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Case Study: Affinion Group - Training Initiative Yields Meaningful Connections and Measurable Results
Submitted by Communico Ltd.

September 30, 2015

Affinion Group

Training Initiative Yields Meaningful Connections and Measurable Results

In today’s competitive global market, organizations need to find ways to not just exceed expectations, but to be memorable too. Affinion Group helps companies around the world achieve these objectives and more.

As the global leader in customer engagement and loyalty solutions, they serve clients through three business units: Membership (Point of Sale discounts/apps, Privacy and Protection), Insurance (Hospitalization, and Accidental Death and Dismemberment) and Connexions Loyalty (Reward Programs to retain employees, customers and partners).

Given their wide range of connections and vast amount of data, Affinion has always had a strong focus on accuracy and efficiency. However, one of their largest clients noticed that despite good quality scores, something else was missing—a sense of “connection” with their customers. And, they reinforced that this element could have a dramatic impact on their customers’ satisfaction and retention.


Seeking to Improve the Connection with Customers

Affinion realized that it was time to raise the bar on service. They had created their own customer service training program, but this client shared their positive experience with Communico’s MAGIC® of Customer Relations program. After hearing about their results, Affinion decided to make the shift.

They were pleasantly surprised to learn that the MAGIC philosophy aligned with their current program, and provided three key benefits:

Focus on listening: a critical skill needed to ensure their customer satisfaction

Highlight strengths and opportunities: so associates understood what they were doing well and how they could improve

Behavioral and measurable: a behaviorally-specific scorecard helped everyone assess performance consistently and exceed client expectations

Lesson Learned Early On: Training Alone is Not Enough

Eager to get everyone trained, Affinion had their previously certified facilitators deliver MAGIC training to various groups in the organization. However, it was soon clear that associates were not “living” it…and to sustain the momentum, the behaviors and attitudes needed to be modeled every day.

We saw a dramatic improvement in call quality and customer satisfaction.

Mark Jackson, director of Training and Quality/Contact Center Operations, and the leadership team soon realized that, to create a service culture, training alone was not enough. MAGIC is not just a “training program,” noted Jackson. “The key is to make it part of our everyday lives; part of the fabric of the organization. Plus, it needs to be part of the quality program so associates knew what to expect, and managers would then inspect what they expected.” Therefore, they created and defined a new quality form, which included their seven core values as well as five categories that align with MAGIC behaviors and principles.

After being certified as a Master MAGIC facilitator, Mark was equipped to certify some of their associates to train the program for their growing organization. But, they decided to create an additional certification program as well; one for any leader who was going to coach others. Elements included the “why” behind the change, how to increase and demonstrate accountability, and calibration mastery (ensuring that assessments were within a 5% variance).

Learning Mindset Drives Change

The leaders soon realized that it was their own responsibility that MAGIC was not part of their quality program or their everyday life. How could they expect agents to ignore their own environment and be “magical” when they pick up the phone?

Mark and the leaders made it clear that they were not accepting mediocrity any more. So, they revamped the quality initiative. In the process, they wanted to ensure that everyone knew why the organization had to change, and why they needed to hold each other accountable.

As expected, there was some pushback, from both the agents and the managers. Agents were reluctant to change, and asserted that “it’s just the way I talk.” Meanwhile, some managers were concerned that this would be “too hard on the agents.”

Although the “mediocre” environment moved up to “good”—“good” was not good enough anymore. Ultimately all agreed, and everyone across the organization was trained in MAGIC to keep raising the bar. Mark noted that “their job is their voice and the words they say.” The goal was for everyone to demonstrate their best possible voice and tone on every call—the last one needs to be just as good as the first one. And, as Mark added, “our last customer needs to receive the same care as the first one.”

Impressive Results and Accolades from Leaders in the Industry

Given the winning combination of leadership support, the proven and measurable MAGIC service standard, and continual feedback, Affinion saw a dramatic improvement in their call quality as well as customer satisfaction. Buoyed by these results, they decided to enter the ContactCenterWorld competition for U.S. and global leaders in customer service and community service, despite the fact that they were competing with the best in the industry.

Although there were over 1,500 submissions for ContactCenterWorld’s Best in World competition, Affinion was honored with top accolades:

v Gold medal: Best in Customer Service (Large Contact Center Division)

v Gold medal: Best Contact Center Supervisor

v Gold medal: Community Service

v Silver Medal: Community Spirit

They were also honored by other leaders in the industry:

v Affinion Group Contact Centers were finalists in the ICMI Global Contact Center Best Large Contact Center 2014 competition

v North American Contact Centers won the NICE Solutions 2014 Customer Experience Award for enhancements to their Quality Assurance Program (Customer Excellence Award)

v Benchmark Portal(Considered the premier contact center competition)

Affinion earned third place in the 2014 Large Contact Center competition, and placed in the top ten for the past three years (2012 – 2nd Place, 2013 – Top Ten and 2014 – 3rd Place)


According to Benchmark Portal CEO, Bruce Belfiore, “The Affinion contact center is among the best in the industry. Affinion stood tall against its competitors according to the world’s largest database of call center metrics. This is not easy to do, and we congratulate them on their achievement.”

These accomplishments show that Affinion associates are now “living” the MAGIC and modeling what it takes to make a meaningful connection every time.

 

 
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