A closer look: Banking and Financial Services

A closer look: Banking and Financial Services

The growth in the financial technology industry has been rapid, yet it is still expected to boom aggressively in the coming years. While keeping pace with the latest technological innovation is a must, another facet should also be prioritized: having a customer experience platform and a CX design that seamlessly incorporates these advancements with what matters to the customer.

Read further below to discover how partnering with a customer service and experience company such as Inspiro can positively impact the banking and financial services industry.

  1. Upskilling boosts CSAT and NPS while decreasing AHT for a financial services company
  2. Enabling excellent e-wallet support
  3. Improving QR code service quality and quantity

Upskilling boosts CSAT and NPS while decreasing AHT for a financial services company

The client is a leading US-based provider of reloadable prepaid cards and related financial services. They serve millions of underbanked consumers who do not have a traditional bank account.

The client was adding PayPal prepaid credit cards to its portfolio. The client’s in-house team developed a training plan focused primarily on program features and the differences between PayPal Prepaid credit cards and standard credit cards. Inspiro reviewed the client’s upskilling and refresher agendas and recommended a five-day agenda to cover additional simulation along with hands-on activities.

The team began this activity in April 2015 and continued throughout the year:

  • Screenshots of a sample account were used, and learning was validated through an online assessment. After 90 days, the class was surveyed, with 71% of trainees stating that the number of lectures and activities was adequate to achieve the targets, while 25% responded that they needed additional exercises and drills to be more successful.
  • Refresher courses were developed over the next two months, including using PayPal Online Account Center Simulators, Activation/Registration, Linking, Funds Transfer, and PayPal Process Flow. The team developed suggested call scripts.

The upskilling produced substantial results. CSAT climbed from 61.5% in May 2015 to 80% in February 2016. Net Promoter Score steadily increased from -1% in May 2015 to 34.2% in February 2016. While CSAT and NPS were increasing, Average Handle Time decreased from 7.84 minutes in May 2015 to six minutes in February.

Enabling excellent e-wallet support

A leading financial technology company in Japan, which provides e-wallet service for a popular VOIP and instant messaging app. Their existing complement of 32 FTEs was struggling to handle their vast merchant support service, which encompassed a monthly communication log of 2,000 outbound calls, 1,200 inbound calls, 1,500 chats, and 300 emails a month.

Inspiro devised a B2B solution covering general merchant inquiries, including pre-registration, credit card, and bank account enrollment.

Agents were trained extensively to:

  • Handle campaign management, with additional data entry and validation support to the merchant base
  • Learn client-preferred accounting software to ensure there was no compromise in quality

Inspiro also set weekly targets for agents to handle and improve resolve ratios and ensured continuous feedback for agile individual action. Weekly meetings were held to share any ongoing challenges and devise a list of actions to counter and mitigate any risks.

Due to tiered and well-trained support, the monetized ratio of merchants hugely increased from 9.7% to 70.5%. Resolve ratio for specific issues improved from 60.9% to 78.6%, with calls expertly managed and challenges resolved weekly, with actionable insights.

Improving QR code service quality and quantity

A leading financial technology company in Japan that had launched a QR-based electronic payment service in 2018. Despite their large pool of 133 FTEs—providing 24/7 business-to-business (B2B) and 12/7 business-to-customer (B2C) service from their main delivery centers in North and South Japan—the client was struggling to provide real-time voice, email, and back-office support since its ever-growing user and merchant base was generating more than 6,000 transactions a month.

Inspiro executed a multipronged solution, supplying real-time support to handle a large volume of monthly transactions for both business verticals. B2C agents were explicitly trained to handle general inquiries and provide the technical support required for the payment app, while B2B agents were trained to provide continuous support for:

  • registration,
  • QR code kit arrangement,
  • general inquiries,
  • campaign management, and
  • technical support for the e-pay app.

Agents were also ranked in average handling time (AHT), encouraging productive competitiveness and reducing AHT length without compromising quality. Inspiro also implemented a buddy system, teaming up junior and senior agents to handle inquiries together to facilitate:

  • coordination and exchange of communication,
  • continuous training of juniors by seniors, and
  • query resolution in real-time,
  • leading to the overall quality of service and enhanced time efficiency.

Additionally, two kinds of agent teams were set up, with Top Box agents in charge of identifying weak points of Bottom Box agents and providing them with critical feedback to improve quality.

With these initiatives, the client was able to see the following improvements:

  • AHT surpassed the target of 1000 seconds, coming in at 937s, thanks to highly-trained agents addressing multiple issues, including service level, quality, and productivity.
  • Customer response time exceeded the target of 90%, coming in at 99.7%, with streamlined services enabling critical support during peak hours.
  • Inspiro’s timely reports empowered the client to track all metrics and performance, which helped optimize decision-making.

A closer look: Automotive

A quick search of automotive trends shows that the industry is growing. With the rapid technological advancements and disruptions, are you ready and equipped to keep up with the market’s demands? As with other sectors, excellent customer experience (CX) is vital. But what is the relevance of CX in the automotive industry?

Below are examples of how a great customer experience strategy in the automotive industry can lead to great results.

  1. Paving the way for improved customer experience at the dealer level
  2. Putting the client—and their customers—in the driver’s seat
  3. Boosting CSAT scores for an EV charging solutions provider
  4. Driving smoother and smarter
  5. Streamlining purchase and delivery management for a car parts supplier

Paving the way for improved customer experience at the dealer level

Customer service can make or break a company, especially in the much-changed competitive luxury automotive market. Today, there are so many high-end vehicle options that lagging in just one area encourages consumers to shop elsewhere.

This client was struggling with a reputation for poor customer service in its dealerships. Customers were made to feel as if they should be grateful for the mere privilege of buying a luxury car, not only at the time of sale but, more importantly, in the service after the vehicle was purchased.

To remedy this situation, the client sought to determine current customer satisfaction levels and specific areas for improvement at the dealer level.

With the right outsourcing partner, the client was able to develop and initiate a customer loyalty campaign for both new buyers and existing car owners, integrating a customer satisfaction survey:

  • Inspiro provided end-to-end management, from survey design to online platform development to reporting, with the overall goal of determining solid and weak points at the dealership level. 
  • Over 1,000 surveys were conducted per quarter, through email and phone, with follow-up calls undertaken to track down surveys not returned within two weeks.

Over eight weeks, the target 50% of survey respondents was not only met but substantially surpassed, ending the period with 70% customer response. This enabled the client to analyze and address not just the desired half, but a significant majority of customer concerns, providing an excellent head start on the road to renewed customer satisfaction.

Putting the client—and their customers—in the driver’s seat

A renowned German multinational manufacturer of luxury vehicles was struggling with each of its dealers taking their individualized approach to lead generation. This made it difficult to perform a company-wide analysis of customer reaction, along with cause analysis and increased working hours for each dealer since additional training and labor management were required for temporary staff during the generation period.

For the holiday launch of its new car model, this automotive client was looking to transition from a dealer-led to an enterprise-led lead generation campaign to maximize results and learn about their customers:

  • Whereas the dealer-led system naturally made calls during each dealer’s working hours, Inspiro arranged agent shifts to initiate calls when many customers were more likely to be home, significantly improving the chances of reaching the client’s 4,000 existing customers.
  • Inspiro’s domain expertise and resources came into play through the outbound call system, which was efficiently used to seamlessly manage KPI progress, conduct agent motivation management, and gather additional information via a voice-of-the-customer survey.

A full 6.0% of customers agreed to visit their dealer, and another 17.7% of customers responded that they would consider visiting. A significant 23.7% database-to-leads conversion and a unified view of customer sentiment were achieved compared to the dealer-led campaigns.

Boosting CSAT scores for an EV charging solutions provider

A US-based electric vehicle charging solutions company wanted an outsourcing partner with proven customer experience expertise to address their high abandonment rates and low CSAT scores.

To ensure better call coverage, Inspiro:

  • Introduced new staff schedule patterns that factored in coverage and call volume
  • Implemented coaching and mentorship program focused on product knowledge, including random call listening sessions
  • Handled incidents and complaints efficiently, with an average of 10-15 tickets resolved daily

In less than a year, Inspiro improved the key metrics leading to a CSAT score of 90.04%.

  • Improved abandonment rate by 3.35%
  • Achieved 98.96% reliability score vs 95% target
  • Achieved 92.50% quality score vs 90% target
  • Lowered average speed of email response by 90% – down to 6 minutes from 1 hour
  • Reduced average speed of answer to 12 seconds from 20 seconds

Driving smoother and smarter

With automobile technology getting more sophisticated every year, drivers and passengers can really use concierge and technical support to ensure the safe, comfortable usage of their advanced vehicles.

A leading automobile manufacturer, therefore, sought a partner to provide specialized operators, supplying detailed information 365 days a year for its connected cars and premium line, via the client’s Telematics Support Center.

Since the Center needed to be able to handle 12,000 to 15,000 inbound calls per month, Inspiro implemented the following:

  • Hired 80 agents to man operations. This number—and corresponding expense—might well have been substantially larger, but a streamlined approach was developed to strategically deploy support during the crucial period from 9 am to 6 pm.
  • A modified training curriculum and call flow with a strong technical focus were overseen by a Quality Manager, who helped improve each agent’s learning speed and service quality, focusing on types and trends of inbound inquiries and developing a FAQ to help answer calls more efficiently.

By focusing support during critical and peak driving hours, we improved first call resolution (FCR) by 14% while reducing average handling time (AHT) by 26% in the first year of operations.

Streamlining purchase and delivery management for a car parts supplier

A leading global independent supplier to the automotive sector was looking for a partner to support purchase and delivery management from the backend. Their main challenge was handling many different automobile products across multiple manufacturing locations. 

With not only their own but also clients’ and sub-contractors’ PO management systems in play, management was hardly unified. This created many complications, including the need to adjust delivery dates multiple times, increased human error, and additional costs to the client. 

To streamline client processes:

  • Specific agents were assigned to manage different units, so they could collaborate and streamline the communication process. Dealer Parts Inventory Assistance was established to ensure timely delivery of sub-parts to various departments, while Inquiry Management was tasked to analyze prior human errors and delivery delays.
  • With one location selected as the dedicated, cost-efficient delivery center, Inspiro established delivery date and PO management, functioning as the liaison between factory-warehouse-sales and the client to get delivery date responses and communicate client requirements.

Through the dedicated delivery center, various processes and multi-operations were streamlined, which helped reduce the overall cost for the client by a substantial 40% compared to the previous vendor. Assigning specific agents to definite tasks and units reduced human error to zero.

Propelling Customer Satisfaction for Asia’s Pioneer Flag Carrier

Inspiro’s automated processes boosted efficiency and enhanced passenger convenience.

4% increase in Net Promoter Score

7% improvement in Overall Advised Rate

10% Reduction in Average Handling Time

Background

The client, a pioneer flag carrier in Asia and long-standing partner of Inspiro, was looking to elevate the low advised rate for customers on essential information, such as flight delays and schedule changes. The client’s ground staff previously handled this process but, due to staffing shortage and limited hours of operation, there were delays in generating reports.

How We Delivered

We deployed the Automated Flight Disruption Tracker to speed up report generation, thereby providing agents with real-time flight information. Inspiro also:

  • Introduced the Flight Disruption Inbound split, so well-trained agents can handle calls to avoid further passenger inconvenience.
  • Managed notification of passengers affected by flight disruption through outbound calls, email, and SMS.
  • Implemented an online tickets reservation and distribution program to mitigate booking concerns.

Results

  • Improved Overall Advised Rate by 7%, including 6% on advised rate for US and Canada flights
  • Improved AHT by 10% in eight weeks
  • Increased NPS by 4% and decreased detractors by 6% in just three months

Growing Seasonal Sales for a Leading US Floral Retailer

Amid the pandemic, Inspiro met the seasonal surge in volume by transitioning to a hybrid delivery model.

No. 1 vendor recognition

40% increase in transactions

Over 50% of work volume awarded

Background

With most US states in lockdown, the Client needed a robust outsourcing partner who could weather the pandemic along with the anticipated seasonal surge in orders.

How We Delivered

Inspiro overhauled its recruitment and delivery strategies, including a massive shift from an 11-yearbrick-and-mortar delivery model to a hybrid model with 75% of agents working from home (WFH) and 25% working onsite.

  • Ramped our digital recruitment efforts and Talent Acquisition team to process 15,000+ applicants, ultimately hiring 1,600 agents that meet client requirements.
  • Deployed Inspiro@Home, our scalable and secure work-at-home solution.
  • Used a real-time productivity monitoring tool that provided hourly updates on WFH agents to maintain performance standards, while a buddy system paired new hires with tenured agents to ensure consistent service levels.

Results

Inspiro’s efficient adaptability delivered multiple positive outcomes.

  • Increased Client transactions by 40% compared to the previous year, despite the pandemic.
  • Acclaimed best of three providers for the seasonal ramp and the only one to meet the FTE requirements.
  • Awarded more than 50% of work volume—versus the agreed 35%—as well as a three-week work extension, due to excellent performance.

Enhancing a Key Field in a US Floral Retailer’s Operations

Inspiro helped the client streamline their back office operations by proactively establishing processes that enabled the client to anticipate seasonal demand.

80% increase in order fulfillment rate

47% reduction in customer escalations

Perfect Net Promoter Score of 10

Background

The Client, a US floral and gourmet foods gift retailer and distribution company, wanted to improve their service delivery efficiency and at the same time, maintain customer satisfaction by enhancing their back-office operations and internal processes.

How We Delivered

To ensure consistent service levels, Inspiro:

  • Established a bridge team that mirrored the client’s capability to predict back-office queue and coordinate requests for split changes in real-time
  • Laid out Queue Improvement and Queue Excellence Projects aimed at improving back-office operations
  • Authored a Negative Verbatim Call-out Process which was eventually acquired by the client for use by its other vendors
  • Initiated the disaster recovery and emergency management across all delivery centers to ensure consistent service levels even in disruptive times

Results

  • Increased order fulfillment rate by 80%
  • Became the 1st partner to exceed CSAT sales score
  • Awarded with additional work volume due to excellent performance – becoming the only outsource partner to support all brands
  • Reduced customer escalations by 47%
  • Perfect Net Promoter Score (NPS) of 10 and top Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) ranking of 8.8 among three vendors

Cultivating a US Floral Retailer’s Flourishing Business

Working closely with the client, Inspiro launched continuous improvement of programs and tools.

80% increase in order fulfillment rate

47% reduction in customer escalations

Stella Elite status for Customer Service

Background

In support of their growth and expansion plans, the Client, a US floral and gourmet foods gift retailer and distribution company sought a partner to handle its customer service, sales, and back-office operations.

How We Delivered

To help the client hit their milestones, Inspiro:

  • Initiated Lean Six Sigma projects focused on boosting campaign sales metrics, streamlining back-office processes, and improving order fulfillment rates
  • Pioneered Proactive Chat to drive customer engagement and sales
  • Launched Queue Improvement and Queue Excellence projects aimed at improving back-office operations
  • Deployed a robust process for seasonal ramps, ensuring all business support groups are aligned end-to-end

Results

Our proactive continuous improvement initiatives resulted to:

  • Increased order fulfillment rate by 80%
  • Reduced customer escalations by 47%
  • Significant improvement in chat split AHT by 44%, from 900 to 400 seconds
  • Helped the client earn Stella Highlights for all channels and achieve Stella Elite Status for Chat
  • As the client’s partner of choice for its ramp requirements, we saw a 20% average increase in seasonal FTEs year after year
  • Exceeded Client’s conversion goal for seasonal ramp by 10%

Championing Contact Center Innovation for eCommerce Leader

As the client’s most trusted outsourcing partner, Inspiro piloted CX programs for adoption across their provider network.

Incubation partner for automation and process improvement

15% cost-to-serve reduction

No. 1 vendor in price and performance

Background

To meet the demands of a growing customer base in multiple markets, a leading eCommerce company in Asia needed a partner to spearhead CX improvement initiatives, for eventual rollout to its network of CX providers.

How We Delivered

In line with the Client’s objective to connect buyers and sellers within one community, Inspiro:

  • Deployed a unified global structure — multisite operations, single point-of-contact — complemented by a work-from-home (WFH) workforce
  • Developed an automated Escalation Tracker, which was eventually adopted by the Client for enterprise-wide use
  • Deployed Simulate by Inspiro that provided agents with immersive training on the tools used by the Client
  • Initiated contact reduction initiatives by establishing a chatbot and website FAQs
  • Instituted monthly and quarterly recognition programs powered by a real-time productivity monitoring tool that tracks agent performance

Results

Inspiro continues to deliver value by growing the Client’s headcount, markets, and lines of business.

  • Chosen as incubation partner for automation and process improvement
  • Reduced cost-to-serve by 15%
  • Decreased invalid escalations at only 0.15%
  • Continuously exceeded targets for Voice and Chat CSATs
  • Ranked no. 1 vendor in price and performance
  • Achieved 9x FTE growth in three years

Boosting CSAT Scores for an EV Charging Solutions Provider

Inspiro reduced abandonment rate through effective staffing and strong customer experience (CX) capabilities.

90.04% CSAT score

3.35% improvement in abandonment rate

98.96% reliability score

Background

A US-based electric vehicle charging solutions company wanted an outsourcing partner with proven customer experience expertise to address their high abandonment rates and low CSAT scores.

How We Delivered

To ensure better call coverage, Inspiro:

  • Introduced new staff schedule patterns that factored in coverage and call volume
  • Implemented coaching and mentorship program focused on product knowledge including random call listening sessions
  • Handled incidents and complaints efficiently, with an average of 10-15 tickets resolved daily

Results

In less than a year, Inspiro improved the key metrics leading to a CSAT score of 90.04%.

  • Improved abandonment rate by 3.35%
  • Achieved 98.96% reliability score vs 95% target
  • Achieved 92.50% quality score vs 90% target
  • Lowered average speed of email response by 90% – down to 6 minutes from 1 hour
  • Reduced average speed of answer to 12 seconds from 20 seconds

Alleviating Abandonment Rates for a Leading Health Insurance Provider

In a year, Inspiro enabled significant improvements in the Client’s abandonment rate and other key metrics, like AHT, reliability, and quality of service.

5% abandonment rate down from a high of 15%

97% service level improvement from 40%

Exceeded 90% quality score target

Background

Despite their substantial agent headcount, the Philippine arm of one of Europe’s leading health insurers was struggling with a high abandonment rate, as well as limited growth opportunities due to the high cost of hiring employees with a medical background.

How We Delivered

To ensure consistent service levels, Inspiro balanced manpower cost-efficiency with round-the-clock domain expertise.

  • Hired qualified full-time employees who completed Allied Health courses
  • Upskilled agents to handle multiple service splits
  • Streamlined processes for service inquiries and processing of medical availment requests through their email and mobile application
  • Automated reports generation gave the Client a 360-view of important contact center metrics, thereby optimizing decision-making

Results

Inspiro surpassed all key metrics with these goal:

  • Reduced abandonment rate to 5% goal from a high of 15%
  • Improved service levels to 97% from 40%
  • Exceeded 90% quality score target
  • Achieved 100% reliability
  • Kept AHT within target despite additional agent tasks and increase in complexity

Supporting Company Growth in an Economic Crisis with Cloud Services

Inspiro, one of Asia’s leading business process outsourcing (BPO) providers, prides itself in redefining customer service by integrating people, technology, and operational experience, proven with its Corporate Excellence Award from the Asia Pacific Enterprise Awards (APEA) 2020 and recognition as Best Company to Work For in the Philippines (HR Asia Awards 2020). With the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis threatening this legacy, the company turned to cloud solutions to continue providing its high standards of service.

Ramping up services for business continuity

Inspiro’s IT infrastructures run on a number of servers: 95 percent are both physical machines and virtual servers, while approximately 5 percent run on a virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environment. Like many companies, Inspiro shifted to working more off-premises, thus its first requirement was to add more capacity to its VDI setup. The company needed an additional 50 to 100 servers for both compute and storage capabilities, but the current environment could not support such a load. Since this was an urgent matter to ensure business continuity, the usual 30 to 45 days of processing to purchase new servers simply would not do.

When the pandemic struck, the company began mobilizing its IT resources such as PCs. Given an already constrained VDI infrastructure, it began exploring other options such as desktop as a service (DaaS), where agents could use Inspiro-provided PCs, their own personal devices for work, or follow a bring your own device (BYOD) setup. This requirement coincided with their plans of ramping up 2,000 to 3,000 additional agents in one to two months to support their customers’ needs.

Inspiro decided to work with Microsoft to explore Windows Virtual Desktop, a desktop and app virtualization service that runs on Microsoft Azure. Windows Virtual Desktop was recognized as a viable option to give the company operational capacity as it increases its manpower.

Many collaboration solutions were evaluated to determine the best fit for the organization’s needs. With thorough assessment, Inspiro was able to determine Teams as the right platform to suit its current operations. Teams was used as the primary communications channel to help in installing several security software solutions for more than 2,000 remote employees—one that could have required hours of calls to execute, or worse—physical dispatch.

Microsoft also provided Inspiro employees with training on how to use Teams for remote collaboration. According to Romulo Saldivar, Senior Manager for IT Operations at Inspiro, “Training was an insightful discussion as it led to a deep dive on how Teams can help day-to-day tasks, meetings, and conducting trainings, among many others.” Working with Microsoft was crucial to helping its employees adapt to the new work-from-home arrangement. 

Combining agility with resilience

Despite the challenging BPO landscape early in the pandemic, Inspiro was able to adapt immediately to a hybrid work setup, with sites at 50 to 60 percent occupancy and the rest working from home. With DaaS and Windows Virtual Desktop deployed on Azure, it was business as usual.

According to Mark Mistal, Chief Information Officer at Inspiro, it was a learning experience for the company was geared more toward on-premises solutions rather than cloud-based deployment. “In the course of the proof of concept, I think we learned along the process of how to provision DaaS, as well as in operating, maintaining—we’re still in that learning process,” he says.

According to Mistal, aside from being more cost effective, the company chose Azure since it offered more flexibility and the Microsoft team was knowledgeable and more than accommodating, lending their expertise to make Inspiro comfortable in adopting DaaS. It was also noted that during the proof-of-concept sessions, approximately 90 to 95 percent of the technologies introduced were successfully deployed. Microsoft was also able to provide Inspiro the scalability and flexibility it needed, while Inspiro was able to provide its agents with the capability to do more work using Windows Virtual Desktop. This made the overall experience very seamless from the beginning—for Inspiro’s agents and clients alike.

Inspiro technical leads Gianni Palermo, Systems Senior Manager for IT Infrastructure, and Romulo Saldivar, Senior Manager for IT Operations, led a three-month comprehensive head-to-head evaluation of Azure and other cloud providers. The assessment of ease of provision, operation, and maintenance of DaaS were some of the key factors considered in the decision making. As a result,, Azure was endorsed and Microsoft was chosen to work with Inspiro in both providing cloud desktop services and server requirements. Soon after, the company initiated the transition and migration of some of its servers and applications to the Azure cloud platform.

Despite the short timeline for implementing Teams and Windows Virtual Desktop, both solutions were positively received by employees and stakeholders alike. Currently, Windows Virtual Desktop is used as part of the company’s current day-to-day operations to support its clients worldwide. Teams, on the other hand, is used as a communications platform for meetings, events, and activities such as training classes, business unit review, international and JAPAC meetings, townhalls, and leadership summits.

Looking forward

Inspiro made the strategic decision of making the work-from-home setup become permanent even when the pandemic passes. In addition to DaaS and Teams, the company is currently looking at other opportunities to streamline operations using other toolsets from Microsoft.

Since adopting these solutions, Inspiro has enjoyed a successful deployment with approximately 1,900 Windows Virtual Desktop virtual machines provisioned for its agents in the Philippines and in the United States—a move that made its clients comfortable and confident with their ongoing ramp-up process and 99.99 percent uptime in reliability. In fact, one major client was surprised that Inspiro was one of the first BPOs to come up online as if a pandemic didn’t alter working arrangements—as if nothing really happened—proving that Inspiro rose above the challenges brought by the health crisis.

Source: https://customers.microsoft.com/en-us/story/862550-inspiro-other-azure-en-ph