Having established a good working relationship with Firstsource, the client decided to outsource its inbound customer services during the peak call hours. Firstsource now handles just under 40% of the client’s call volumes and not only undertakes voice based customer services but also a significant amount of back office processing, taking advantage of the time zone difference to improve paperwork turnaround times.
Firstsource delivered enhanced customer service levels through the following:
- Associates have been trained and tested on the Data Protection Act, according to Financial Services Authority (FSA) requirements. They are also given training on money laundering and its consequent effect on the organisation
- Team Leaders/ Team Coaches have been up-skilled in line with their in-house equivalent roles to empower them with equal underwriting and decision making authority. This provides seamless customer service for customers regardless of when they contact their insurer
- Continuous extensive product and process training for the associates to ensure knowledge of complex insurance claims handling processes
- Multitasking introduced to allow associates to work across multiple brands, so that agents can support different brands within the client’s portfolio during busy periods, providing greater flexibility
Firstsource has also added value to the client through:
- Up-selling ancillary services such as breakdown insurance which adds to client’s revenue
- Firstsource has demonstrated its commitment to improving the client’s customer service operations by investing £900,000 in a new VOIP technical platform in line with the client’s technology migration programme. This VOIP platform facilitates a seamless operating environment across multiple sites
- Developing and implementing a client specific Intranet to provide advisors with more intuitive and timely access to the in-house knowledge base, thus improving advisor responsiveness and the overall customer experience
- Development of proprietary electronic tools - E notepad and SmartStart to ensure a paperless environment and protect customer data
According to the client’s Outsource Manager: “In the year to date, Firstsource has dealt with 1.19 million calls, which is 38.5% of all of our inbound customer service calls, whilst fulfilling our expectations of the level of service, and ensuring the call answer rate and service levels required are adhered to.”
