Leading telecom improves customer service using the Optymyze unified, no-code platform
One automated compensation management system
One single source of truth for accurate compensation figures
Increased customer satisfaction and reduced call and hold times
Situation
One of the largest telecom companies in the United States, with around 5 million subscribers, is looking to increase its market share.
Customer satisfaction is a factor in the company’s growth strategy. A high customer satisfaction score helps retain existing subscribers, so the company’s customer service department aimed to consistently deliver a satisfactory experience. There is a high degree of customer churn in the telecom industry as consumers have many options and switching carriers is easy. Thus, good customer service goes a long way toward retaining customers.
Challenges
Organizations have many plans and processes in place to continuously improve customer service. It is important to measure the improvement accurately, and incent and reward the teams, customer service agents, and managers who contribute towards the positive result.
The biggest challenge that this organization faced was establishing the right processes to deliver the desired results. They wanted to improve three key performance metrics of customer service:
- Rate of contract cancellation by existing customers;
- Customer query resolution time; and
- Overall customer satisfaction scores.
There were almost ten different systems to manage various business activities such as payroll, agent performance tracking, and coaching. The incentive compensation process was managed through spreadsheets and a basic compensation system. The output of all the systems and processes had to be then combined to reach the final figures. The process was inefficient, time-consuming, and did not make use of all available data.
This telecom leader needed a system to manage compensation and incentive plans for their customer service department and to offer insights towards consistent performance improvement.
Solution
To address all of the challenges above, they used the Optymyze unified, no-code platform to implement a comprehensive incentive and compensation management system. The new model includes several improvements:
- Key customer service metrics identified and tracked to build an aggregate score;
- Incentive compensation directly linked to the score; and
- Data analytics offering insight into trends, scores, and coaching needs.
The metrics include data for parameters like call length, call hold length, customer ratings of their support calls, and more. With the Optymyze no-code platform for data analytic, planning, and business automation it is easy to track these parameters and compare and correlate with other members of the team. Team managers are now able to identify their agents’ performance concerns and work with them directly to address any issues.
Outcomes
The customer service group looked to achieve three key outcomes from implementing the Optymyze solution:
- Get one integrated compensation management system. All the intermediate data is now fed into one system to get accurate compensation figures automatically. The system is also used to deliver payouts to all 1,700 employees within the group.
- Incent and reward desired behavior to drive customer satisfaction. Since the implementation, the system has proved successful in driving desired behaviors, as is reflected in increased customer satisfaction levels and reduced call and hold times. The positive impact on agent behavior is also attributed in part to the increased transparency of the evaluation process. All team members are evaluated on the same level, using a specific set of metrics.
- Develop and implement a flexible compensation model. With an automated and integrated compensation system, it is easy to quickly change parts of the incentive plans according to changing market needs. Once identified, managers only need to adjust one part of the plan, and it is automatically implemented throughout the system.
As a result, the quality of customer service has improved significantly, and the customer experience is more consistent. Agents are now motivated to focus on specific activities that enhance service levels, because those activities are tied directly to their incentive pay. The improved system and process also make it easy to track and drive agents’ performance.