The challenge

A luxury fashion, fragrance, beauty, and jewelry retailer struggled to retain associates after shifting them from brick-and-mortar contact centers to work-from-home (WFH). Like many companies, the brand made the switch to WFH suddenly during the pandemic, but it didn’t have the infrastructure in place to support the change long-term.

The company was inconsistent in how it onboarded WFH associates, training materials weren’t comprehensive enough, and training timelines weren’t optimized. As a result, associate attrition rose.

The brand also was clinging to traditions that significantly limited it hiring pool, such as only hiring associates who lived near its brick-and-mortar boutiques. Additionally, it traditionally urged shoppers to visit a boutique in person when they had questions or problems, but that approach didn’t mesh with customers’ growing desire to resolve issues digitally.

The brand needed a partner that could improve and scale its WFH model.

Our solution

TTEC worked with the client to assess what wasn’t working about its existing model and strategized how to improve associate satisfaction to keep them on the job. We helped the company shift its focus more to associate experience, while also implementing changes that improved the customer journey.

Since we have a long-standing, proven WFH model, TTEC was able to quickly provide and train associates to handle inbound and outbound customer interactions via phone, email, and chat.

We designed a training curriculum for our associates that met the client’s unique needs and quickly ramped a team that could provide the type of white-glove service the client expected.

A key part of our training focused on associates having near-real practice interactions through our RealPlay simulated learning solution during training, and interacting with actual customers during their nesting period, so they were better prepared for the job when they went into production.

We provide more than 150 FTE associates and have become the sole provider of customer support for the retailer in the United States.

The results

With better training and onboarding processes, associates were more successful and more likely to stay on the job. There was a significant drop in pre-production associate attrition due to our work; it fell 63% —from 64% when our work began to 23% within a year.

Our work led to improved customer satisfaction as well. The client’s NPS score nearly doubled, from 29 to 57, within a year. And quality assurance scores rose 33% during the same timeframe.

We continue to work with the retailer to identify ways it can keep elevating its associate and customer experience.