Three hundred percent – that’s the increase to holiday staffing needed by this partner, a Fortune 500 technology retailer. The question: how does a huge retail operation create a fluid staffing solution that does more than just “handle customers,” but that also addresses product-specific challenges with ease, generates repeat business, and increases the value of individual transactions?

On the technical side, we provide website hosting and back-office services for this client. From a customer-facing perspective, we support 22 lines of business for the retailer; including purchase support, premier customer concierge, reward program service, tier 2 technical support, billing, and product sales. Our virtual workforce solution – humanify@home – is instrumental in keeping things flexible while also increasing revenue. More than 80 percent of TTEC’s 1,300+ dedicated associates are part of the humanify@home model, which allows for immediate flex-up or down and other resource optimisation.

Of course, it isn’t just about the number of workers. Exceptional customer experience requires the right support staff, with the right tools in place, and in the right channels to meet customer demand on the customer’s terms. TTEC implements a proprietary recruiting solution that quickly identifies the right candidates; in this case, the best and brightest 2,500 associates were hired from a pool of more than 18,000. In order to ensure that they have the right tools, we’ve crafted a blended learning approach that incorporates best practices, performance-based learning and other proprietary innovations into training tactics.

The result? Training time lowered by 25 percent – and because associates became experts before any customer interaction, customer satisfaction scores through Q2 2013 exceeded goal across all lines. In addition, average order volume for products increased by double digits during the same period. It’s easy to see why this is a holiday solution that keeps on giving through every season.