Global educational assessment leader partners with Firstsource to evolve its CX to be digital-first, achieving 25% savings and 20% increase in customer satisfaction

Overview

Our client, a global pioneer in education testing and research, was losing market share and experiencing a drop in customer satisfaction due to customer experience challenges, growing competition and evolving student expectations. They decided to partner with Firstsource to revolutionize their customer experience to maintain and grow their market share by adopting a digital-first framework.

Challenges

The client faced several key challenges in their customer experience and service delivery, including:

• Lack of capacity to support large customer bases in their time zone, lead to high abandonment rates (~30%) and dissatisfaction.
• Backlog Issues: Over 60,000 unresolved queries contributing to long holding times and customer frustration.
• Process Inefficiencies: Unstructured email responses and 2-30+ day turnaround times, compounded by slow legacy systems and manual operations.
• Limited Digital Deflection: Broken website links, sub-optimal chatbot, and no self-service options forced customers to rely heavily on calls and emails.

How We Made it Happen

Our partnership delivered enhanced student experience and operational excellence while reducing costs”creating a foundation for sustainable growth. Here’s how:

• Comprehensive Data-Driven CX Transformation
• Developed a 30-90-180-day roadmap based on market assessments, customer journey mapping, sentiment analysis, and persona interviews to improve support and efficiency across touchpoints.
• Transformative Solutions
• Interventions through focused transformation initiatives through process reengineering to create a ‘left shift’ ecosystem. Solutions around touchless sentiment analytics, email processing, Agentic AI driven self-service, etc. are in a process of implementation to create enhanced customer experience.
• Delivered Round-the-Clock Support with Speed
• Launched a 24/7 tech-enabled L1 CX team in just 45 days, significantly reducing call abandonment rates to 1% and cutting hold times from 20+ minutes to 5 minutes.
• Cleared Backlogs and Improved Prioritization
• Implemented a tier-based support model to prioritize and resolve critical cases faster.
• Built a Flexible and Future-Focused Operating Model
• Introduced adaptable staffing to meet fluctuating demands and emerging geographical markets, scaled operations globally for High Stakes Assessment and Professional credentialing examinations.