Executive Summary

Finding their current outsourced partner was unable to meet increased demand due to growth and seasonal fluctuations in call volume, this major retailer partners with Malone to handle their highest value customers.

• Malone ramped up 100 agents in three months to launch, then provided an additional 100 for the Q4 ramp up.
• Malone provided high quality American agents that were highly educated, stable, and possessed accent-neutral dialects.
• Malone revamped the client’s training and quality assurance programs to bring in best practices and better prepare the agents for success.
• Malone provided seamless ramp ups and ramp downs for minor and major seasonal fluctuation in customer contact volume, including: inbound calls, email response, and social media response.
• Client service levels increased from 60% to 85%.

The Client

Malone’s client is a $12 billion retailer and grocer with a passion for providing exceptional service to their guests. If you live in the Midwest, you’ve probably shopped at this major grocery chain and retailer; they have around 250 stores in eight states. They provide amazing loyalty benefits to their highest value customers.

The Challenge

The client sought a contact center partner that could provide Midwestern agents that were always nice.  They were eager to partner with a firm that could recruit, train, and manage a strong workforce while handling multiple seasonal ramp ups and ramp downs throughout the year, and have the guests always receive exceptional service regardless of communication channel.   

This retailer met with Malone to discuss their challenges, and Malone was able to create a customized approach that brought in midwestern agents that understood the brand and could provide passion towards service for this beloved retailer.

The Approach

Malone customized team-based process delivered immediate results.

Malone worked with our client to create a comprehensive implementation plan that included revamping all training materials and operational processes to bring in industry best practices for operations, training, and quality assurance.  

Malone created a personality profile for a successful agent; we then utilized recruiting resources in four states to attract top talent to support the program.  All candidates were subject to a statistically validated screening process that allowed Malone to bring on the best agents in the market.

Malone assigned an onsite client service manager at the client corporate headquarters to ensure we were part of organizational planning and to enhance communication between various departments and our operations teams.

The Results

Team-based service plus daily communication were the key.

After working through a robust implementation plan, Malone ramped up the original 100 agents in eight weeks, went live, and produced the following results:

• Malone improved service levels from under 60% to 90%.  
• Average talk time was over 12 minutes with the previous vendor; when Malone took over we brought the average handle time to eight minutes in under six months.
• Quality Assurance scores (calibrated and confirmed by client) were running close to 80% with the previous vendor. Malone was able to bring the quality to over 90% within the first year.
• The Malone team worked with the client leadership, marketing, and communications teams to create planning that ensured agent levels were adjusted for both micro-seasonality as well as major seasonality fluctuations. Service levels have remained between 80-85% for the past 12 months with no weeks falling below 80%.
• Malone improved social media response time from over 24 hours to under one business hour.
• Malone improved email response from over 24 hours to under four business hours.