Try to top this trifecta.

Customer experience? Enhanced. Job satisfaction? Improved. Mission to uplift people through job creation and community investment? That’s no longer a pipedream for a major healthcare organization. The vision to seed sustainable economic vibrancy is coming to life at a new contact center in South Africa that leverages AI innovation, modern office space design, and a local skilled workforce energized to build careers to last a lifetime.

The challenge

Inspired by an Impact Strategy designed to empower marginalized populations, a North American healthcare company explored site locations around the globe. While it was open-minded about locale, there were two nonnegotiables: Quality of the member experience had to be as good, if not better, than its domestic sites. The contact center environment had to be thoughtfully designed and conducive to positive interactions.

Our client wanted to be the first entrant in a new region viewed as well-qualified to support the healthcare industry.

Our solution

Collaborating with a local design team on the architectural build, TTEC developed an open concept, contemporary site layout that would create a pleasant work atmosphere and save on costs of sound abatement measures.

• Design: No traditional, boxed-in “cube farm” here. An open design provided natural breathing room and a stress-free environment where associates could focus on members’ needs and their tasks at hand.
• AI innovation: In place of costly dividing walls, sound-absorbing ceilings, carpeting, and white noise machines to drown out background noise, TTEC deployed its Voice Enhancement AI solution. The noise cancellation feature works on both ends of a phone conversation, isolating callers' and associates' voices while blocking out background sounds like street traffic and barking dogs. Associates were able to concentrate without the distraction of crosstalk from nearby co-workers, and members felt they received undivided attention and more personalized service.
• Skilled, multilingual workforce: Because TTEC was already serving multiple clients at two locations in South Africa, we’d recruited and nurtured talented associates who’d completed workplace readiness training, many of whom were college-educated.

The results

Forgoing physical sound abatement materials reduced site building costs $30,000 right out of the gate.

AI-enhanced noise cancellation technology improved member satisfaction an estimated 8% based on initial results. In a pilot, the test group using voice enhancement technology saw 78% fewer audio complaints from members than the control group.

Productivity and average handle time (AHT) improved because speech analysis revealed far fewer instances of associates and members repeating or clarifying statements. For example, audio recordings of calls contained fewer cases of associates asking, “Is that an ‘s’ or an ‘f’ in the spelling of your street name?”

Our client was so pleased with effectiveness of noise cancellation that it is considering adding another feature of the AI solution called accent softening. This voice enhancement feature dynamically modifies, in real time, associates’ accents to more closely match the cadence and verbal pronunciation of the member calling.