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Today, as consumers, we are experiencing choice and personalized experiences as never before. Those experiences largely shape which brands we spend our money on and which brands we don’t. At Verizon, a transformation has been taking place that transcends data views and technology. Education and empowerment of front-line employees are at the core of a cultural shift that aims to match today’s consumer expectation.
“The experience should be simple, smart and connected, which is why we need to empower our employees.”
“As we face a generation with a different set of expectations, we need powerful, inspired and engaged employees to seamlessly introduce smarter solutions into our call centers and have better-connected conversations with our customers,” said Kelley Kurtzman, Verizon’s vice president of consumer sales and service centers. “To do this, we needed to ensure that the employee voice was heard at every step of the way.”
Kurtzman, in addressing a 2,000-strong audience at the recent NICE Interactions 2015 conference, outlined the Service Elite employee program she helped design as a catalyst for the company’s cultural transformation inside call centers.
“We pioneered this game-changing program, a transformational and dynamic experience that gives our employees the tools and techniques they need to have better conversations with our customers,” she said. “As we continue to engage our teams, we must invest in tools to elevate the customer experience.”
Additionally, introducing real-time coaching technology, such as Mobile Coach, brings a new dynamic for call center supervisors. They now have more real-time insight to provide immediate coaching for representatives in order to bridge seamless customer-rep interactions.
“About half of our customer interactions take place online, via our TVs or apps, and customers are choosing to engage via these channels; but when they do want to pick up the phone and talk to us, they want it to be easy and intuitive,” said Kurtzman. “The experience should be simple, smart and connected, which is why we need to empower our employees.”
Investing in employees as strategic partners and inviting participation in development of technology and workflows are integral for strengthening culture. “For the Reps, by the Reps.” is a mantra that drives employee participation at Verizon.
Matching customers’ expectations, whether it’s online or offline, is key to providing an experience that is simple, smart and connected. Kurtzman and her team are determined to continue building the culture to support a transformation that aims to set a bar for experience inside and outside of the telecom industry.
