SINCE 1943, Dow Corning has been researching silicon based technology and innovation. The company has always searched for a better way to do things.
With this philosophy, two years ago it introduced the Six Sigma Process Excellence to enhance the way it operated and serviced its customers.
At the Dow Corning call centre in Sydney, the Six Sigma principles have been put into practice with the innovative use of computer software that is allowing customers throughout the Asia Pacific region to get better service.
The call centre is using MINITAB Statistical Software to analyse call data and generate charts every 10 seconds, which are projected onto a plasma screen providing valuable real time performance information.
MINITAB is designed to provide quality statistics that meet the standards of the Six Sigma philosophy.
The measurement of the efficiency of any call centre is how few calls it loses due to callers hanging up and how little call waiting time is recorded, while maintaining an efficient number of operators.
In the first month after introducing the MINITAB system, the Dow Corning call centre reduced its call abandonment rate from 10% to fewer than 2%.
The real time charts allows Dow Corning to see and react to caller trends and peaks and identify how well they are acting on them.
Like Six Sigma, MINITAB is used to prevent defects that will affect Dow Corning’s customer service. Rather than analyse the waiting time after the event, they are able to prevent it.
The Dow Corning call centre handles up to 190 calls per day from customers all over the Asia Pacific region. Each call is potential business and minimising waiting time and abandonment saves dollars.
MINITAB is designed to support the Six Sigma philosophy offering a range of tools for graphical analysis, collecting powerful statistics, quality analysis with potential for a range of individually designed uses.
Ceanet Pty Ltd distributes MINITAB within Australia and New Zealand.