from within

At the end of 2018, new project leadership joined to review the experience built so far and begin defining the next stage.

In these first few weeks, the work focuses on observing how leads come in, how the team is organized and what difficulties arise as volume increases.

Conversations with advisors and call center managers are part of an ongoing daily exchange: listening to a need, observing how the work is done and talking again to better understand the problem. This exchange lets us revisit our initial ideas and compare them with the team's experience.

Before deciding what to develop, we need to understand how the operation works and what the people working in it need.

Thinking about the system from the operation's perspective

From these first observations, an idea is beginning to take shape that guides the conversations:

the system needs to be designed around the way the call center works.

How leads come in, how they are assigned and the advisors' daily work are some of the topics we are reviewing with the team. We still need to understand which difficulties take priority and what changes might help.

For now, these are working questions and possible directions that we are still discussing.

The next stage is still being defined. The immediate goal is to bring together what we have learned, review the needs with the team and build a shared basis for deciding the next steps.

A stage that remains open

This January 2019, the project is going through a stage of observation, conversations and learning.

Our telephone sales experience gives us a starting point. Today's challenge is to understand what the operation needs to keep growing and what role the system should play in that process.

The next stage has yet to be defined. For now, the work is to observe, listen and continue developing ideas together with the team.