Call Center
Success Stories
Become Your Own “Wildly Successful” Customer Success Story!
Our clients have had many great success stories, employing the tools and training we have provided. If you would like to create a success story, give us a call today – 954-729-2160. We can discuss your specific goals and challenges, and propose a plan of action for you.
31% to 70%
Doubled Conversion on Home Delivery Product while also Increasing “Script Count”
Express Scripts
At the start, phone calls had a very low conversion of 31% to the Home Delivery product.
Express Scripts leadership hoped to increase its conversion and increase its “script count,” the average number of prescriptions sent per member contact.
Unique Challenge
- The ES agents (Advisors) already felt like they were doing a good job. They did not want to feel pushy
- The floor management team had never been considered a strength of the center
- CCTS saw the big opportunity in helping Advisors to realize that, if they “boldly” presented Home Delivery in a very positive light, members would see it as a great decision.
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
CCTS created a new service/sales blended program called The Member Connection Workshop.
- Training’s Big Idea: Dramatically improve connections with members on calls. Discuss members’ opinions and boldly suggest Home Delivery, citing its many values and world-class safety record.
- A Power Hour schedule was implemented for all supervisors.
End Results
Over a six-month period, conversion soared from 31% to 70%. In addition, script count increased exponentially, all of which resulted in millions of dollars in revenue increases to the organization (and happier members). Two years later, conversion and script count increases had been maintained due to the floor management team’s commitment to the Power Hour.
900%
900% Increase in Appointments Set and Substantial “Care Gap” Reduction
Buckeye Health Plan (Centene Insurance)
Buckeye Health Plan, part of Centene Insurance, is an Ohio-based Medicaid/Medicare health insurance provider, with a 150-seat member service center.
Buckeye leadership had created an outbound calling team, expecting to improve the company’s overall quality scores. Having a dedicated outreach team was one big way to show Buckeye’s care for its members, checking in with them, making sure they are doing well, and setting up appointments where needed. Missing required visits causes a “Care Gap,” which reflects badly on the provider. The goal for the CCTS training was to increase the amount of appointments set by the team, thereby reducing Care Gaps and increasing quality scores.
Unique Challenge
Although the agents (Advisors) were happy to offer appointments, they were having a difficult time connecting with the member and few said “Yes” to the offered appointment.
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
CCTS pulled skills from its Telephone Sales Mastery Outbound and Superior Service courses to create an outbound course for the Advisors, called “The Member Connection: Proactive Service“ workshop.
- Training’s Big Idea: Embrace and “love on” Members, building trust, so they will let you help them take care of their health care issues and improve their health as a result.
- The big focus shifted from the appointment to the member’s health. Taking the appointment generally meant taking care of their health.
- The CCTS instructor, along with the team’s supervisor, provided live floor-coaching.
End Results
Prior to the training, the Outbound team’s best month ever for appointments was 26. In the first month after the training, the same group of Advisors set 230 appointments. For at least eight months, they have been able to achieve similar results. Appreciative members now welcome the Advisor’s suggestion to set the appointment (and eliminate the Care Gap).
Tripled
Sales Results Tripled (and more) and Sustained for 18 months +
“The guidance and knowledge provided by CCTS has transformed our sales people into a powerful, passionate team! Our sales have increased by over 300% in the last six months!”
Christy Mullins | Platinum Fundraising
Platinum Fundraising
Platinum Fundraising sells its highly successful fundraising program to schools and non-profit organizations. Clients generally do far better with Platinum’s fundraising solution than all other options they try. When we met Christy and Tony, the owners, they had recently formed an outbound call center.
There were three reps and one fairly new sales manager. The outbound center’s sales people averaged three sales per week. The goal was to at least double sales and sustain it.
Unique Challenge
- The most unique challenge was the lack of coaching and management structure.
- The sales people approached calls with somewhat of a “cheerleader” mentality.
- Missing was the boldness and strong emphasis a sales person’s voice needs.
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
- Training’s Big Idea: Make sure your own “personal amazing” is coming across on every call.
- The first course trained at Platinum was Call Center Floor Management for the small leadership team.
- The implementation of a more effective coaching strategy, both one-on-one and spontaneous floor-coaching, started the following week.
- Throughout the month, multiple one-two hour training sessions were conducted by CCTS for the reps on selling, voice control, boldness, etc.
- For over a year, CCTS continued to provide as-needed coaching and training for reps and leaders.
End Results
Platinum sales increased dramatically. They were able to hire and grow the rep team to a total of about ten reps. Sales per week quota grew from the original three sales to nine. Most sales people regularly hit this goal. Some of the stronger reps were able to achieve 20-30 sales per week. The best part is the level of confidence heard in these strong, effective (but still sweet, friendly and caring) sales reps.
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Sprint
Over $1.4 billion
Four-Year Doubling of Sales Revenue Across 25+ Call Centers
Sprint is a telecom company that provides telecom, wireless and TV products to consumers from 25+ call centers. Sprint’s goal was to grow revenue through this inbound channel, create consistent (and higher) results, and reduce employee attrition.
Unique Challenge
- Cross-selling was encouraged but not effectively managed at most centers.
- Senior call center leaders were concerned that cross-selling would reduce quality scores (the misconception that selling attempts offend most customers).
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
CCTS built a fully-customized, service-to-sales version of its programs, calling it “Directional Selling.” Improving the supervisors’ coaching presence on the center floor was also a critical element.
- Training’s Big Idea: Cross-selling provides the complete customer experience because we are improving customer satisfaction for the long-term.
- The CCTS team certified trainers at each site
- Senior leadership established and managed a “Power Hour” for every supervisor.
- Live coaching was new to the sites. Supervisors embraced it.
End Results
When the initiative started, the IB service organization was posting $700 million in annual sales. Four years later, sales eclipsed $1.4 billion. The company’s employee attrition decreased and employee satisfaction increased. Many of the reps claimed the biggest positive change was the new approach to consistent, daily floor-coaching. They felt like part of the success.
Nautilus Fitness
220%
Customer “Kudos” increased by 220% while Escalations Decreased by 40%
Nautilus builds home fitness machines. The company established a repair center to help customers trouble shoot and repair their machines. Despite the fact that the center hired great staff, their overall call quality scores were too low.
Unique Challenge
- Calls were often long. Customers would become frustrated. Repair agents would not always know how to keep customers happy, sometimes after having spent 60 or 90 minutes with them.
- Most reps did not come from a similar environment. They were not used to the challenge of sounding encouraging and keeping clients engaged while multiple troubleshooting attempts do not fix the problem.
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
Training’s Big Idea: Sound welcoming, understanding and, above all, encouraging and positive, regardless of how long a call may take. Have the attitude, “We will figure this out together.”
- CCTS built a customized version of its Superior Service program, focused on repair.
- Rather than use a Power Hour, leaders agreed to listen to calls from their station and then call the rep over for coaching.
End Results
Most of the Repair reps embraced the training. They became much more proactive in trying to solve the customer’s issues. Customers responded extremely well to this new level of attention and care.
Calls escalating to management decreased by 40%. Customer “Kudos” (a customer calling out an employee for excellence) increased by 220%. Reps who were designated as “Superstars” (employees calling out other employees for excellence) more than doubled.
Marriott Federal Credit Union
10%-20%
10%-20% Increases in Multiple Product Sales as a Result of Improving the Customer Connection
The Marriott Federal Credit Union answered service calls from Marriott’s employee base. Management wanted the agents to complete the service request effectively and then offer employees an extra banking product (e.g. a savings account, money market, credit card, etc.).
Unique Challenge
When CCTS interviewed the agents, each one stated that these calls were very difficult. “The callers are all mean to us if we offer them any additional products,” was the common sentiment
- Callers just wanted to have their request completed and end the call.
- The absence of a connection with the agent made it easy to object about other offers and terminate their calls.
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
- Training’s Big Idea: Verbally welcome your fellow employees onto the call. They will thank you with engagement and respect (and some smiles). Then you can learn about them and their life experiences, and offer them the right additional financial products.
- CCTS built a customized service-to-sales program, combining skills from its Superior Service and Telephone Sales Mastery courses.
End Results
Connecting with the caller and cross-selling attempts increased right away. Sales of all banking products increased by 10%-20% as a result. On a follow-up call one month after the training, the agents were asked, “What are the callers like now?” The agents started explaining that the callers “have become so much nicer.” None of the agents was sure why the change occurred. We had to laugh. The only thing that changed was the agents, for the better. We had to convince the agents that they were the reason for the center’s success. Bravo!
Amazon
15%
AHT Reduction of 15% while Positive Response Rate Increased by 5%
Amazon has multiple, global centers that communicate with sellers. Amazon wanted to increase its PSS (Positive Response Rate) while decreasing its AHT (Average Handle Time). CCTS was invited to train the supervisor teams in Call Center Floor Management at the North Dakota and Slovakia sites.
Unique Challenge
- Most of the supervisors had come from the floor and were fairly new as leaders.
- No floor-coaching of any kind existed at either site
- Many other initiatives were going on at the same time and the focus on floor management skills might be limited.
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
- Training’s Big Idea: Proactive floor-coaching is an investment in your people that will prevent most of the issues which presently cause you to spend most of your day in a problem-solving role.
- Implementation of the Power Hour occurred within a week of the training.
- CCTS provided follow-up support through weekly and then monthly phone meetings.
End Results
Despite only training the supervisors and not rebuilding the agents’ phone skills training, all metrics increased far more than through any other initiative.
- Average Handle Time decreased by 15% average between both sites.
- Positive Response Rate increased by 5%.
- First-Call Resolution increased by 6%.
- Expressed Dissatisfaction Rate decreased by 4%.
Amazon met their objectives. The supervisors were able to spend enough time proactively floor-coaching that they changed the culture and became a big reason for those sites’ continued success.
West Marine
15%
Sales and Average Order Value Increases of 15%
West Marine operated an inbound sales center. This included about 100 sales people who took sales calls and provided service for existing customers. Sales people were supposed to sell, but most did classic “order taking” only.
Unique Challenge
The biggest challenge was the generally low expectations of sales performance. Although the leadership team had some veteran Supervisors, many sales people were regularly missing sales targets.
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
The great opportunity was to more effectively connect with the caller. The focus of the training would be for the reps to get to know the customers, why they boated, what they needed and then present a cross-sell product.
- Training’s Big Idea: Talk “boating.” Think about the obvious products of interest and suggest one.
- CCTS built a fully-customized version of its Telephone Sales Mastery Inbound program.
- CCTS also delivered Call Center Floor Management for all front line staff.
- A Power Hour was implemented by senior leadership (Power Hour video).
- Many agents had immediate success, both in cross-selling and closing more business.
End Results
Through a four-month training initiative, the center increased Sales Per Hour by 15% and its Average Order Value by 15%, resulting in a significant increase in revenue to the organization, plus happier, more well-equipped customers. The training proved that the sales people were much more capable than they realized. As a result of the floor-coaching hour, results were sustained long-term.
A Rapid Response is Waiting
Contact Call Center Training Solutions
Do you have a specific need or challenge that you would like help with? Please share that information with us and we will respond quickly.
