[Vitamin SME] "Call Centers Should Be Knowledge Work, Not Emotional Labor"

<2> CS Sharing Company CSI Systems
Shared Economy Call Center System for SMEs
Enhancing Creativity and Communication through 'Book Sharing'
Implementing 'PC Shutdown Policy' for Employee Work-Life Balance

There are small but strong companies overcoming the crisis by uniting labor and management despite facing difficulties in management due to the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) situation. The source of strength that enables these companies to overcome hardships amid numerous environmental changes such as economic downturn caused by COVID-19 is coexistence. They enhance competitiveness through various methods, including operating in-house welfare systems that help employees enjoy a happy work life and developing and investing in new technologies for sustainable growth. We introduce 'Vitamin Small Giants'?companies that invigorate by mutually caring and advancing together toward common goals between management and workers.

Lim Ji-eun, CEO of CSI Systems, the first in Korea to introduce CS sharing. Photo by Kim Hee-yoon

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] CSI Systems, which develops and provides Customer Satisfaction (CS) sharing services, operates a book-sharing program for its employees. Every month, recommended books are selected and stocked in large quantities in the company library, followed by a monthly book discussion. Employees post book reviews on the company bulletin board, and outstanding works are selected and awarded based on employee star ratings. The book-sharing program, which started at the voluntary request of employees, has now become an official company program that enhances employees' CS expertise and deepens their sensitivity.

Im Ji-eun, CEO of CSI Systems, said, "Reading and understanding rapidly changing corporate environments and consumer trends have become essential elements in CS work. CS personnel must grow as knowledge workers rather than emotional laborers, and various employee growth programs directly connect to the company's growth."

Located in Hapjeong-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, CSI Systems was established in 2007 as a CS-specialized company. It started with outsourcing call center operations mainly for large financial companies such as BC Card and Lotte Card, and now operates a sharing economy-type service called CS Sharing, which handles CS services for 100 small and medium-sized enterprises. CS Sharing is a new concept service that allows companies to rent professional CS counselors and manager systems as needed and receive CS operation diagnostics.

CSI Systems supports the improvement of employees' CS expertise through the 'Book Sharing' program, which involves reading selected recommended books each month, participating in book discussions, and voting on book reports with awards. Photo by CSI Systems

The primary factor determining CS service quality is workforce expertise. Generally, the CS market has been perceived as a service market. Since it operates under subcontracting and dispatch structures, many counselors are contract workers. When a subcontractor's contract ends, another counselor from the next subcontractor repeats the same work in a cycle. CSI Systems tackled this issue head-on by enhancing workforce expertise. CEO Im said, "Instead of dispatching to client companies, we hire all counselors as regular employees and introduced a multi-communication system handling multiple companies' tasks. We established multi-counselor training courses in cooperation with government agencies to nurture experts and are preparing writing skill improvement courses for chat counseling as well as calls."

CEO Im emphasized that CS services should be viewed not as a 3D (Dirty, Dangerous, Difficult) industry but from the perspective of a knowledge industry. She said, "I thought it was wrong to degrade communication skills that solve corporate problems into emotional labor. We are also making efforts to create a corporate culture that instills pride through improving employees' job expertise and work-life balance." To promote a culture without overtime, they introduced a shutter system. At CSI Systems' office, all PCs are turned off at 6:30 p.m. Employees must submit a separate application to work overtime. A flexible work system considerate of working mothers was also introduced. Last year, the company was selected as a family-friendly certified company.

CS Sharing, which handles CS services for small and medium-sized enterprises, received a good response upon development but soon faced difficulties in the early stages. When transferring corporate tasks externally, roles and responsibilities were not clearly defined, requiring detailed identification. Without manuals, they organized data directly. CEO Im explained, "To solve these problems, we deployed specialized personnel and introduced operation diagnostic services. After employees accumulated customer call data, they created manuals based on counseling content, identified issues, and provided operation diagnostic solutions." This was possible thanks to specialized personnel through prior training. CEO Im was recognized for developing a sharing economy model in the CS field and was selected as a New Knowledge Person of Korea in 2018. She said, "There should no longer be disasters where many small and medium-sized enterprises fail to manage crises due to CS problems."

CSI Company Information. Graphic by Designer Jin-kyung Lee