CORPORATE CULTURE & EMPLOYER OF CHOICE RECOGNITION

CCEOC Success Story

Interview With Tom Kelly VP Sales & Service for Albridge Solutions

About Albridge Solutions

Albridge draws upon its financial services experience and technology expertise to help financial organizations enhance their operating performance and maximize their productivity.

Albridge's wealth management technology consolidates and reconciles client account information from hundreds of data sources that represent banking, brokerage, insurance, retirement, managed accounts and more.

Challenges & Opportunities

Albridge Solutions became involved with the Contact Center Employer of Choice® Certification and Branding program in 2007. They wanted to pursue the CCEOC designation to help solidify their reputation as an "employer of choice" and give specific recognition to the dedicated staff that provides outstanding service on a daily basis. They also realized that by building an employer of choice work environment, they would be positively affecting their ability to attract, retain and engage top talent.

Specific areas of focus include:

  • Gain industry-wide recognition as a great place to work
  • Improve ability to attract, retain and engage the best talent
  • Identify areas of opportunity to improve communication & performance
  • Build pride and commitment, boost morale and satisfaction
  • Develop employee focused continuous improvement programs

The following is an interview conducted by Jeff Doran - President of CCEOC Inc. with Tom Kelly - Vice President Sales & Service Albridge Solutions.

JD: Tom, you've had such great success in developing an employer of choice culture. Can you tell me how you've addressed key employee concerns and created a consistent view across the organization?

TK: Albridge Solutions has participated in the CCEOC program for 4 years now. Our initial diagnostic review and the subsequent survey revealed several issues between management and the service professionals that needed to be addressed. Based on the results of our first survey in early 2007, we set up committees in order to focus on the 5 lowest scoring categories. We used the CCEOC Plan for Continuous Improvement Template and conducted brainstorming sessions with management and associates until we formulated a detailed plan complete with milestones to gauge progress. We have been surveyed 3 consecutive years and continue to use the results each year to create new plans for continuous improvement.

JD: What communication channels did you use to keep employees involved and informed?

TK: We used several communication channels to communicate the benefits that both our associates and clients would see as a result of the CCEOC Program. CCEOC was a topic of conversation at every team and department meeting. Management reported on progress of the tasks within the plan and stressed the reasoning behind using CCEOC. The goal was to continuously work on creating a better and more enjoyable environment to work in as well as how that would translate into better client experiences. We also communicated via a periodic newsletter that went to the team called "The Grindenwald".

JD: Can you tell me a bit about your employee satisfaction & engagement scores?

TK: As measured by our year over year CCEOC survey data over the last 3 years our employee satisfaction scores have improved drastically from 47% in 2008 to 67% in 2009 and ultimately 87% in 2010. Additionally, employee engagement scores have climbed impressively as well starting at 64% in 2008 moving to 69% in 2009 and ultimately 87% in 2010.

JD: How has developing an employer of choice culture affected customer satisfaction scores?

TK: As measured by our year over year CCEOC survey data over the last 3 years our employee satisfaction scores have improved drastically from 47% in 2008 to 67% in 2009 and ultimately 87% in 2010. Additionally, employee engagement scores have climbed impressively as well starting at 64% in 2008 moving to 69% in 2009 and ultimately 87% in 2010.

Year Overall Satisfaction
2008 82.61
2009 84.86
2010 85.42
Q-Present 88.83

Year over year overall client satisfaction has consistently gone up from 2008-present

  • Overall Courteous Category have remained in the high 90s from 2008-present
  • Overall Knowledgeable Category have remained in mid 80s to low 90s from 2008-present

JD: You've had big gains in productivity. Can you provide some insight into why this has occurred?

TK: Productivity has significantly increased over the past 3 years as a result of CCEOC and other initiatives such as upgrades to our training and call sampling programs. Below is a snapshot of the increase in call-per-rep productivity.

Year Number of C/S Professionals Avg. Call/Person
Q1 2008 15 17
Q1 2011 16 31

Albridge management does believe that CCEOC initiatives have played a substantial role in our CS professionals' productivity. CCEOC has helped us improve upon employee engagement thus improving the trust between management and associates. As such, our reps believe that their management team provides them with feedback with their development in mind but also to meet team and company goals.

JD: How has employee turnover been affected?

TK: Productivity has significantly increased over the past 3 years as a result of CCEOC and other initiatives such as upgrades to our training and call sampling programs. Below is a snapshot of the increase in call-per-rep productivity.

JD: How do you use the CCEOC designation as a competitive advantage to win new business?

TK: The CCEOC brand is used in response to RFP's by prospective clients when it pertains to questions about the Albridge Service Team. Additionally, all presentations made to prospective or existing clients include a discussion about our CCEOC certification. We talk about CCEOC as part of our continuous effort to focus on our people programs at Albridge. CCEOC is also used in our recruiting process. It is integral for candidates to understand that we focus on developing our people and creating a positive work environment for them. We have also encouraged clients to explore the CCEOC Program as well as our new parent company.

JD: Describe how the designation is used for internal recognition

TK: Albridge recently encouraged the Service Team to celebrate our accomplishment of achieving Gold Level this year. The company funded a night out at a local establishment which was well attended by our CS and Service Quality Team's as well as senior management. Senior Managers took the time to recognize the team for its accomplishments and explained how it positively impacted Albridge Solutions business.

JD: Tom, just to sum up, how has Albridge Solutions contact center benefited from developing an employer of choice culture?

TK: Albridge Solutions contact center operation scored 80% on the CCEOC Employee Survey© to certify as Gold Level. This is a 15 percentage point increase over the previous assessment score and a 33 point increase over the previous 2 assessments. This is the biggest consecutive increase by any contact center in the CCEOC program. This has been very motivating. CCEOC has helped us increase our employee satisfaction and engagement scores and in doing so helped us increase productivity and improve the service we provide our clients.

JD: Tom, thanks very much for your time and continued success.

TK: My pleasure.