Six Sigma Case Studies : Improving Net Promoter Score

Industry: Service provider

Background

The client is the largest regional communications company in the United States and one of the top five wireless service providers in the country. TELUS International launched the client’s post-pay customer service program in December 2007 and was awarded the pre-pay account several months later. We handle the following transactions:

• General billing (explanation and dispute resolution)
• Rate plan and feature explanations
• Equipment information
• Network and roaming explanation
• Basic troubleshooting

The challenge

One of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of this program is the Net Promoter Score (NPS). Customers are surveyed with the following question using a rating scale of 1 to 5: “Based on your experience with the <<client>> call center representative, how likely are you to recommend <<client>> to your family, friends or work associates?” Depending on the score, customers are categorized as Promoters (5), Neutrals/Passives (3-4) or Detractors (1-2). NPS is calculated by subtracting the percentage of Detractors from the percentage of Promoters.

TELUS International engaged its Operations, Quality Assurance and Business Process Improvement (BPI) teams to improve the NPS metric by way of a Six Sigma Green Belt project.

Solution

The team conducted a Voice-of-Customer (VOC) analysis and determined that the top two negative drivers of NPS were insufficient product knowledge and poor communication skills, specifically:

• Lack of knowledge regarding billing and product features, such as new billing call types and billing format
• No defined process for escalations and no established guideline for callbacks
• Dissatisfaction with communication skills such as accent, courtesy and comprehension

The team devised the following solutions to address the challenges:

• Process improvements: Escalation and callback processes were created and standardized for the program. Resolution Specialists (RS) and Mentors were made accountable for handling escalated calls.
• Quality assurance improvements: Quality audit guidelines were aligned with the guidelines of the NPS metric. Communication skills assessment was incorporated into the quality guidelines.
• Training improvements: Job aids and frequently used applications were incorporated into an Intranet for easy access. Agents are required to take the monthly Program Mastery Assessment (PMA) exams to measure their understanding and evaluate their progress.
• Capability building: Operations Managers and Team Supervisors underwent Six Sigma Yellow Belt certification to expand their process management knowledge and improve their analytical and problem-solving skills. Team Supervisors were cross-skilled with Senior Agents to improve their process and product knowledge.

Results

The program’s NPS improved significantly. At the end of the project, NPS was at 62.50%, exceeding the program target of 50%. TELUS International ranked first in NPS among all offshore vendors. To date, NPS performance is consistently monitored and sustained.