2016 Asia-Pacific Stevie Awards Gold Winner – Concentrix

Company: Concentrix, Quezon City, Philippines

Category: Award for Innovation in Customer Service Management, Planning & Practice > Other Service Industries

Entry Title: Concentrix and a Fortune 150 Airline

For a Fortune 150 airline, Concentrix was recently awarded a “Be the Brand Award” for the categories of Best in Class Facility and Outstanding CSAT performance in 2014. In ceremonies in Manila, our client praised the branding in our delivery center. The award signifies that superior CSAT is a vital result area for our client, and the team exceeded their high expectations.

We improved scores in all metrics:

• Customer satisfaction (CSAT), and proficiency scores went up, with improvements from 3% to as high as 9%.
• Customer dissatisfaction (DSAT) and average handle time (AHT) for call duration went down by 2-3%.
• In addition, ticket revenue went up 8% and ancillary revenue went up 4%, for a total revenue increase of 7% per call.
• These results carried out through each of the lines of business (LoB) we handled.

We knew that changing needs in the industry call for continual evolution of processes. Innovative customer service means taking the challenge of re-inventing standard practices. Our process improvements and superior execution delivered improved results and transformed the operations.

We deployed wi-fi on the floor and gave laptops to the supervisors so they could do huddles with agents anywhere, without sacrificing access to the data and materials they needed. This enabled more effective team coaching sessions and empowered team leaders. The team leaders also made the coaching environment friendlier and more informal for the agents, which led to more open and effective coaching.

We used the Percolator Tool to track calls escalated to supervisors. The supervisors tracked the type of calls agents escalated to identify whether the agents could have handled the calls themselves. Data on calls that should have been escalated was used to identify training needs for individual agents and the contact center staff as a whole. The information was then used to develop training modules. We worked closely with client to give our agents greater authority, thus leading to fewer escalations, faster resolution time without escalations and better customer service.

We created unique and creative ways to help our agents understand our client’s product and to identify with the customers. We arranged visits to the airport for all to experience the process customers experience there. For our top agents, we also sent them to the US to experience what international travelers go through. We also created an on-site recreation room for our staff that is designed to resemble one of our client’s airport lounges. These initiatives helped our agents better understand the airline’s journey map as well as align our agents culturally, so they can be the client’s best advocates and representatives.

Clients who visited say that walking the site was like being in one of their own facilities.

More experienced agents provide better customer service. To help retain our agents, we implemented an early warning indicator process to categorize agents by risk of exiting. For those in the high-risk group, we can proactively focus on addressing their issues and concerns before moving them back into the low-risk group.

We also have a unique rewards and recognition program which enabled agents to accumulate points for doing well on key performance indicators such as CSAT, AHT and quality. They could redeem those points (called miles, for obvious reasons) against our client’s branded materials or more expensive items such as Xboxes, HDTVs, washing machines or other rewards. This promoted greater familiarity with the client’s business and resulted in improved performance.

Our attrition levels have seen an overall 25% dip since we implemented these programs, which helped make us the best managed program in the company and amongst all vendors. Our dedication to improving our clients’ customer interaction consistently produces measureable results. Our multi-source model and agent cross-training strategy won us the Customer Contact Innovation Award.