Category: Case Studies

The client’s inbound right party contacts increased by 180%

The Challenge

As the fastest-growing credit card issuer in the U.S., our client faces the delicate challenge of reaching out to thousands of customers a day to recover revenue and retain business. But as more and more U.S. households ditched landline phones, it became challenging for the issuer to contact them at the right time on the right number. This caused the issuer to run into a high number of invalid contacts and increased risk with automated outbound dialing.

The Solution

iQor called in our data analytics team to examine the issuer’s accounts and offset the difficulties of outbound dialing with enhanced compliance and inbound contacts. For example, the issuer was executing a high volume of calls on Tuesdays at 4:00 PM, but this was when its right party contact rate was at its lowest. Not only that, our team discovered that after four outbound attempts, the issuer’s return rate significantly dropped. We also found that agents weren’t leaving voicemail messages so customers had no way of being informed of their account status or how to return the call.

iQor worked with the issuer to adjust the dialing campaign to call at the best performing times, which improved contact rates. We also applied a voicemail message at the end of the fourth outbound attempt, which put a voice to that pesky ringtone and gave customers a chance to prepare for the request. When the customer was ready to talk, we routed them to our higher performing agents to ensure they received the best service possible and the best-fitting option for repayment

Goals Met

• Limited outbound attempts to increase compliance
• Targeted use of high-performing agents for better customer experience
• Increased inbound contacts to recover more revenue

The Results

Our dialer optimization strategy saved the issuer thousands from wasted calls. By changing the number of dials per day and launching the voicemail scripting, the issuer’s inbound RPCs increased by 180%, all while remaining within regulatory compliance. And when we began routing inbound calls to agents with a history of high performance and conversion rates, the issuer’s roll rate improved by 2%, meaning more revenue was collected monthly.

More About Our Amazing Data Analysts

Outbound calling without reaching RPCs comes at a high cost and produces a large amount of waste in resources, time, and energy. Our client needed a strategy that could target low-performing segments but didn’t know how to find the root cause.

Our data analysis discovered low-performance attributes by using machine learning to assign dialer groups into three different clusters. This showed how successful or not successful agents were at reaching their segments. We used common customer and account qualities across the program including, Risk Level, Credit Limit, Balance, Payment, Over Credit Limit Amount, Number of Cycles Delinquent, Last Amount Paid, and Collectable Balance. The cluster analysis exposed similar customer behaviors with 99.9% accuracy in which our data analysts studied and used to form the customized dialing solutions.

We applied our new strategy to the accounts that fell within the 60 Days Past Due and Multiple Account Holders segments, which had a 0.6% successful right party contact rate. The dialer treatment improved these low-performing accounts by limiting outbound attempts, driving inbound volume with personalized voicemail messages, and routing calls to high-performing agents.

The Client

This leading American home warranty company provides peace of mind to homeowners by safeguarding them against costly and unforeseen home repairs. 

The client was experiencing 15,000 cancellations per week with an absolute 0% save rate.

They needed a way to stop it — fast.

The Challenge

Millions of customers were satisfied with their home warranty services, yet many assumed they needed to cancel their contracts upon moving homes, not realizing the services were transferable. This misconception, combined with other preventable cancellations led to significant revenue loss. The warranty provider lacked access to crucial data to understand the rate and distribution of cancellations within their customer service interactions. Without speech analytics intel illuminating the patterns and reasons behind these cancellations, they did not know when or where to intervene or how to train agents to intervene successfully.

The Solution

iQor’s proprietary advanced speech analytics platform VALDI, precisely tuned to track and analyze cancellation trends, confirmed the provider’s concerns. Speech analytics data indicated the provider was dealing with roughly 15,000 cancellations a week with an absolute 0% save rate. Their rebuttal rate (when the agent provides reasons or incentives for the customer to stay with the company) was 18% and lower. The provider was eager to glean more insights. 

A Subscription Services Strategy 

Integrating our subscription services strategy, iQor identified key customer touchpoints for intervention. Through call listening and data validation, our team optimized speech analytics to pinpoint cancellations that presented the best opportunities for effective rebuttals and customer retention. 

This analysis allowed us to transform the 15,000 weekly cancellations into 5,000 actionable opportunities each week.

Through defined queries, our team uncovered the main reasons for cancellation requests, such as relocation or property sales, providing a targeted approach for retention efforts. 

Collaboration Led to Success 

Empowered with data, the next step included a strong collaboration between the warranty provider and iQor to craft tailored incentives and rebuttal scripts, initially piloted on select teams. The strategy also included intelligent coaching and specialized training to accelerate customer lifetime value by enhancing agent capabilities to engage and retain customers effectively.  

We also established an outbound retention team, further solidifying our comprehensive approach to customer retention and ensuring continued data analysis to inform future success.

Results

Implementing these strategies saw immediate and significant improvements, with more customers staying on each week. Rebuttal rates skyrocketed from 18% to over 90% in only four weeks. The integration of targeted subscription service strategies, alongside our speech analytics, led to a consistent increase in customer saves, boosting the warranty provider’s bottom line. 

Impressed by the results, the client expanded our partnership across all internal and vendor partner call centers, saving more customers and generating more revenue.

This case study highlights the power of iQor’s real-time speech analytics capabilities and underscores the effectiveness of our subscription services strategy in transforming customer interactions into lasting relationships.