Category: Case Studies

Designing Employee Training Programs to Build Human Connections

Posted on by Blake Graves

Background

This nonprofit health benefits company is focused on improving the health and lives of its one million members. It is nationally recognized in the United States as a leader for quality, customer service, transparency, and product innovation. As the fastest-growing healthcare plan in the state in which it operates, it is accepted by the majority of hospitals and primary care providers in its state. The healthcare company is committed to the community and focused on low overhead, cost savings, and personalized support, while offering a broad range of individual, family, small business, and large group plans. They also provide services to Medicare beneficiaries, placing a high priority on ensuring senior citizens receive responsive customer service that yields consistently high customer satisfaction rates.

The Challenge

The state health plan is committed to providing excellent customer service. Their internal agents deliver inbound and outbound customer care to the plan’s one million members. Determined to reach their average speed of answer (ASA) goals, they found they needed additional support to meet seasonal open enrollment demands and to help elderly Medicare customers get back on track when facing hardships.

They needed more cost-effective solutions to be able to ramp effectively with sufficient staffing levels of full-time employees (FTEs) during open enrollment. They also needed to ensure these employees were trained quickly and effectively with in-depth knowledge to provide personalized care to customers from a wide variety of backgrounds in an empathetic, understanding way.

Additionally, they sought support for accounts receivable management (ARM) and for  providing friendly reminders and solutions to help elderly customers retain their Medicare services when in the midst of hardship. The focus was on keeping customers satisfied and providing compassionate service responsive to their needs.

All in all, the company is in it for the long haul—they want to keep their customers for life and they know that hinges on providing excellent customer experiences with 100% satisfaction rates.

The Solution

iQor began working with the healthcare benefits company in 2012 with a team dedicated to providing empathetic outbound accounts receivable management support to help Medicare customers get back on track. The demographics of the customer service agents differed significantly from those of the customers they served. In order to provide the best customer service experiences, the agents needed to understand their customers’ needs. To this end, the iQor team proactively developed a multifaceted program to help agents understand and connect with older customers.

This approach yielded great success. After piloting outbound customer support for a year and consistently exceeding the healthcare benefits company’s expectations, iQor gained their trust as a valued partner in their customer service offerings. As a result, iQor transitioned to providing inbound customer support at a steady state and supporting seasonal ramps. This was the first time the healthcare benefits company had outsourced inbound customer service; iQor remains their only business process outsourcing (BPO) partner to this day. iQor provides inbound customer care on multiple lines of business with a steady state of FTEs that increases to more than 100 during open enrollment.

Implemented In-Depth Training

iQor created an intensive six-week training program to develop agents, focusing on complex content knowledge, compliance, and empathetic and personalized service. iQor excelled at training agents not only for steady state service needs, but also for peak-season ramps that required training more than 5x the number of agents so they could become experts. iQor exceeded the healthcare benefits company’s requirements for performance and did so at a lower cost than they could provide internally.

Established Frequent and Open Communication With the Client

Weekly and bi-weekly meetings with the healthcare benefits company provided an ongoing detailed analysis of operations, goals, and achievements. These meetings solidified iQor as a trusted partner in the healthcare benefits company’s success.

Created a Unique Community Outreach Program

In line with iQorian Values focused on giving back to the community and a commitment to truly understanding customer needs, iQor’s program leadership reached out to local nursing homes and senior centers so customer service teams could build relationships with members of the community and better understand their needs. Teams regularly participated in resident programs such as bingo, seasonal activities, dances, arts and crafts, and more. These partnerships heightened agent awareness of circumstances customers may be encountering and created opportunities for staff to learn firsthand about consumer struggles and needs. These activities built empathy and patience, showing agents why, for example, it may take longer to handle a customer call—plus they created long-lasting bonds for both parties.

Shifted the Customer Interaction Focus Away From Being Time-Sensitive and Toward Building Caring Relationships

Because of the elderly customer demographic, KPIs like average handle time (AHT) were less important. Instead, customer service agents needed to talk to the consumer slowly and perhaps loudly so they could fully understand and appreciate the service and solutions being provided. Agents learned to take their time with customers, in part because they may be the only person the customer talks to that day. Program agents were also trained to understand the individual and unique challenges many of the consumers may be facing, including heart conditions or arthritis that could impact the speed of their interactions or how challenging it may be to hold the phone or write notes.

Implemented a Focus on True, Meaningful Customer Service and Compliance

The iQor team covered all angles of training and ongoing coaching to ensure agents were equipped to provide personalized, empathetic service to a niche customer base. The teams also placed a high level of importance on compliance, ensuring all endpoint security measures, training, government regulations, and healthcare guidelines were followed.

The Results

iQor implemented a budget-friendly, results-focused customer-care solution that included weekly and bi-weekly touch-bases with the client. The iQor team worked closely with the healthcare benefits company to ensure high levels of customer satisfaction and to establish procedures for following up with customers that may need additional support.

iQor’s actions resulted in improved scores that met and exceeded operational goals. The KPIs for the different lines of business reflect differing results based on the needs of the customers for each program.

Expanded Engagements With Nearly Identical AHT

Total call volume jumped 45% from 40,000 to 58,000 while AHT stayed nearly constant, demonstrating consistent support.

Exceeded Medicare Quality Score Goals

The program team generated a 1% improvement in the Medicare Quality Score.

Excelled at High Quality Ratings

The team supporting the individual plan surpassed the quality experience goal by 7% and the quality technical goal by 8%.

While the metrics matter, there’s one true measure of overall success: client and customer satisfaction. iQor has provided exceptional service and earned its place as a loyal and trusted partner of the healthcare benefits client for more than a decade. iQor teams are truly committed to providing exceptional service that makes employees and customers smile.

Elevate CX and Retention in Subscription Services With Advanced Speech Analytics

Posted on by Nicole Gobbo

Background

This top-ranked U.S. warranty company provides peace of mind to millions of homeowners by offering accessible, specialized warranty plans tailored to different homeownership needs. They offer comprehensive coverage regardless of the age or condition of the home and have a network of thousands of vetted contractors across the country ready to respond at a moment’s notice through a single number to call. 

In 2018, iQor began collaborating with the company to provide outsourced payment services (payment status, due date, etc.). The program started in Clark, Philippines and soon expanded to include customer care and support for numerous other lines of business, leveraging our expertise in voice and chat customer service. The partnership expanded to iQor’s team in the United States and Trinidad and Tobago in 2019. 

The program has grown from several hundred full-time employees (FTEs) to several thousand today. iQor provides voice and chat customer care and payment services across four sites in the Philippines with a steady state of FTEs that expands during seasonal peaks and other forecasted ramps. In Trinidad and Tobago, iQor supports a steady state of FTEs for customer care with a team of both English and bilingual (English and Spanish) customer support. The Trinidad team also supports warranty sales with multiple lines of inbound; outbound business; and back office support for accounting, proof of repair correspondence, and other administrative/non-voice services. 

All iQor sites work closely with each other and the client to provide exceptional customer experiences with every interaction. 

Business Opportunity

Early in the program, the client’s customer satisfaction survey results revealed an opportunity to take a closer look at the overall customer experience. The surveys gathered feedback on the customers’ general experiences with the agent along with call and speech clarity. The program team at iQor welcomed the opportunity to dig deeper and identify ways to improve all aspects of the customer experience. 

Additionally, iQor was determined to improve customer retention, increasing a save rate that hovered in the low single digits. Coaching and training would need to specifically target customer retention strategies for agents to use in order to improve the save/retention rate. 

The program also needed to meet peak-season ramps with significant increases in highly skilled agents to provide exceptional customer support in all locations through a scalable, skilled workforce. 

Solution

To address both survey results and customer retention, iQor teams developed coaching and training sessions backed by real-time access to data and analytics from each customer call, enabling them to tailor each session to specific strategies for improving these key performance indicators (KPIs). The teams leveraged VALDI, iQor’s proprietary speech analytics platform that uses cloud computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence to mine every available recorded omnichannel interaction between agents and customers. 

We integrated our subscription services strategy to tailor interactions based on individual customer needs, enhancing first impressions with welcome calls and using data-driven insights for upselling and cross-selling, thereby strengthening customer relationships and reducing churn. 

As part of iQor’s digital technology ecosystem, VALDI enabled the iQor team to deep-dive into call recordings to identify agent behaviors that yielded low survey scores and recognize behaviors that improved the ability to save customers requesting to cancel their service. The team was able to determine the specific word choice and call flow that would drive a better customer experience and made changes to improve results in both of these areas. Once identified, iQor worked to develop a training curriculum and specific types of coaching sessions to improve individual agent and overall performance results. 

Low annualized attrition (7% or less) and the ability to train all agents on general customer care built a strong foundation that enables iQor to ramp support of multiple lines of business during peak seasons in a timely and efficient manner. With foundational training in subscription services and a solid knowledge base established, agents are able to provide highly skilled support on other lines of business during peak-season ramps, while new hires support general customer care. 

Results

Dynamic Speech Analytics and Subscription Services Drive Superior Customer Retention and Pinpoint Coaching Opportunities With the Greatest Impact

With the deployment of VALDI and our strategic approach to customer touchpoints, we achieved remarkable improvements in customer experience scores and retention rates. Scores for the client’s two customer experience surveys improved after deploying speech analytics tailored specifically to identify areas in which individual agents needed immediate support. 

The simple two-question surveys provided helpful feedback to continually improve the customer experience. The client’s Agent Five Star Survey measures how an agent handles the customer’s concerns; the Clarity Five Star Survey measures the communication skills of the agent. iQor’s performance in both the Philippines and Trinidad consistently exceeds service-level agreement (SLA) goals set with the client; iQor leads the way in delivering this consistency with the client’s other business process outsourcing (BPO) partners. 

Speech Analytics Reveal Ways to Make Retention Soar 30 Percentage Points

In addition to helping the team exceed survey goals, custom speech analytics also empowered the iQor subscription services operations team to dramatically improve the retention/save rate for customers wanting to cancel their service. 

The client’s internal customer support team delivered a 2% retention/save rate. Determined to improve this score when the client transitioned outbound retention services to iQor Philippines, the team leveraged the analytics to determine specific reasons why the save rate was so low. iQor enhanced agent training and scripts and the save rate skyrocketed to 32%. 

As a result of this improvement in outbound retention/save rates, the client awarded iQor inbound retention services as well. To ensure continued progress in elevating retention/save rates, the iQor team trained coaches specifically focused on harnessing speech analytics to drive best practices to build value on subscription services provided. With the goal of retaining customers, this drove higher save rates and improved customer retention and loyalty. 

Our focus on personalized customer interactions, backed by intelligent analytics, allowed us to fine-tune our approaches continuously, leading to more effective customer engagements and higher satisfaction levels. 

iQor Delivers 30x Boost in Save Rate

iQor’s custom speech analytics has been a critical component of this success, enabling the team to segment calls and hear why customers want to cancel and what the most effective wording is when agents engage. This data is subsequently used to train agents.

New Caribbean Team Drives Operational Efficiencies That Benefit the Network

Calls per hour (CPH) is a significant component in driving operational efficiencies and improving call handling metrics. The client challenged all of their BPOs to work on processes to improve CPH as a 2020 initiative. The iQor Trinidad team was selected to share best practices for this metric based on their ability to drive CPH improvement consistently month-over-month in 2020. Based on-site results, the Trinidad team set the benchmark for improving CPH rates and has shared best practices and process improvement details with all other client BPOs. 

This is an example of how iQor’s customer-centric philosophy helps drive operational excellence for the business with a collaborative success mindset of one team, one goal.

Excellent Client Communication Continues

This case study exemplifies how integrating advanced speech analytics with personalized subscription services can transform customer experiences, enhancing both satisfaction and retention in competitive markets. 

From the outset, iQor has worked collaboratively with our warranty partner to ensure the iQor management team is successfully trained as subject matter experts with in-depth knowledge of the subscription services we support. This close partnership continues through daily interactions between the client, program supervisors, and operations managers. Moreover, iQor is a trusted partner helping to educate internal and external sites as well as the client’s other BPOs on best practices for improving the customer experience, improving operational efficiencies, and driving revenue and saving customers through fee collection and customer retention strategies. Through digital innovation, collaboration, and determination, iQor delivers customer experiences that create smiles for our customers and for our client. 

Ramping Up Social Media Monitoring Support 4X for Promotional Campaigns

Posted on by Bernie Borges

Background

This company is an American prepaid wireless provider owned by a major telecom organization. They offer an array of products and services for mobile communications to millions of subscribers. These include smartphones, accessories, monthly plans, music, video, ringtones, directory assistance, and mobile applications. They were also one of the earliest companies to offer unlimited data plans to customers.

All products and services are marketed throughout the United States in brick-and-mortar stores along with a strong online presence via the company’s website, mobile app, and social media channels.

The Challenge

In April 2021, this prepaid wireless service provider significantly expanded its marketing and promotional campaigns for acquiring new customers, promoting upgrades, and rewarding their existing subscriber base. New programs included weekly rewards, perks, gear, and exclusive offers from partner brands for just being a customer. Promotions for redeeming “free stuff” were largely supported by their mobile app.

Anticipating a tremendous response to these new programs, the prepaid wireless provider was concerned about receiving an ongoing surge of inquiries and customer service requests primarily through their social media channels that included Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

To be proactive, they turned to iQor—their existing partner since 2004—for a quick and effective digital customer experience solution.

The Solution

Since the beginning of our partnership 17 years ago, iQor has effectively spearheaded customer and brand experience for this prepaid wireless provider. Starting in call centers and expanding 6 years ago into social media channels, iQor agents regularly respond to customer messages posted on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  

For years, iQor has provided exemplary social media monitoring service using 10 non-seasonal agents with specialized training. However, with new promotional programs being rolled out by the wireless provider, iQor believed the best solution to handle the anticipated spike in customer engagement and related tasks was to materially ramp up staffing.

400% Increase in Social Media Agents

A proposal to quickly ramp up by 4X from 10 to 40 agents was expeditiously approved. With the 400% increase in iQor agents, recruitment and training were fast-tracked while maintaining expected quality and productivity levels.

The iQor agent training program is structured to move experienced agents from the call center into social media monitoring. The training is provided over one week and focuses on new tools and applications along with enhancing grammar and writing skills to empower agents to be more impactful on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. New social media agents are thoroughly tested on these skills and the results are sent to the client for approval.

One of the critical applications that iQor agents working in social media monitoring for this client must be thoroughly versed in is SproutSocial, a social media platform that aggregates communications from all of the client’s platforms. It consolidates Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for a more efficient way of managing customer communications and agent responses from multiple channels.

Agents are also required to be proficient in Edge and Grand Central—both of which are in-house applications for checking customer account details and opening/tracking support tickets when needed.

Social media support is provided to customers 24/7/365. Many iQor agents are bilingual and handle Latino Facebook messages routinely as well.

Within a short time, iQor conducted thorough trainings and quickly ramped-up social media CX agents by 4X to meet the anticipated needs of the client and its new promotional programs.

Delivering Quality and Productivity at Scale

With an increase in social media agents of 400%, it was necessary to monitor the productivity and quality of the work now being delivered at scale. To do so, a 6-minute response time/service level agreement (SLA) with the wireless provider was introduced that corresponded with the ramp-up.

Prior to the ramp-up, when iQor was fully managing customer experience via social media with 10 agents, the response time to customer inquiries averaged 1-2 hours due to the then-current staffing level. Also, no SLA was in place between iQor and the client at that time.

To enhance the customer experience, agents must also be proficient in handling concurrent chats with customers on social media. They must also know when it is appropriate to “lock” client hotline tickets for situations where a technician needs to troubleshoot a persistent issue.

Before the ramp-up, there were no productivity targets designated by the client. With the new promotional campaigns, productivity targets were set at 20 tasks (customer interactions) per day. A task is defined as one separate interaction or completed item with a wireless customer.

The Results

The outcome from the ramp-up was a significant improvement to the overall customer service experience. iQor routinely met or exceeded all the client’s expectations for delivering quality and productivity since the 4X ramp-up went into effect.

Customer Response Time Improves Dramatically

As previously mentioned, prior to the 4X ramp-up, the response time for a customer inquiry on social media could take as long as 2 hours due to being short-staffed.

Once 40 iQor CX agents were up and running, the average monthly response time for the first six months (April 2021 through September 2021) was 5.3 minutes. This was well under the 6-minute response time required by the SLA, which represents a performance improvement of more than 22X.

There was one month (out of the six) where the SLA response time target was slightly missed. However, this was due to outages on social media platforms resulting in incoming messages from customers delivered late to the iQor agents.

Productivity Remains High

iQor agents complete up to an average of 4,000 tasks per week. The increase in the number of agents and wireless customer inquiries resulting from new promotions and marketing events has kept pace with one another.

Also, concurrent chat handling averages around 2 messages at a time per social media agent. While there is no strict cap in place, this has been the trend.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) Nearly Doubles

Wireless customers that engage on social media are increasingly happier with their provider. Recently, iQor began conducting net promoter score (NPS) surveys to measure customer loyalty and satisfaction. For the months of July 2021 through October 2021 NPS scores experienced a steady upward climb and have come close to doubling—from 34.42 to 62.14. The number of surveys answered per month also increased from 106 to 300—almost 300%.

Excellent Client Communication Continues

iQor continues to maintain top-notch communications with this wireless provider client throughout each month since the ramp-up. The client is very involved with the social media customer experience and is frequently updated on a weekly basis by iQor operations management. Discussions between iQor and the wireless provider frequently include:

  • Trends in social media
  • Specific feedback from wireless customers
  • Solutions for customer experience issues that may arise

In addition to these weekly meetings, iQor provides a report every 2 hours highlighting specific metrics, anomalies, or spikes in messages that may have taken place during that time on social media platforms.

iQor Agents Really Enjoy Social Media Monitoring

iQor agents and their managers are raving about results that have taken place since the ramp-up. The average span for an agent in social media is up to 2 years.

An experienced iQor manager expressed the new social media atmosphere well with the following statement:

I took over in April as the lead manager when we only had 10 agents. The customer asked me to increase our headcount by 30 agents to give us a total of 40 agents on the project. Since being placed on social media at iQor, I have thoroughly enjoyed working in this position. We are learning new systems and how to enhance our communication with customers. What makes the experience different is moving from taking calls to responding in writing on social media platforms. Overall, this has been a fun, challenging experience and I’m truly excited to be an integral part of it.

social media monitoring interactions

Social Media Monitoring & Response with Flexible Seasonal Staffing

Posted on by Bernie Borges

Background

This retailer is one of the leading online retailers in the United States and abroad with a recognized need for ramped-up seasonal staffing.

The company is known for delivering all sorts of high-quality gift offerings including chocolates, baked goods, gift baskets, and designer popcorn for major holidays and special occasions such as birthdays, Mother’s Day, and Valentine’s Day.

Customers can order gifts through one of its many franchised and company-owned brick and mortar retail stores as well as many domestic and overseas affiliates, or online through its full-service eCommerce website.

The Challenge

Previously, the retailer relied mostly on voice interactions to take orders and provide an outstanding customer experience to fulfill gifting needs. With the roll-out of their eCommerce website, they continued to take orders online and soon found themselves experimenting in the social media space with Facebook to complete transactions.

Eventually, they realized that social media (SM) channels are much more than just a way to transact business, but also a digital communication medium that needed to be appropriately leveraged to deliver exceptional customer service and experience—just like they had done successfully with call centers throughout the years.

Customers expect a response to their complaints within 30 minutes to an hour.

Facebook

30 minutes

WhatsApp

1 hour

Twitter

30 minutes

Instagram

1 hour

LinkedIn

1 hour

Source: HubSpot

To engage with their digital community, the company initiated its very first customer experience program specifically targeted at social media platforms.

Looking to continue its digital customer experience solution, the organization decided to expand its work with iQor— our team that had been successfully providing customer experience support through call centers and email communications for the past six years.

The Solution

iQor took over the social media monitoring program in 2017, providing customer experience and support for the retailer’s three major social media platforms—Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. They started with a small team and have since grown substantially to meet all critical business requirements, metrics, and standards. Since taking over, iQor has been continuously providing all social media monitoring and response functions for the retailer.

As part of the social media monitoring solution, iQor agents respond to all customer inquiries and complaints posted on the retailer’s three social media channels. These typically include, but are not limited to, billing queries, quality issues, and delayed or missing product complaints.

Social media messages for Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are consolidated and assigned to iQor agents through a third-party social media and customer experience management platform.

Ramping to 750% with Ease

During the non-seasonal time of year, there are approximately 30 full-time iQor agents monitoring and managing these platforms with minimal involvement from the retailer itself. When peak business seasons occur—Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, and Christmas—there is a rapid ramp-up to 250+ agents to handle the increased volume of customer engagement in social media. The seasonal staffing ramp-up can easily approach 750% for Mother’s Day—the biggest holiday for the gift and floral industry.

A Stress-Free Peak Season

The retailer can turn on as many seats as needed with a few simple clicks with iQor’s cloud-based network, ready-to-go talent pool, and intuitive training.

From 30 agents to:

Peak season hiring for Christmas and New Year's
Peak season hiring for Valentine's Day
Peak season hiring for Mother's Day

To always ensure that ramp-up requirements are strictly met, iQor uses its cloud-based network, seasonal and full-time talent pool, and training at scale to fully extend across the non-peak seasonal periods (9 months out of the year). By partnering with iQor, the retailer has never fallen short of trained and capable agents ready to immediately respond to social media queries during peak seasons.

Agents are empowered and have access to all the tools required to solve any customer experience problem. iQor works independently and it is rare that it ever has to go back to the retailer for assistance in resolving a customer issue. On the rare occasions that it happens, agents reach out to the company by email. They are also authorized to directly contact delivery services and retailers to get information for customers.  

The Results

The retailer is experiencing phenomenal results. By using iQor’s social media monitoring agents, the retailer has routinely met or exceeded customer expectations and all requirements for handling social media channel responses and follow-up.

Agents Respond to Customers at Hyper-Speed

The service level agreement (SLA) requires that iQor agents meet a predetermined response time to customers within 8 minutes. This response time must be achieved 99.9% of the time. iQor agents, on average, respond within 3 to 5 minutes. Since the inception of the program, iQor has met this goal every month except for one month due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Every Customer is Answered

iQor’s social media monitoring teams have been consistently handling high levels of concurrent interaction with the retailer’s customers on social media channels. During peak seasons, agents can handle up to 6 or 7 messages and can process up to 1,000 cases per day. For non-peak seasons, concurrency rates are about 3 messages at a time as the retailer experiences roughly 200 cases per week.

The opportunity to participate in social media responses keeps iQor employees feeling engaged and more fulfilled, resulting in high retention rates.

“This is where I feel like my strength lies. Social Media carries a variety of workloads that I thoroughly enjoy working on.”

Melanie Small, iQor Agent

Quality is Always Maintained

iQor conducts random quality checks on selected pieces of information from customer interactions, reviewing 150 interactions per week across all agents for grammar, punctuation, and resolutions. As a result, customer experience quality is maintained at a high, and stable, rate of 96%.

Overall, the retailer has been extremely pleased with the results as expressed in this message by the Customer Experience Senior Manager:

“Team, another “perfect 10” day in social media performance across the board . . . . Additionally, thanks for the real-time workload assignment adjustments between social media and voice when necessary due to call queue. Please continue leveraging this flexibility that you’ve mastered.”

Social media monitoring interactions

Recovery to Customer Care

Posted on by Blake Graves

The Challenge

In 2015, one of the fastest-growing credit card issuers in the U.S. had over five million active accounts. With the launch of a new product in the works, these numbers were set to spike by an additional two million accounts nationwide by the end of 2016. iQor was asked to step in and serve these customers while helping the brand decrease agent attrition, increase First Call Resolution (FCR) scores, and elevate the customer service experience.

The Solution

iQor had been providing first-party retention and recovery services to the brand since 2011. But the company had yet to leverage iQor’s growing base of customer care-focused contact centers. After in-depth planning sessions to understand the brand’s goal and objectives, we found the solution. iQor would leverage its strong customer care talent pipeline, advanced agent support tools, and sophisticated speech analytics software to quickly ramp and provide the brand with a robust customer care program.

The Full Scope

We launched our customer care partnership in 2015 with 14 agents in Clark, Philippines to provide general billing and inquiry (BGI) support. After the Issuer opened their credit lines to consumers looking to rebuild credit and receive cash-back rewards, they grew quickly. So we did too. Within seven months, we expanded our services into activation and application inquiries, escalations, retention, express pay, payments, amortization, web troubleshooting, and tech support. We quickly hired and trained an additional 475 agents divided between our Clark and Dasmariñas centers–all with a 94-96% retention rate.

By the start of 2018, we grew once more, ramping hundreds of new full-time agents while maintaining low attrition rates. We also expanded our tech support services to include screen sharing to increase the rate of first-call resolutions.

Hiring 1,500 Agents in the Philippines

Posted on by Blake Graves

Customer

Leading eCommerce in the US

Industry

eCommerce

Services Provided

  • Customer Care
  • Inquiries & Education
  • Order Management
  • General Inquiries
  • RMA/Warranty Management

The Challenge

With the onset of COVID-19, this leading eCommerce client needed help meeting the sudden increase in online shopping demand. Not only that, their peak season was right around the corner. They needed skilled agents by the thousands and they needed them fast.

The Solution

Drawing upon our existing pool of prescreened candidates, internal social recruiting program, and Recruitment Automation Platform where we use social media channels to target, find, and engage candidates, iQor staffed agents quickly. In two months, we had 1,500 agents hired, trained, and serving customers.

The Results

iQor assisted 35,000 customers during the client’s peak shopping week. In the months leading up to its peak season, iQor’s Fairview and Davao contact centers ranked above all the client’s other new partners. They met all volume forecasts with high-performing service levels and performance targets, including Average Handle Time (AHT).

1,500 customer support experts recruited in 2 months

<4% attrition rate

35,000 customers assisted

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) simplifies processes for a global HR Team

Posted on by Blake Graves

Processes Automation

Manual review and approval of
HR process

Industry

Human Resources

The Challenge

Manual data entry processes slowed down critical human resource functions and reduce staffing visibility in the business. The repetitive HR task required a multi-step manual review and approval process from across several parts of the organization. As a result, long queues of HR tasks in the HRIS system took up hours per day.

The Solution

iQor developed a robotic process automation (RPA) bot to automate all manual data entry points and workflows within the cloud-based software for human capital management. The RPA incorporated human review procedures for exceptions

RPA supercharges your workforce

  • Complete processes and requests faster
  • Eliminate human error Increase productivity and streamline functions
  • Shift employees’ time to revenue-focused activities

The Results

The RPA bot, without the need for any human interaction, automates HR-based workflow requests by reviewing each request to fixed criteria. If the requirements are met, the bot automatically approves the request. If not, the system automatically alerts the requester for comments and changes. HR management can start and stop the RPA bot anytime through a simple email notification process. Additionally, the bot increased system record accuracy, provided real-time visibility into staffing metrics, and offered other payroll and benefits improvements.

650 hours saved per employee per year

75 complex HR transactions completed per hour

100% process automation

Many Models, Singular Service

Posted on by Blake Graves

Customer

Leading Mobile Phone Provider

Industry

Telecommunications

Services Provided

Technical Support

The Challenge

This globally dominant mobile phone provider manufactures phones and electronics with a famously wide variety of product models, features, sizes, and price points. To keep up with the company’s rapid launch timetables for new products, while at the same time helping their customers with current devices, the company needed a technical support team.

The Solution

Working with the provider’s OEM partner, iQor aggressively sought ways to improve customer satisfaction and first contact resolution. Our operations and business intelligence teams pored over data and monitored calls to identify trends and issues. Once identified, trends were validated using iQor’s proprietary business intelligence and data analytics platform.

4 Metric-Improving Strategies

  1. With our exclusive data analytics tool, supervisors drilled down through customer satisfaction survey results agent-by-agent to understand the reasons for missed or low customer satisfaction scores (CSAT) and first call resolution (FCR) scores. Low-scoring agents received immediate coaching sessions to correct problems immediately.
  2. Using individual scorecards, agents monitored their performance over time, driving improvements and identifying areas for growth.
  3. In collaboration with the provider, iQor instituted its Stay Program, in which agents stayed on the line with the customer, even if that meant calling the customer’s carrier or partner, resulting in an 11% increase in CSAT and FCR score averages.
  4. By implementing our knowledge management forum, iQor helped the provider achieve a full 5–point increase in FCR. And, despite a focus on FCR, most of our agents kept call times under 9 minutes and 36 seconds.

The Results

11% increase in CSAT

Another 11% increase in FCR rate

<10 minutes in call time average

Welcome Calls to Build Brand Loyalty

Posted on by Blake Graves

Customer

Large Financial Institution and Auto Finance Lender

Industry

Financial Services

Services Provided

  • Welcome Calls
  • Customer Care
  • Collections (all stages)
  • Back Office
  • Support Credit Report Disputes

The Challenge

The auto finance division of one of the largest financial institutions in the United States discovered that a segment of its customers were consistently delinquent on payments, despite a clear ability to pay. The lender realized that it faced potential fraud issues caused by straw deals, or loans taken out by customers on behalf of someone else.

The Solution

To help address at-risk customers and mitigate the potential of fraud, the lender put a welcome call program in place as a part of their overall customer treatment strategy. We know that successful welcome calls targeted to the right customers serve as a powerful risk indicator that reduces the future likelihood of accounts going to a loss. In addition, welcome calls allow the lender to collect valuable contact information while delivering a positive customer experience that supports their brand image.

iQor’s data analytics team helped the lender develop targeted programs for key customer segments. This included identifying at-risk segments of portfolios based on credit score and other key factors. We then helped design intelligent, on-brand scripting to welcome the new customer into the company. These calls had the following objectives:

  1. Welcome the customer to the company, providing a positive first impression in the client’s brand voice.
  2. Reinforce the first payment date and amount.
  3. Observe early warning signals of potential fraud situations.
  4. Calibrate monthly payment of auto loans to sync with pay date and capture wallet share.
  5. Obtain and verify additional contact information to enhance future contactability.
  6. Provide reporting and analytics to help better understand risk indicators and deploy targeted mitigation strategies.
  7. Support the business with comprehensive reporting to monitor the health of the welcome call program.

The Results

Over four months, the lender saw dramatic key metric improvements due to the welcome program. Key successes included:

  • Early detection of fraud by capturing critical contact information,
  • Reduction in casual delinquencies and associated costs by enrolling customers in automatic payment plans,
  • Improved customer satisfaction

473% increase in capturing critical contact information

32% increase in autopay enrollment

27% increase in CSAT

Capturing Customer Contact Information to Prevent Fraud

iQor’s custom-designed welcome call programs help lenders acquire critical contact information from new customers. In doing so, we not only help expand the ways our clients reach their customers, but also help verify the loan and identify fraud indicators early on.

Calibrating Automated Payment Plans Reduces Casual Delinquencies

The use of welcome call programs can dramatically reduce the occurrence and associated costs of casual delinquencies. During a welcome call, agents can carefully calibrate monthly loan payments to coordinate with the customer’s pay date, thus ensuring wallet share when funds are available.

Welcome Calls Improve Customer Satisfaction While Reinforcing Brand Values

Early, proactive welcome calls can build customer loyalty, help clear up billing questions, clarify service offerings, and reinforce your company’s brand values.

MedTech Provider Resolves Tech Support Issues

Posted on by Blake Graves

Customer

Medical device and AI company

Industry

Healthcare and MedTech

Services Provided

Customer Care & Technical Support

The Challenge

With over 80,000 systems installed globally across surgical, ophthalmology, and beauty markets, this clinical solutions provider supports thousands of diverse customers and needed a lean team to improve its balance collection processes.

So we worked with the provider to optimize revenue recovery processes, invoicing, and payment collections.

The Solution

iQor provided the training and process improvement needed to retrieve payments and solve answers quickly. Our skilled, friendly agents are focused on strengthening customer relationships and providing mutually beneficial repayment options through a proven process that helps customers avoid falling behind by 60 days. As a result, customers are happier and make payments more quickly, allowing the clinical solutions provider to retrieve revenue faster.

The Results

iQor is the only BPO for this client so they rely heavily on our small but mighty team of six customer support experts and our reliable and accurate AR platform to handle reporting, data entry, billing, cash collection, treatment strategies, and more.

$45M outstanding balance collected per quarter

$1.5M early stage (30 days)
balance collected per quarter

220 presales invoices