Four-Year Doubling of Sales Revenue Across 25+ Call Centers
Sprint is a telecom company that provides all telecom, wireless and TV products to consumers from 25+ call centers. Sprint’s goal was to mature its service/sales organization, grow revenue through this inbound channel, create consistent (and higher) results, and reduce employee attrition. This was a massive undertaking that involved all levels of management, training and staff. During the time of this project, the company’s greatest strength was its willingness to get better and the many ways the company encouraged its telephone reps to continuously improve.
Unique Challenge
- Despite having high quality targets at the start of our work, there were large gaps between expectations and results.
- Cross-selling was encouraged but not effectively managed at most centers.
- Senior call center leaders were concerned that cross-selling would reduce quality scores (the misconception that selling attempts offend most customers).
- The initial challenge was to convince agents and leadership that effective cross-selling and up-selling was actually good for the customer and would net better quality scores (most customers appreciate the information about other products when it is provided in a customer-friendly way).
Training Provided by Call Center Training Solutions
CCTS built a fully-customized, service-to-sales version of its Telephone Sales Master Inbound and Superior Service programs, calling it “Directional Selling.” Improving the supervisors’ coaching presence on the center floor was also a critical element, if any long-term sustainability was going to occur.
- Training’s Big Idea: Cross-selling – offering additional products that may satisfy other needs or provide more value and convenience – provides the complete customer experience because we are improving customer satisfaction for the long-term, not just for today’s single request.
- All agents at all centers received the training.
- Implementation took about seven months.
- The CCTS team certified trainers at each site.
- Some classes were trained by CCTS instructors, but certified company instructors trained the majority of the agents across the enterprise.
- All supervisors participated in the Call Center Floor Management program.
- Senior leadership at each site established and managed a “Power Hour” for every supervisor (view Power Hour video).
- Live coaching on the center floor was new to the sites. Supervisors embraced it.
End Results
Over a period of three and a half years, sales grew consistently. When the initiative started, the IB service organization was posting $700 million in annual sales. Four years later, sales eclipsed $1.4 billion. These record results occured despite the average product and bundle price decreasing and no increases in advertising over the duration of the initiative. In addition, the company’s employee attrition decreased and employee satisfaction increased. Many of the reps claimed the biggest positive change was the new approach to consistent, daily floor-coaching. They always felt like part of the success.