CX Best Practice Award Winner

Transcription

1 CX Best Practice Award Winner for Call Handling Practice Marchon/Altair Eyewear published

2 CX Best Practice Success Story Call Handling Company Description At Marchon, our mission is simple: provide quality eyewear, superior customer service, creative marketing and a collaborative business partnership. Together with our parent company, VSP Global, we re able to bring our products to consumers across the globe, helping people see and giving back to those who need it most. A quarter of a century ago, VSP asked independent optometrists a simple question: How can we better support you? The resounding answer was for help easing the financial risk in eyewear dispensing. Altair was created to reverse this financial burden by providing no-cost board samples, and high-quality brands at affordable prices. Altair has grown from a small operation to one of the top five eyewear manufacturers in the United States. Marchon/Altair Eyewear Contact Center Description Locations Melville, New York, USA Rancho Cordova, California, USA Call Types Orders, inquiries, billing Customer Types Doctors, Office Staff, Sales Representatives, Consumers CSR Headcount 70 CSRs Contact Channels Inbound and Outbound calls; s; chat Hours of Operation Monday to Friday, 8:30am to 8:00pm ET Contact Volume 1,000,000 calls per year

3 Marchon/Altair Eyewear Customer Service Opportunity Statement Marchon/Altair Eyewear is committed to providing an accurate and engaging customer-focused experience. Our philosophy revolves around the Power of Yes and empowering Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) to take the time needed to resolve customer concerns on the first call. More importantly, the performance metrics for CSRs align with this philosophy. You read that correctly, The CSRs are empowered to take the time needed to resolve customer concerns. We have moved away from a focus on Average Handle Time (AHT) and/or Cost per Call (CPC) and shifted to a focus on customer satisfaction (CSAT) and first call resolution (FCR). This practice has led to world class FCR customer experiences. Below is one example of this experience: A CSR received a call from an account on a Thursday and immediately noticed from the caller s tone that something was not right. The account advised the CSR that she was with an elderly patient whose wife had just passed away and was in dire need of glasses by that Saturday for the funeral. The patient had been washing clothes and did not notice that his glasses had fallen into the laundry and were completely ruined. The account had already advised the patient his insurance would not cover the frame. After hearing the patient s story and understanding the urgency of the matter, the CSR took matters into her own hands. The CSR advised the account we would not be able to cover the lenses; however, we would be willing to cover the frame if the account would cover the lenses. The account agreed, and the CSR placed the order for the frame. Additionally, the CSR upgraded the shipping method to Next Day delivery to ensure the frame would be received in time for the funeral. The account and patient were beyond grateful and received the frame in time for the funeral. This is just one example of a CSR taking the time to listen and understand the situation, show empathy, offer help and resolve the issue. Don t you think we earned the business of the account and the customer for life? Ths was truly an exceptional customer experience.

4 Best Practices Used From the outset, Marchon/Altair Eyewear built their customer service department to deliver world class customer service by prioritizing call resolution and customer satisfaction. This is successful because of the following best practices: Power of Yes: CSRs are empowered to resolve customer concerns while on the phone. At the CSRs discretion, they can offer solutions to ensure the customer is completely satisfied and the call is resolved. Seeking approval of their decision is not necessary they are encouraged to make these decisions independent of any additional approvals, and there is no quantity or monetary limit. This instant trust given by leadership generates a tremendous amount of ownership from the CSRs leading to prudent decisions. Often, we find CSRs are more frugal and protective of the company than a Supervisor or Manager may have been, given the same situation. This empowerment and trust start from the top in the first couple of weeks of a CSRs career with Marchon/Altair Eyewear when the Director of Customer Service addresses the training class to introduce the overarching Power of Yes philosophy. Culture: To help support the Power of Yes and our customer first philosophy, you will not find a monitor or big board on the walls of the Marchon/Altair Eyewear Call Centers. CSRs are encouraged to be customer focused and completely engaged during calls. Monitors flashing calls waiting and/or service levels (like the one pictured below) can be distracting and put unnecessary pressure on the CSR to rush the call. This is counterproductive to quality and FCR.

5 When CSRs are rushed, they risk accuracy and engagement. They often give partial information or do not take time to understand the customer s need nor do they take the time to thoroughly explain a more complex issue, which leads to a customers lack of confidence. These behaviors cause callbacks and lead to higher call volume. And don t forget about the customer who is waiting on the phone and finally gets connected to a rushed CSR. This customer s patience has grown thin, only to be greeted abruptly and then rushed off the phone. CSR Support: CSRs are given a lot of trust to ensure a call is resolved. Part of this trust is the expectation they will take time to provide accurate information. We support this philosophy by providing access to a knowledge base and live floor support. The knowledge base is easily accessible and updated regularly providing CSRs with the ability to research product, policies, and procedures during the call. In addition, there is an escalation team available by phone or chat when more complex inquiries arise, the CSR needs confirmation of a policy or process, or there is a request superseding the CSR s skill set. The escalation team is held accountable for aggressive service levels and often readily available. They are encouraged to recognize CSR clues and take the call if deemed necessary or if requested by the CSR to help resolve the call. Additionally, the Supervisors staff a similar queue with similar expectations. When a customer asks to speak to a Supervisor, they will get transferred to a Supervisor. Metrics (FCR vs. AHT): Our most effective practice to ensure we produce quality first and FCR is aligning our metrics with the behaviors we wish to see in our CSRs. Our core metrics are Quality, VOC CSAT, Adherence, and Productivity. CSRs are held accountable for being at the right place at the right time and doing their job when they are scheduled to. Additionally, CSRs are accountable to their quality audit scores measuring accuracy and engagement and meeting SQM World Class CSAT requirements. In fact, 100% of our CSRs who met the minimum survey requirement earned World Class Certification. There are other KPIs involved, and AHT is measured, but AHT is not a core metric included on the CSRs weekly, monthly, or annual evaluations. Supervisors coach to root-cause behaviors affecting AHT rather than AHT itself. We find it contradicting to demand a CSR provide a World Class Customer Experience but must do so in a defined amount of time. As mentioned earlier, CSRs tend to rush calls when focusing specifically on AHT leading to inaccuracies, escalations,

6 and return calls from customers. Instead, we encourage CSRs to take the time needed to get it right the first time. John Wooden said it best, If you don t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over? Allowing CSRs to take the time needed further empowers them to do what is right for the customer. It is another example of deep trust provided to the CSR, and it pays off with a powerful sense of ownership. Our CSRs work to find solutions to resolve calls the first time. A common example of this is our frame loaner program where if the customer requests a frame that is unavailable; the CSR will take time to find and offer the same pair in a different color as a loaner or a similar pair(s) on approval. The frame can be returned once the original back-ordered frame arrives, and any of the on approval frames can be returned for a full credit if they don t meet the customer s needs. Our customers love this because their patient doesn t walk away empty handed and more times than not, the patient ends up buying both pairs when offered a loaner. It is a win-win situation for everyone, including the end-consumer. Summary and Outcome Customers have various ways to contact businesses. If they are choosing to contact us by phone, we can assume the customer prefers live interaction or is contacting you out of necessity because their first preference isn t available. Either way, it is our job to deliver a World Class Customer Experience. Our culture of quality first and FCR helps us deliver that experience and differentiates us from our competitors. Furthermore, the impact of this philosophy is far-reaching and helps Marchon/Altair Eyewear beyond delivering excellent CSAT and FCR scores. It retains customers and provides CSRs a great sense of ownership, creativity, and trust because they are measured on the overall experience of the interaction, not the length of it. Our success is evident in our yearover-year results. One of our greatest challenges is maintaining the high-performance results year-over-year, and this year we faced an obstacle that was perceived to be insurmountable. In February 2017, we learned our Canada office would be relocating to the US at the beginning of April. We lost many skilled leaders and CSRs. The loss of talent and dip in morale was astounding, and you would think it would have led to a significant decrease in performance, but our Overall YTD FCR held strong at 91% -- just 1% lower than the prior year. This speaks to the resilience of our quality first philosophy.

7 Results: 2015 Overall FCR: 90% 2016 Overall FCR: 92% 2017 Overall FCR: 91% Ancillary impacts we have experienced include a drop in total call volume and decreased escalation calls even though our business continues to grow. Results: Call Volume Escalations 2015 vs % % 2016 vs % % Overall, focusing on delivering a high-quality, FCR customer experience outweighs the expense you may incur with the slight lift in AHT.