Customer Service

Services Revenue Increases by 70%

Situation:

A $200 million software company hired a new vice president of customer service to manage a 700-person customer service department that had been without significant leadership or strategic direction for more than a year. The new executive was faced with a need to build morale and a goal of increasing services revenues by 50% within 18 months.

Challenges:

The new VP knew that in order to increase revenue, he must first increase the quality of customer service his employees were providing to existing customers. Existing customers who are impressed with the service they receive are not only more likely to purchase additional products and services, but can also be depended upon to refer others to the company. Unfortunately, without senior management over the past year, staff training had fallen to a minimal level and employees had lost their customer focus. This resulted in mediocre productivity and average customer service.

Solution:

Loyalty Factor was brought in to determine the core issues impacting productivity and employee morale. Loyalty Factor held focus groups and interviews with employees across the US as well as executives and employees from other departments to obtain a full understanding of the present level of pride and commitment within the organization, the strengths of the organization and the primary areas needing improvement. From these interviews Loyalty Factor developed a comprehensive report highlighting their findings and outlining recommendations for the future. Management prioritized these recommendations and a number of employee-based teams were created to address the areas needing improvement.

One of the recommendations springing from these team initiatives was to implement customer service training for all employees within the organization. Loyalty Factor designed training programs to meet the respective needs of each segment within the customer service organization, Professional Services, Applications Engineering, Technical Support and Field Services. While these programs were customized to reflect the particular situations encountered by employees within each segment, the programs all shared core philosophies and themes, providing everyone within the organization with a common language and a shared experience. Individuals attending the training gained a clear understanding of their role and responsibility in keeping the existing client base well served and loyal. The process both helped them understand how they could make a difference in the profitability and growth of the company, and gave them the skills and tools to do so.

Results:

Within six months of implementing Loyalty Factor's customer service training, customer satisfaction increased from 3.4 to 4.0 on a 1-to-5 scale. The VP continued to invest in Loyalty Factor's customer service and management training for the entire Customer Service organization. Services revenue grew from 30% to 50% of overall corporate revenues.