The Challenge

A leading telecoms company in the Asia Pacific region wanted to consolidate its customer support partners and align its CX leadership structure to streamline operations. As a 10-year valued partner, TTEC was the supplier of choice to replace its existing provider of technical support for pre-paid and subscription mobile customers.

The company wanted to make sure that the transition was smooth and customer support was uninterrupted. But a challenge was that the associates already doing the work were well-trained product experts with considerable skills and experience to handle the client’s complex services. New TTEC associates would be inexperienced and the customer experience could suffer.

The Solution

In order to minimise the risk of disruption, TTEC proposed that the workforce at the incumbent provider be transferred directly to TTEC, effectively ‘re-badging’ them as TTEC employees. The programme involved close consultation with the employees and visits to the TTEC location to showcase its culture, facilities and benefits. TTEC also matched the employees’ previous salaries. The transition was helped by full cooperation from the existing supplier.

TTEC ensured the transfer was as seamless as possible. Team leaders and trainers were the first to transfer, so that a management and support structure was in place from day one of the new operation. A majority of the workforce (60 per cent) agreed to transfer to TTEC, requiring only short refresher training to bring them up to speed with current production standards. An intensive training programme was put in place to fill the remaining workforce, and no loss of service was experienced by the client.

Performance was continuously monitored through weekly, monthly and quarterly business reviews, which have confirmed KPI service levels for productivity, first contact resolution and Net Promoter Scores.

Results

The re-badging effort resulted in a pain-free transfer without any loss of performance. Lengthy and costly recruitment and training costs were avoided. Attrition was very low with 100 per cent retention of transferred staff during the first year of employment with TTEC. The client relationship also became more strategic because the client now only deals with TTEC as its sole partner.

Another benefit is that TTEC was able to cross-train employees in different lines of business to help manage volume fluctuations across the client’s support functions in real time. That resulted in the client expanding its business with TTEC’s offshore operations and allowing TTEC to step in to assist in new client projects.

Two and a half years later, TTEC continues to provide this key technical support to the client’s customers and all KPIs have been met or exceeded throughout the process.