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Case Study: Communication Services
This Fortune 500 global digital network provider relies on Working Solutions
to supply the best possible customer service to their customers 24/7 via the web,
live chat and live technical support.
The Challenge
A Fortune 500 global digital network provider seeks to
differentiate themselves within a competitive industry
by offering their customers best-in-class technical
support and customer service.
The competitive nature of this industry requires a large
number of qualified technical support specialists to be
available at all times to achieve this standard. While
management recognized the need to add headcount,
the company nevertheless needed to cut costs.
The client has previously used a combination of
traditional onshore and offshore brick-and-mortar call
centers to supplement their in-house staff. While the
offshored facilities offered cost reductions, the company
realized that some tech support transactions are better
handled and result in better return on investment
when handled by native English speakers for their
domestic markets. Furthermore, they needed access to
support specialists who were experienced in offering
technical assistance to customers and who possessed
both technical acumen and savvy customer service
relationship skills.
Meeting this need while simultaneously cutting costs
would require a new approach. Having researched the
home-based agent model provided by remote call center
expert Working Solutions, the client was eager to test
the model to evaluate whether an alternative delivery
would meet their standard for quality customer service
and tech support. They already knew the flexibility and
cost reduction they sought were intrinsic to the model.
The Solution
The level of
customer service
provided by Working
Solutions is much
higher than our normal
average. The agents
are more mature and
Working Solutions’
ability to pull from
a very large pool of
agents across the
country enables them
to find exactly the right
agents for us.
Senior Executive
The industry experienced project leaders at Working
Solutions immediately began filtering through their
database of more than 76,000 available
Agents OnDemand
for specialists meeting the client’s defined criteria. The
Working Solutions team knew the client needed highly
qualified sales and tech support specialists with in-depth
industry knowledge and experience to seamlessly augment
their in-house center. The project leaders worked diligently
to screen and select a large group of specialists who were
highly skilled and motivated to provide quality service.
At the same time, Working Solutions’ curriculum developers,
made up of professional educators – several of whom
hold advanced degrees in curriculum development – were
preparing a
comprehensive, web-based interactive training
program tailored to the client’s specifications. The group
of specialists was then broken into smaller groups in order
to increase the leader-to-agent ratio, and completed the
intensive online preparation process developed by the
curriculum team. Primed and ready to support the client,
these specialists were:
- Highly qualified tech support agents able to complete
customer requests quickly and effectively, resulting in
improved SLAs and increased customer loyalty
- Prepared to work across multiple databases and across
multiple knowledge bases simultaneously
- Able to provide quality service seemless with that of the
client’s in-house agents
The Result
Working Solutions supplied the global digital network provider
with a pool of 300 Agents OnDemand for customer service
and technical support. The knowledge and professionalism of
these technical support specialists has resolved all concerns
regarding the home-based agent model, which included issues
of accountability and control over productivity and quality.
Not only did Working Solutions’ Agents OnDemand fill the
company’s need for additional agents at a lower cost, but the
Working Solutions’ Agents OnDemand were able to provide
additional savings by reducing adjustments-per-call-per-agent
to $.02 - $.04 per call, down from the $.45 average
adjustment their in-house counterparts were posting.
This small statistical improvement alone resulted in a
savings of more than 90% for the company.
Today the digital network provider continues to rely on
Working Solutions to not only meet their day-to-day needs,
but also to provide flexible scheduling options as their
business needs expand and contract. Working Solutions’
ability to supply additional qualified agents on short notice
enables them to provide superior customer care, with shorter
wait times – contributing to stronger customer loyalty, and
cutting customer attrition.