At a Glance

Call centers play a critical role in business transformation. The majority of customer interactions still occur on the phone in most industries. Customers want these calls to be seamless, personalized, and effective. Yet, according to a PwC survey, 38% of U.S. consumers feel that the employees they interact with don’t understand their needs. With agent training, technology deployment, and smart processes, organizations can build call centers that deliver exceptional service and deepen customer relationships. As part of its end-to-end delivery of business transformation services, Said Differently supports call center transformation projects, including strategy work, customer journey mapping, call agent training, and technology implementation. 

Insights: 

→ Call centers continue to play a vital role in customer experience despite the rise of digital technologies.

→ For service-based businesses, what happens on the phone has a massive impact on customer relationships.

→ Achieving true call center transformation and creating a customer service experience that reflects a brand’s larger CX goals require both niche expertise and an overarching view of the business.

Discovery phase: Creating a roadmap for change 

Salesforce data from 2015 finds that 92% of customer interactions happen on the phone. Advancements in digital technology and evolving customer preferences challenge this stat in some industries. But people still crave human connection. Eighty-two percent of U.S. consumers would rather interact with a person than an automated service. And 70% of consumers trust people more than technology.

“Agencies don’t often talk about call center work because it is not ‘sexy.’ But these are transformative projects that dramatically impact customer service and a customer’s relationship with the brand,” explains Brian Skahan, president and co-founder of Said Differently. 

Said Differently’s business transformation services include call center projects. Typically, the innovation consultancy begins call center transformation projects with an 8-12 week discovery process that includes primary and secondary research, e.g., desk research, surveys, and call center agent interviews. Based on these findings, Said Differently creates a map of existing systems and identifies core opportunity areas where improvements will have an outsized impact on the business. Clients engage Said Differently to execute the transformation plans, in addition to providing the strategy. Thus, the consultancy is uniquely invested in the recommendations it puts forth.  

Implementing call center transformation strategies 

Said Differently builds just-right teams for each organizational transformation challenge, drawing from its network of industry-leading freelancers to cast the appropriate talent. This approach allows the agency to deliver comprehensive transformation services with lean teams. Examples of call center transformation execution projects include agent training and interactive voice response (IVR) design and implementation. 

To support the internet carrier Brightspeed in its transformation journey, Said Differently Principal Sophie Dick and President Brian Skahan, both of whom have call center experience, assembled a team of leading call center and CX experts in less than one week. More than 90% of Brightspeed customers reach out via a phone call if there is an issue with their connectivity. Whether they are calling from their mobile phone or laptop, Brightspeed call centers are fielding the inquiries. 

Brightspeed is positioning itself as the internet carrier that gets it – a no-nonsense, high-quality provider that delivers flawless internet you don’t even need to think about. Said Differently understands this strategy intimately, because it oversees Said Differnetly’s brand and advertising, as well. While it is rare for a single consultancy to handle such a wide-range of projects, the advantages of working with one comprehensive strategy and transformation partner, as opposed to several or many, include cost-savings, efficiency, consistency, and quality. Furthermore, this approach mitigates knowledge loss and communication gaps that commonly occur when working with multiple service providers. 

The Brightspeed project was unique, Skahan says, because the internet carrier inherited legacy systems and processes across 20 states when it purchased CenturyLink (Lumen Technology’s ILEC business), with little clarity on the operations. 

Said Differently helped Brightspeed with the daunting task of documenting the existing organizational structure. Then, the companies worked together to map out a plan for improvement. Said Differently is capable of supporting every aspect of the call center transformation plan and can pivot quickly if plans change, because of its extensive network of talent.

Innovation at a glance:

• Call center assessment encompassing X call centers and X agents across 20 states completed in 10 weeks 
• Transformation teams assembled in less than 1 week