--- name: bpo-performance-improvement-recommendation-generator description: "Converts BPO partner performance metrics — SLA misses, CSAT dips, quality score declines, AHT drift, and adherence gaps — into a prioritized improvement plan with root-cause hypotheses, specific corrective actions, owner assignments, and a 30/60/90-day recovery timeline formatted for a partner QBR or performance review. Use when a CX manager needs to diagnose underperforming outsourced teams and build a concrete, defensible improvement recommendation for a BPO vendor." argument-hint: "[metrics] [service-line]" allowed-tools: ["Read"] --- # BPO Performance Improvement Recommendation Generator ## Purpose Turn raw BPO scorecard metrics into a ranked, root-cause-driven improvement plan that a CX manager can hand directly to a vendor — with corrective actions, owners, and a phased recovery timeline. Removes the guesswork of translating a missed SLA or CSAT dip into what the partner should actually change. ## When to Use Invoke this skill when the user asks to: - Diagnose why an outsourced team is missing SLA, CSAT, or quality targets - Build an improvement plan or corrective action plan (CAP) for a BPO vendor - Prepare recommendations for a partner QBR or performance review - Translate a monthly scorecard into specific actions the vendor must take - Address a sudden dip in CSAT, quality score, AHT, or adherence - Escalate persistent underperformance with a documented, defensible plan ## Inputs Required Before starting, collect: - **Service line**: Channel and function (voice support, chat, email, back-office, sales, etc.) - **Metrics vs. targets**: Current values and targets for each affected metric — SLA, CSAT, quality/QA score, AHT, FCR, adherence, occupancy - **Trend direction**: How long the miss has persisted (spike vs. sustained decline) and any known trigger event - **Team size & tenure**: Headcount and rough tenure mix (ramping vs. seasoned) - **Known context**: Recent volume changes, product launches, policy changes, staffing events, or system issues - **Contract levers**: What the SLA/SOW allows (penalties, staffing floors, calibration requirements) - **Timeline pressure**: How urgent the recovery is (next QBR, contract review, executive escalation) If contract levers or team tenure are unavailable, proceed with the metric analysis and flag the assumptions made. ## Instructions ### Step 1: Metric Triage — Rank the Gaps For each metric provided, compute the gap to target and classify severity: - **Critical**: SLA/CSAT/quality more than 10% below target OR any breach with contractual penalty exposure - **Moderate**: 3–10% below target - **Watch**: Within 3% but trending down for 2+ periods Order the recommendation around **critical gaps first**. Do not treat all metrics as equal weight — a CSAT dip driven by a quality failure is one root cause, not two problems. ### Step 2: Root-Cause Hypothesis by Metric Map each gap to its most likely driver. Diagnose, don't just restate the number. - **SLA miss (speed/coverage)**: Staffing-to-forecast gap, adherence/shrinkage, occupancy too high, poor intraday management, or volume spike not forecasted - **CSAT dip**: Isolate whether it tracks with a *quality* driver (agents solving wrong), a *speed* driver (long waits), an *effort* driver (transfers/repeats), or a *policy* driver (agents can't resolve within current authority) - **Quality/QA score decline**: Onboarding gaps in ramping agents, calibration drift between vendor QA and client QA, knowledge base gaps, or coaching not closing recurring error patterns - **AHT drift**: Tooling/latency, knowledge retrieval friction, over-servicing, or under-trained agents padding time - **Adherence/occupancy issues**: Schedule design, breaks/shrinkage discipline, or forecast accuracy For CSAT specifically, always name **which underlying metric it correlates with** — CSAT is a symptom, not a root cause. ### Step 3: Corrective Actions per Root Cause For each confirmed root cause, specify concrete actions. Every action must include an owner and a mechanism, not an aspiration. Structure each action as: - **Action**: The specific change (e.g., "Add targeted refresher on refund-authority workflow for agents with <90 days tenure") - **Owner**: Client, BPO WFM, BPO Ops/Team Lead, BPO Training, or Joint - **Mechanism**: How it happens (calibration session, staffing floor adjustment, coaching cadence, KB update, forecast rework) - **Leading indicator**: The early signal that will show it's working before the lagging metric moves Avoid generic prescriptions like "more coaching." Tie each action to the diagnosed driver. ### Step 4: Prioritize with Impact/Effort Rank all corrective actions into a priority list: - **Quick wins** (high impact, low effort): Do first — staffing reallocation, calibration alignment, KB fix - **Foundational** (high impact, higher effort): Ramp training redesign, forecast model rework, schedule redesign - **Monitor** (lower impact): Nice-to-have refinements ### Step 5: Build the 30/60/90 Recovery Timeline Sequence the actions into phases with a measurable exit criterion per phase: - **Days 0–30 (Stabilize)**: Stop the bleeding on the critical metric — staffing, calibration, immediate coaching. Exit criterion = critical metric within 5% of target - **Days 31–60 (Correct)**: Structural fixes — training redesign, forecast accuracy, process changes. Exit criterion = all critical metrics at target, moderate gaps closing - **Days 61–90 (Sustain)**: Lock in gains — updated QA calibration cadence, documented playbooks, sustained performance. Exit criterion = 3 consecutive weeks at target ### Step 6: Governance & Accountability Wrap Specify the review cadence and escalation trigger: - Weekly leading-indicator review during recovery, standing QBR agenda item until sustained - Define the escalation trigger (e.g., "no improvement in critical metric by Day 30 → invoke contract remediation clause") ## Output Format - **Structure**: Executive summary → metric triage table → root-cause diagnosis → prioritized action list → 30/60/90 timeline → governance - **Length**: 800–1,200 words - **Format**: Structured document — triage and actions in tables, timeline as phased sections - **Sections**: Executive Summary (3–4 sentences) → Metric Triage Table → Root-Cause Diagnosis (per critical metric) → Prioritized Corrective Actions Table → 30/60/90 Recovery Plan → Governance & Escalation - **Tone**: CX operations lead — direct, defensible, partner-facing. Firm on accountability without being adversarial; every claim traceable to a metric ## Quality Checklist Before delivering output, verify: - [ ] Every metric provided appears in the triage table with a computed gap and severity label - [ ] CSAT (if included) is diagnosed by correlating it to an underlying driver — not treated as a standalone root cause - [ ] Every corrective action has a named owner and a mechanism — no "improve X" without a how - [ ] Actions are prioritized by impact/effort, not listed arbitrarily - [ ] Each of the three timeline phases has a measurable exit criterion - [ ] A specific escalation trigger is defined tied to a metric and date ## Notes - The most common misdiagnosis is treating a CSAT dip as a training problem when it's actually a policy/authority problem — agents scoring well on QA but unable to resolve within their granted authority. Check policy before prescribing coaching. - Sudden dips (single-period spikes) usually trace to a trigger event (launch, outage, staffing loss); sustained declines usually trace to structural issues (forecast, ramp quality, calibration drift). Match the fix to the pattern. - Calibration drift between vendor QA and client QA is silent but corrosive — if quality scores look fine to the vendor but customers are unhappy, calibration is the first thing to check. - Keep the plan partner-facing: it should read as a joint recovery plan the BPO will accept, not a punitive audit. --- ## How to use this skill This file is a Claude Code skill in [Anthropic's standard format](https://docs.anthropic.com/en/docs/claude-code/skills) — markdown with YAML frontmatter at the top. **Installing in Claude Code:** - `~/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads in every session anywhere on your machine (recommended for skills you'll use across multiple projects) - `/.claude/skills//SKILL.md` — auto-loads only when working in that project (recommended for project-specific skills) Restart Claude Code or open a new session to register. **Using in Claude.ai, ChatGPT, Gemini, or other AI tools:** 1. 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