Situation:

Our client’s inbound servicing team was answering the calls from existing customers who were looking to cancel, were unsatisfied with their service, or experienced issues with their billing. By their very nature, these were not easy calls. The client needed to enhance customer satisfaction scores and attempt to regain customer loyalty by adding services. Internally, this client was experiencing severe issues with their brand, adding to the agents’ frustration as it was the agents’ role to represent the brand and be the voice of a company they had trouble trusting.

Direct Channels Solution: 

• We immediately got to work creating an internal branding campaign to re-establish their global brand locally and rebuild faith with its employees (and extending it to vendor partners). The internal branding campaign included focus groups, environmental installations, monthly newsletters, video installations sharing positive customer feedback, and training focused specifically on preparing agents in successfully resolving challenging calls. 
• We also brought an overarching theme of “journey” to focus agents on the client’s ability to move forward through challenging times and historic brand development. We created faux passports for every employee; and each time an agent participated in a growth training, their passport was stamped with either a “growth”,” skill” or “arrival” stamp. These milestones helped track the journey they personally were on as they strengthened their skills and build their confidence to better manage tough calls. Arrival stamps included a “visa insert” that could be redeemed for gifts or special treatments.

Results:

In the first 90 days of roll out, agent attrition rates slowed down significantly, agent retention rates went up by more than 16% and CSAT (customer satisfaction) results moved from “extremely unhappy” to “meets expectations.”