The challenge

When a major telecommunications firm that serves millions of customers merged three separate lines of business into one and launched several new products, it quickly became apparent that a new training curriculum was needed to support the many different customer interactions. Without an updated curriculum, training was prolonged and segmented, making it difficult for associates to be successful in their roles. Customer support was inconsistent, employees struggled to navigate disparate systems and processes, and new hire attrition was rising.

Our solution

TTEC’s long track record of proactively helping the telco firm solve pain points and improve the customer experience across multiple business lines helped us win the opportunity to solve this latest challenge. As a trusted partner, we proposed leveraging an artificial intelligence-powered solution — TTEC’s award-winning RealSkill bot—to accelerate the training and learning process as part of a demand-based curriculum.

RealSkill simulates real-world customer scenarios and provides automatic feedback allowing employees to practice their skills and gain confidence quickly and conveniently. Our learning and development team worked with the client on developing scripts for the bot, verifying technical requirements, and testing it.

Tools for solving complex calls with customers were identified as a key factor in the learners’ learning experience and speed to proficiency. Most of these tools did not have training environments that learners could practice on. To resolve this issue, we built additional RealSkill sandbox systems (an augmented operations platform and a simulated customer database that associates can practice with) to facilitate a more realistic handling of complex demands. We also updated the online learning portal and dashboard for online assessments.

The results

The RealSkill curriculum made nearly instant improvements to the client’s training curriculum and the employee experience. Instead of navigating an outdated, manual training process, new hires were able to quickly access learning materials, practice their skills in a controlled environment, and receive instant feedback from the RealSkill bot. New associates who were trained with the RealSkill bot received better performance results as early as nesting. Attrition root causes related to job shock and complexity of the account were significantly reduced.

In fact, new hire attrition has decreased by more than half from 45% to 19% since the RealSkill curriculum was implemented. First call resolution was also 5% higher as associates were better equipped to answer customers’ questions and efficiency improved 6%. Through a combination of strategy, technology, and learning and performance expertise, associates now have what they need to support customers, quickly and effectively.