Continuous improvement
How we helped several large energy suppliers with continuous improvements to their customer experience.
Overview
Sigma offers continuous improvement to its clients by using our trusted Act, Measure, Feedback and Improve (AMFI) approach.
The methodology is driven by the operations team and supported by strong analytics help identify where improvements can be made.
Once the analysis has been completed, we share a number of different recommendations with our clients to agree which ones they would like to take forward. The recommendations are then tested in a pilot which is backed-up by data and insight to determine how successful the pilots have been.
If the pilot is deemed successful and it supports continuous improvements for our client, the recommendation is rolled out in full across the campaign.
The challenge
Client one was facing low volumes in tariff changes which lead to high-level compliance issues with the regulator.
Client two were receiving high levels of rejections of inter-department proformas.
Client three had a more complex challenge as their Interactive Voice Responses (IVRs) were routing customers to teams that were not equipped to handle the calls. Due to the team not being trained or equipped to deal with these calls, there was a significant reduction in transfer rates and First Contact Resolution (FCR) as well as an increase in the overall call-handling time. This affected Customer Satisfaction (CX) and Net Promoter Scores (NPS).
The solution
Client one – Through the use of analytics we suggested 3 potential solutions to address the low volume of tariff changes. Tariff Champions was selected as the preferred option which we went onto implement successfully.
Client two – Our business analysts identified key areas of failure. We worked with the Operations and Training teams to develop training courses to reduce error rates.
Client three – We analysed data from the calls and found the reasons for transferred calls. This led to us recommending three opportunities to improve customer experience. We helped upskill the advisors in the key areas they were lacking.
The result
Client one – An immediate and significant improvement with both their United Kingdom and South African operations which started delivering to the same high quality due to the implementation of Tariff Champions. We were able to achieve the best performance across all outsourced partners for this client
Client two – Gained an immediate and significant reduction in proforma volumes (83%) and rejected proformas (88%). The rate of rejections versus proformas halved and the team have since continued efforts to reduce this further.
Client three – Saw an immediate reduction in transferred calls, increased customer satisfaction and overall cost reductions.
