The Challenge:

Scaling Customer Operations & Reducing Costs

Scheduling resources for a 12-hour, 7-days-a-week support service had become inefficient for a US-based manufacturer of consumer electronics, and related accessories and software. Overlapping schedules in the middle of the day began resulting in:

• Excessive costs related to idle capacity
• Deteriorating agent job satisfaction resulting in attrition
• Performance impact of new hires

The client tried several solutions—such as offering voluntary time off (VTO) and split shifts, but they were not long-term sustainable. The client needed innovative thinking to solve the problem.

Our Solution:

ResultsCX used a part-time work-from-home staffing model in Pasig, Philippines (where the client’s customer support was managed) as a solution. Although not unique to the market, the solution offered opportunities to address the problem.

For the pilot, the ResultsCX recruitment team posted job descriptions for short early and late shift opportunities. The response was overwhelming. Over 2,500 candidates applied in the first four days alone.

As a work-from-home offering, the solution capitalized on highly qualified resources looking for extra work opportunities without the challenges and costs associated with a commute. They filled specific high-volume portions of the day without adding to the over-staffing where volumes were low, aligning hours requirements with volume needs (this covered the ‘length of shift’ issues). The program was so successful that it became the sole means for growth and attrition backfills in the enterprise.

To facilitate the success of this new structure , it was imperative to align part-time training with the same part-time production schedules. ResultsCX migrated to a fully remote learning environment and coordinated with the client to create 4-hour curriculum modules without increasing the overall training duration. As a result, agent training time was halved, but the yield remained the same, if not better. When needed, this training model could also be applied to full-time recruits to address training costs and time issues. Additionally, ResultsCX also rolled out effective engagement and coaching practices for these remote agents, created team channels for communication and immediate assistance, and modified the approach over time to ensure optimized results.

ResultsCX is also piloting the use of existing agents in other accounts experiencing similar idle times. It is building part-time schedules across multiple clients to reduce costs to serve, improve efficiency and create additional flexibility, on-site stability, oversight, and career pathing opportunities for full-time employees.