The challenge

A luxury fashion, fragrance, beauty, and jewellery retailer struggled to retain associates after shifting from bricks-and-mortar contact centres to a work-from-home (WFH) model. Like many companies, the global brand transitioned to WFH suddenly during the pandemic, but it lacked the infrastructure to support the change long term.

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

The prestige brand also was clinging to traditions that significantly limited its hiring pool, such as only hiring associates living near its physical boutiques. The brand traditionally urged shoppers to visit a boutique in person to address questions or problems, but that approach didn’t satisfy customers’ growing desire to resolve issues digitally.

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

The solution

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

Since we have a longstanding, 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 its upscale clients expected.

A key part of our training focused on associates practising their skills through our RealPlay simulated learning solution. After training, associates interacted with live customers during their nesting period, so they were better prepared for the job when they went into production.

We provided 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; attrition fell an impressive 63% —from 64% before our work began to just 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 optimising the associate and customer experience.