How iQor Harnesses Performance Enablement Technology to Replicate Top Performers at Scale

Precision Coaching, Recognition, and Self-Learning Actions Raise Performance Metrics and Net Promoter Scores to Improve CX

Background 

This client is a U.S. wireless provider. They offer an array of mobile communications products and services to millions of subscribers. These include smartphones, accessories, monthly plans, music, video, ringtones, directory assistance, and mobile applications. They were one of the earliest companies to offer unlimited data plans to customers. 

The Challenge 

The mobile products and services that consumers purchase today are more technologically advanced than ever before. As a result, the frequency of consumers needing technical customer support has increased substantially, sometimes producing longer customer resolution times (CRT) in order to provide complete solutions to customer inquiries. Committed to addressing customer service needs with accuracy and speed, the telecom client partnered with iQor to develop strategies to improve performance metrics throughout the customer experience.

The primary means of achieving consistent customer support metrics is through an engaged and supported frontline workforce. Developing employees from within and supporting their growth and development has always been a priority for iQor. In fact, it’s essential for generating meaningful employee and customer experiences. With a hybrid mix of work-in-office and work-at-home contact center agents and various metrics to evaluate, supervisors sought ways to continually optimize efficiency for the coaching and support they provided to agents under their leadership. They explored opportunities to further increase insights into employee performance and target improvements unique to each employee.

iQor was looking to invest in an AI-powered performance enablement process that could scale and simplify supervisors’ access to information to enhance personalized coaching based on each individual agent’s behaviors. In a high-volume contact center environment, both supervisors and agents want to be accountable for performance and for growth in career development.

Additionally, supervisors wanted to leverage a tracking tool to assess agent improvements and guide relevant follow-up. This would increase efficiency and help further strengthen supervisors’ connections with their agents, resulting in improved employee engagement and customer experience, while also having the additional benefit of reducing the cost to serve.  

The Solution 

In late 2020, iQor partnered with the telecom client to pilot AmplifAI, a software as a service (SaaS) performance enablement platform to reach these goals across six contact center sites (four in the Philippines and two in the U.S.). After achieving positive results, iQor has decided to continue using the platform.

Harnessing AI-powered data to differentiate their interventions, frontline leaders provide timely, targeted, and efficient employee development and engagement across their teams. They access performance data and AI-driven recommendations through one system that prioritizes actions, key behaviors, and performance indicators scorecard metrics for the client program, empowering supervisors to help more frontline employees strengthen specific skills in less time.

For more powerful analytics, iQor pairs its proprietary speech analytics platform (VALDI) with AmplifAI’s SaaS performance enablement platform. VALDI identifies empathy, dead air, and other indicators of conversation effectiveness. So, at the click of a button supervisors can see specific reasons why an agent might need coaching in a particular area.

The platform supports frontline associates, with their leader’s guidance, by identifying a specific and measurable goal with a target date to reach it. All workflows within the platform align to that goal so coaches know what to coach, how to coach it, when to follow up, and what that follow-up action should be. Further, coaches also use employee development micro-learnings on specific topics to reinforce their coaching sessions and provide agents additional guidance.

The impact of these coaching sessions is strengthened through accountability, follow-up, and recognition. AmplifAI’s system notes the customer satisfaction score (CSAT) the day of coaching and automatically compares it three days later to check for improvement. Supervisors can see metrics alongside goals to quickly identify who meets which targets in order to inform their coaching. If the agent meets their goal, the supervisor can recognize their accomplishments; likewise, if they need more support the supervisor can offer that as well. Using AI in this way enables supervisors to coach more agents, more frequently, in less time, with more targeted development. No agent is left behind.

The performance enablement platform also has a proprietary coaching effectiveness index model that helps the organization determine where supervisors have opportunities to enhance their coaching. This effectiveness index is key to help managers determine how to develop better coaches that have the specific skills necessary to improve their agent’s performance.

Moreover, coaching sessions are recorded and automatically linked to the behavior and growth measure so supervisors can reference them, managers can use them to inform coach-the-coach sessions, and peers can access them as a resource for their own development. Built-in accountability ensures agents and supervisors receive the support they need to thrive.

The Results 

Agents enjoy more frequent and precise coaching and support while the supervisors benefit from an easily accessible format that improves efficiency and yields more time for coaching. The end result is higher employee engagement and satisfaction and an excellent customer service experience.

More effective coaching builds deeper relationships with agents, elevating the employee experience and inspiring them to perform at their optimum potential. Seeing NPS performance improvements as a result of AI-enhanced coaching capabilities, the telecom client has agreed to expand the AmplifAI dataset to include first call resolution and credit and adjustment metrics.