Sixteenth Annual MVP (Marketing Via Phone) Quality Award Winners

This is the sixteenth year Customer Interaction Solutions magazine has brought you the winners of its MVP (Marketing Via Phone) Quality Awards. In the ensuing years since we introduced the awards in 1993, we have been impressed by the growing sophistication of the quality measures that have been introduced to the contact center by the leading-edge companies that apply for our MVP Quality Award. Over the years, we have seen new technologies adopted and the standards for a quality interaction refined and improved. Each of the following companies has demonstrated, through its MVP Quality Awards application, a true commitment to high ethical standards, stringent policies and challenging goals.

On a 16-point essay, entrants described a specific teleservices program and its results, and explained their overall policies and procedures, including human resources, technologies, customer services, ergonomics and public image that are used to establish, sustain and measure the program’s quality. We’ve shared some of the most compelling items on the winners’ application essays with readers. Congratulations to all of the winners.

– The Editors

GOLD AWARD WINNERS

APAC Customer Services, Inc. b-to-b and b-to-c inbound Bannockburn, ILwww.apaccustomerservices.com

Q. State your policies on quality and your company’s philosophy/motto on quality. A. At the heart of all APAC’s quality programs is a cultural commitment to continuous improvement that is evident within all levels of the organization. Our quality mission is to be recognized as the industry leader in progressive quality solutions and valued by our clients as critical business partners delivering excellence in customer service and innovative, insightful market intelligence.

Cross Country Automotive Services b-to-b and b-to-c integrated inbound/outbound Medford, MA www.crosscountry-auto.com

Q. What do you do for customers that gives them the impression of quality and high ethical standards? A. Cross Country Automotive Services (CCAS) is a metrics driven organization. We measure every key aspect of service delivery and drive for continuous improvements in quality and cost. As the touch point to the customer, the performance of our CSRs is a key to customer satisfaction. When hiring CSRs, CCAS utilizes a competency-based selection and structured interview process to determine which applicants are most qualified. Competencies are the sun total of the required knowledge, skills abilities, and experience to perform the job. The competencies were identified specifically for CCAS by the HayGroup, HR consultants specializing in talent acquisition.

InfoCision Management Corp. b-to-c integrated inbound/outbound Akron, OH
www.infocision.com

Q. What do you do to demonstrate you commitment to staff quality? A. InfoCision demonstrates its commitment to quality in all of its daily operations. Perhaps the best evidence of our commitment to quality, however, is our Communicator training and development cycle. Our Communicators are the core of every successful program we provide for our clients; therefore we offer numerous, extensive opportunities for their professional development. InfoCision recruits, trains and tests Communicators based on the types of clients they will serve. In addition, dedicated QA trainers provide all management staff with the same training Communicators undergo. They also train the Communicators and QA staffs to ensure that quality is held paramount during the training process. Our account, operations and QA staffs stay inconstant contact with each other during this process, in accord with our commitment to quality.

SILVER AWARD WINNERS

eTelecare (News - Alert) Global Solutions b-to-c integrated inbound/outbound Scottsdale, AZ www.etelecare.com

Q. State your policies on quality and your company’s philosophy/motto on quality. A. eGS has become a leading international provider of high-quality call center services through our strategy of “Invest to Outperform,” which focuses on making the right investments to ensure we outperform all other outsourcers used by our clients, regardless of geography. Quality is a significant element of this strategy, helping us deliver superior service that reduces costs by cutting average handle times, increasing first-call resolutions and improving customer satisfaction.

Hamilton Contact Center Services b-to-c inbound Aurora, NE
www.hamiltontm.com

Q. What elements make it easy to do business with your firm? A. One of the distinguishing features of our company is our direct affiliation with sister companies in the telecommunications and computer industries. This relationship gives us a distinct advantage on terms of technology, flexibility, and responsiveness and gives us the ability to respond to unique program needs quickly and easily. We have the necessary resources to modify systems and programs, develop or secure the development of new technology, and implement new programs in order to satisfy client needs.

NCO Customer Management, Inc. b-to-c integrated inbound/outbound Horsham, PA
www.ncogroup.com

Q. How do you ensure a consistent message of quality across various contact channels? A. NCO’s commitment to quality and focus on consistency in our training programs is maintained through internal meetings and training sessions for evaluations. NCO evaluates the effectiveness of our training programs by directly tying the training process to our quality assurance initiatives. The training program instructs agents on topics they will be graded on through the quality assurance program. Similarly, the quality assurance program helps NCO gauge the effectiveness of our training programs. All training programs and quality metrics are approved by our clients.

NOVO 1 b-to-b outbound Laurel, MD
www.novo1.com

Q. How do you handle complaints from your clients’ customers? A. When communications involve complaints, reps assigned to handle them are trained to rectify surface level issues. However if the issue escalates, the call is routed to a well-versed supervisor. Supervisors may consult customer records or review taped conversations of the sale and verification to arrive at an understanding of the problem. If the supervisor is unable to resolve the matter or provide the customer with complete satisfaction, the call is documented and referred to the Client Service Principal for resolution with the customer and subsequent feedback to the client.

Synergy (News - Alert) Solutions b-to-c inbound Phoenix, AZ
www.synergysolutionsinc.com

Q. What are your monitoring practices? A. Monitoring is conducted by Quality Coaches, Supervisors, Account Managers, Center and Senior Management. We conduct weekly, live, listening sessions with the client and we conduct live sessions with our internal team. Each CCR is monitored on a daily basis and will have two completed monitoring forms each week. Each completed monitoring form consists of the monitoring of three complete presentations. The call monitoring critique form is customized per each client and completed by a Quality Coach. Quality Coaches schedule feedback sessions daily with the CCRs. Calls may be digitally recorded for further review.

BRONZE AWARD WINNERS

ACCENT Marketing Services, LLC b-to-c inbound Jeffersonville, IN
www.accentonline.com

Q. How do you measure customer satisfaction? A. ACCENT recommends to all clients the use of a third-party customer satisfaction survey provider to measure customer satisfaction. The independent provider contacts customers within 24 hours of a customer care interaction. CSR (News - Alert)-level scoring and verbatim customer comments are provided back to ACCENT for deep dive and root cause analysis. ACCENT also gathers customer feedback through self-assessment surveys, which are provided to customers via email or IVR upon completion of a customer care interaction.

Aegis BPO Service Limited b-to-c inbound Irving, TX/Mumbai, India
www.aegiscomgroup.com

Q. Describe all efforts to promote the quality image of teleservices to the public. A. Aegis believes that the End Users who interact with us are our biggest advertisement. We believe that each interaction with an End User is an opportunity for us to add another promoter of our clients brand, our brand and our services. In pursuit of 100% reference-able interactions, Aegis has invested in sufficient staff so that customers experience an ease of access; recruited best in class personnel with the Right Aptitude, Attitude, Knowledge and Skills; instituted a four-week long intensive training program that prepares employees in the fine art of customer service; and defined processes with an accent towards customer sensitivity and courtesy.

The Connection b-to-c integrated inbound/outbound Burnsville, MD
www.the-connection.com

Q. What is special or unique about your staff that contributes to quality? A. At The Connection, we have unique values and ideas regarding our staff that greatly contributes to our overall quality. We strongly believe in service values and employee-focused cultures that can often be found in rural communities. Another unique attribute of our staff is our Bilingual capability, which allows us the opportunity to provide a significant level of Spanish-language support to our clients. We have Team Supervisors and Supervisors fluent in Spanish who evaluate CSRs in their own language.

Intelenet Global Services b-to-c inbound and outbound Mumbai, India
www.intelenetglobal.com

Q. Explain how quality has evolved in your contact center, how it is measured. A. Since its inception in 2000, Intelenet has always remained dedicated to its vision of ‘quality through continuous process improvements’. Intelenet embraced COPC (News - Alert) as a strategic initiative in early 2003 and since then it has grown to become the minimum capability that any of our processes need to deliver to. In January 2006, Intelenet became the first company in the world to achieve COPC version 4.0 Gold Standard Certification. In 2007, our processes were re-certified and now cover over 1,300 people making it one of the largest entities to be certified in version 4.0.

TELUS (News - Alert) International b-to-c inbound Singapore
www.telus.com

Q. How do you handle complaints from your client’s customers? A. We view customer complaints as an important issue and key area of improvement for us. In the event of any customer complaints, depending on the severity of the issue/cascading effects it might have, we initiate Six Sigma projects to address the same. By doing so, we systematically dissect the problem, identify the root causes, address them effectively and put in a sustainable/preventive mechanism in place.

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