A multinational financial institution’s service agents had become complacent and were failing to connect with customers and understand their deeper, underlying needs. They needed to transform the culture of the contact center into a performance and solution-based approach.
A three-pronged approach to capability building and shifting mind-sets, with McKinsey acting in a “train the trainer” capacity, included the following:
- Twice-weekly targeted huddles: two 30-minute, highly interactive sessions where agents were trained as a team across each area of the call flow
- Twice-weekly targeted coaching: two 15-minute sessions where agents were coached on their performance on a specific portion of the call flow covered that week
- Visual performance management: a tracking board with each agent’s top three to four metrics displayed and celebrated at the beginning of each team meeting
The program was able to show a sustained, positive impact across three key dimensions of improved customer experience (more than 60 percent increase in solutions per 100 calls and a 45 percent improvement in its net promoter score); a $30 million net annual variable contribution to the organization; and over 80 percent of agents demonstrating an improvement against key performance indicators.