Call Centres

The challenge: To create a smoother, more cost efficient process in dealing with repairs for a housing association in North West England.

After initial discussions with our client, we highlighted two main objectives:

1. To make it easier for customers to book repairs and to receive reminders
2. Make the repairs process cheaper and more efficient for the organisation

We started by analysing their existing telephone and web-based booking processes and realised there was a gap between the information gathered in the booking process and the information needed to conduct a single-visit repair.

Using our intuitive Visual IVR, customers are now able to book repairs through the service, with their request presenting itself on both the client’s website and also within a telephone call. It means customers can now book repairs within just three clicks after identifying themselves, and a reminder cycle is automatically implemented so they can upload photo’s of the repair or damage that needs fixing.

Within 3 months of implementing VIVR, our client experienced the following benefits:

1. Customer feedback indicates a much quicker, easier process, with the reminders keeping
tenants well informed of the time and date of their appointment. They also enjoyed the
convenience of being able to do it on any mobile device, wherever they happen to be.

2. Higher fix ratio on first-time visits, as well as a big reduction on missed appointments. Engineers
like the photo upload because it ensures they can take the right tools and estimate the time
needed for each job more effectively.

Overall using VIVR has reduced the cost of our client’s repairs process by 17% in just 3-months, with the savings set to continue.
Contact us today to discuss the many ways we can assist your business.

The Challenge

OCR is one of the most established awarding bodies in the UK and their Customer Contact Centre handles around 220,000 telephone contacts per year. As part of the body’s Customer Access Model, it was important to transform the initial point of contact and improve their customer experience.

As all of their IVR recordings were completed in-house, each caller could experience differences in voice, tone and volume. Over time, the number of options callers were presented with had increased, leading to extended queue times and increased levels of caller frustration.

Indeed, one survey revealed that 1 in 5 customers were finding it difficult just to navigate the IVR, leading them to skip options by selecting random options in order to reach a caller agent, but this often meant the agent had to re-direct them, causing further frustration and delays.

Enter OnBrand

We used our expertise to analyse the existing call flow and understand what messages were needed, and which ones were surplus to requirements. By condensing the number of options, the customer journey instantly became clearer, but as each call is routed to caller agents with specific knowledge and skills, we also took time to understand what questions absolutely needed to be answered to ensure the caller was routed to the right agent at the first attempt.

After implementing our new IVR menu and recording all messages professionally with a consistent brand voice, callers were suddenly able to identify what options they needed more easily. And even when a caller was placed on-hold, not only were the times greatly reduced, but the wait had less of a psychological burden due to the fact we educated callers about ways they could self-serve should they want to.

Overall, the caller experience became so much cleaner that callers reached the agent in a much better frame of mind, which was vital to protect the reputation of such as important brand.

Key Wins

• • Reduced the overall number of maintained options
  • Reduced volume of abandoned calls during IVR menu
  • Immediately improved NPS score for Key Customers
  • Promoted OCR services through on-hold messaging

What They Say

“We launched the new IVR options – designed by OnBrand – in April 2016. We were amazed by how they condensed a long and complex list of needs down to just 5 options, as well as how they introduced tailored messages based on the option selected, meaning that any time spent waiting to connect with an agent was filled with relevant customer messages. Improvements were seen almost instantly, with a 14.5% decrease in caller abandonments and a 29% increase in customer satisfaction.”

Krystyna Pasik, Customer Contact Manager – OCR

The challenge: Could we decrease the number of abandoned callers, helping increase L&G’s profit margins and improve customer relations?

Legal & General receive thousands of calls every day about a multitude of different issues. Because of the customers’ varied needs, the telephone journey can be quite complicated, and as emotions can be running high, the company were acutely aware that they were losing custom due to high levels of caller abandonment.

We used a little fairy dust along with our unique IVR design methodology to remedy the problem.

By working with the client, we were able to map out each part of the telephone journey, taking into account projected call times along with how the customer would be feeling. We used our experience to suggest new messages, managing to exclude any unnecessary information, and then applied our technology to L&G’s system.

The customer experience was dramatically improved and on one sales line alone, caller abandonment lowered from 45% to just 5% – increasing revenue by £25,000 per month.

Experiencing similar issues with your business? Contact us to discuss the many ways we can help support you and your business.

The challenge: Could we help shorten waiting times – and therefore increase donations – for a great cause?

Due to nurturing and maintaining close working relationships with our clients, we’ve become fully aware of how challenging it can be for call centres to cope with demand – particularly during special events.

Being that we’re a company with a big heart, we knew the inevitable spike in calls would stretch the resources of any call centre supporting Comic Relief, so we offered to record messages that would assist them.

Through a series of professional voice messages we were able to effectively communicate to customers that the businesses were supporting Comic Relief, making it clear there would be issues such as early closing times and longer waiting times.

Our involvement contributed to a smoother and happier IVR process, enhancing the customer experience for countless callers during an important event. What’s more, it allowed more calls to be taken for Comic Relief, increasing the amount of money raised – and that was great to be a part of.

Contact us today to discover the many ways we can help support and improve your own customer experiences.

The Challenge

Europcar are one of the biggest car rental companies in the UK, so when they decided to move to a “one phone number” strategy, they needed to develop their own call routing system. At first, their self-designed call flow confused customers and resulted in thousands of calls being miss-routed and needlessly transferred every week, which naturally led to a significant increase in customer complaints.

Enter OnBrand

We discussed the issues with all relevant stakeholders and analysed the call flow as it was. After listening to live calls, speaking to the call agents and analysing Europcar’s stats, we highlighted that a number of tasks had been moved away from local branches to contact centres, yet this hadn’t been communicated to callers. This meant they were calling local branches, being placed on hold, and finally being routed to an offshore centre without understanding why.

With patience, understanding, and a little creative magic, we redesigned the entire call flow to fix the routing issue, reducing the overall number of options by 60%. We also introduced a brand new Tone of Voice and scripted the messages in a style that customers trusted and understood, helping them remain engaged and choose the right option at the first attempt.

Key Wins

• An immediate decrease of 36% in mis-directed calls
• Neutralised complaints to “normal” levels after just 1 month
• Educated customers to business changes with on hold messaging
• Reduced on-hold times
• Successful deflection of calls onto contact centre, freeing up time in local branches

What They Say

“The pre-agent phone experience has a huge impact on the success of the call, and the retention of that customer. Getting it right is integral to influencing caller behaviour, and although the brand’s needs are different with every project, our experience has helped us build a strong methodology that achieves positive results – in both the short and long term aims of the business.”
Daniel Graham, Managing Director – OnBrand Group

The Challenge

In November 2016, Tesco Bank announced the news that an incredible £2.5 million had been stolen from its accounts by a group of cyber-thieves. With 9,000 bank accounts hacked and widespread panic set to filter through the brand’s customers, they were under pressure to minimise the damage to their reputation.

Enter OnBrand

Tesco is a brand we rate highly and we wanted to help them navigate their way through the crisis. With an inevitable wave of concerned and angry callers set to contact Tesco Bank, we pro-actively approached the company and asked if they’d like us to record a number of key messages that would help them cope with demand.

Key Wins

We helped Tesco:

• Communicate calmly
• Assure affected customers that refunds would be issued
• Lay out clear directions so callers could self-serve
• Reaffirm that customers remained Tesco’s priority
• Achieve a big impact with a quick turnaround

What They Say

“When our name hit the headlines, we needed to act fast. OnBrand contacted us as soon as the story broke and offered a much needed solution. They were ready, willing and able to help, and their key communication messages helped reduce caller frustration greatly within just a few hours.”
Pauline Wilson, Telephony Manager – Tesco Bank

The Challenge

Expedia is a staple travel reservation company, running localised sites for 18 countries. It books airline tickets, hotel reservations, car rentals, cruises, vacation packages, and other various attractions and services via telephone travel agents. Needless to say, telephony is a touchpoint of paramount importance for a company such as this, yet the need to create hundreds of high quality messages, in several languages, at speed – all the while maintaining their brand reputation – wasn’t a task for the faint-hearted.

Enter OnBrand

We first focused on Expedia’s existing telephony scripts, raising the quality of the prompts so we could ensure routing callers to the right place on the first attempt, all the while projecting Expedia’s professionalism to the customer. We performed all work within a 5 day turnaround, delighting the brand with both the pace we can work at, as well as the quality of our product. Our expertise allowed us to cut average handling times, and use on hold messaging to educate callers in ways they could self-serve should they want to.

Key Wins

• • Reviewed IVR Structure
  • Generated precise translations
  • Achieved a quick turnaround
  • Sourced voice artist that matched brand’s identity
  • Maintained great project management throughout

What They Say

“When we rolled out our telecoms platform across many European countries, we required a complete set of new recordings for our IVR structure and messages – and in many native languages. Being extremely customer focused, we required a company that could provide a good selection of voices along with the understanding of how important our relationship is with the customers. OnBrand got it right first time, meeting and exceeding expectations with a great blend of creativity and professionalism.”
Adam Sugden, Technical Architect – Expedia

The challenge: A major UK flower delivery company introduced a self-serve method on their telephony system that was losing the business money on an ongoing basis.

As a rule, integrating new technology into a company’s telephony system is a positive move that should be heralded. However, there is a science to people’s behaviour and unless your telephony journey is created with that in mind, there’s always a danger that callers won’t embrace it.

The problem with our client’s self-serve order tracking solution is that the uptake of callers was too low to generate a return on investment, so not only was it costing money to operate, but it was adding very little value to their customers.

We used the vast experience available to us to understand the brand and create a new tone of voice. In doing this, we were able to align the sound of their existing national TV ads with more natural wording. We structured the IVR in such a way that the effort needed to use the order tracking service was greatly reduced.

This made some impact, and within the first month, self-serve order tracking had risen from 42% to over 70%. This increased customer satisfaction greatly and reduced the overall call volumes reaching agents, allowing them to generate cost savings – precisely what you want from your IVR.