A few years ago, I led operations for the voice and text channel for a business offering directory assistance—white pages, yellow pages, and broader internet info.
Customers paid $2 per call and $1.29 for a direct connection to the business or contact they were seeking. Calls were answered within 10 seconds—24/7, rain, shine, floods, or bushfires. Call duration averaged just 34 seconds. After the call, customers received a text with the business name, number, and directions.
It was one of the most efficient and profitable operations I’ve ever seen. Highlights:
EBIT exceeded 50%.
Employee tenure averaged over 20 years—engagement scores were among the highest in Australia.
NPS sat in the high 40s—remarkable for a paid service.
To this day, I reflect on what made that operation work so well.
Let me be clear: I didn’t create it. I inherited it. I learnt from it. And I tweaked it. What I did do was improve profitability, CX, and employee morale through growth. And when smartphones and Google search disrupted the model, corporate strategy shifted to manage decline and harvest value. I maintained profitability, CX, and morale while scaling down—something far more difficult than growth.
Every few months, senior leaders and consulting firms would ask if offshoring could reduce costs. Every time, we demonstrated that we were already more efficient onshore—because the operating model was engineered to eliminate waste.
And that’s the crux: most operational cost is hidden waste.
Waste hides in:
Untuned systems that generate exceptions
Patchworked processes full of workarounds
Clunky, inaccessible knowledge bases
Siloed teams that don’t talk (Product, IT, Compliance, etc.)
Underinvestment in key capability retention
Blind faith that outsourcing or new tech alone will fix everything
In contrast, this high-performing operation was obsessed with eliminating waste. Every KPI, process, and investment decision was aligned to that mission. The payoff wasn’t just financial—CX, compliance, and employee satisfaction all lifted. The efficiency and trust we built turned the product into a monopoly.
During the last major Victorian bushfires, some people chose to call this service before emergency services. That’s how dependable it had become.
Waste management isn’t just about cost. It’s the foundation of strategic delivery.
I’ve titled this piece Monetise the Second for a reason.
That 34-second, trusted resolution was critical to customers—and critical to the business. Every extra second added nearly $1 million to cost-to-serve. More on that in future posts.
I’m privileged to have experienced and learnt from that operation—and have applied its principles in every role since. Now, I bring that insight to clients through my advisory: optimiseradvisory.com
Stay tuned for more reflections from this marvellous operation—and connect with me anytime if you’d like to chat about partnering.
#efficiencyobsession #CXobsession
