Company: Optima Tax Relief, LLC, Santa Ana, CA
Company Description: Optima Tax Relief is the leading nationwide tax resolution firm helping people solve their IRS tax problems and is the largest of its kind in America. We work to build relationships with our thousands of clients and the IRS alike so that we can offer representation to taxpayers with a variety of tax issues. We are committed to delivering an industry-leading experience to our employees and clients,
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Front-Line Customer Service Team of the Year - Financial Services Industries
 Nomination Title: Optima Tax Relief-Front-Line Customer Service Team
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated team, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- Briefly describe the nominated team: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 196 words used.
Optima's Customer Service team has been instrumental in creating the largest and most successful tax resolution company. Since Optima first opened its doors in 2011, the team has embraced the challenge of serving customers faced with devastating financial consequences due to the complicated and relentless U.S. tax system.
The stakes are high, and customers can become anxious, confused, and combative. This became heightened in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has continued. Since then, Optima has provided additional training to its customer service team to develop skills around building rapport with clients and diffusing escalated conversations. The team’s commitment to the company mission of “taking the stress out of tax” has enabled them to meet the needs of clients in this ever-changing climate.
At the center of Optima’s outstanding customer experience, is our employee experience. The formula starts with living our core values: UNITED (Uplift, Nurture, Inclusive, Trailblazer, Ethical, Driven). This commitment has resulted in local, regional, and national recognition for an award-winning culture. And has translated to earning awards for ethics like the Better Business Bureau Torch Awards in 2021 and the Civic 50 Award for community impact in the last five years.
- Outline the team's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 228 words used.
We are proud of the way our team has embraced change and navigated the uncertainty due to the pandemic. The physical and economic state of the country allowed us to reshape the way we service our clients through new technologies, improved systems, and a more customer-centric approach. In 2021, we took our team’s feedback and overhauled our client-facing departments to a “teams’ model” where each client is assigned to a team of Optima professionals instead of one individual. It worked, as we increased answer rates by 9%, talk time by 27%, and closed cases by 47% and this has translated to over 200,000 clients serviced in 2021—with the same employee count.
In 2021 our customer service team identified a need for Spanish-speaking services. Our innovation fair provided them the opportunity to pitch their idea and in 2022 we translated over 130 pages of scripts and templates and mapped out the routing of client calls to our Spanish-speaking agents.
In 2021, we asked our team to provide feedback on our call review rubric and the variables that contribute to a positive client experience. Based on the team’s input, we implemented the changes to our call review rubric and started to see our internal quality scores rise. While we were happy with our internal KPIs, we were ecstatic with the 41% lift in external positive customer reviews in 2022.
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 134 words used.
Our submission has the following attachments that provide evidence of the claims made in our nomination
- Customer Service Video-Team highlights mentioned in the submission and a Message from our CEO
- Awards (2020, 2021, 2022)-List of awards earned in the past three years including the ones mentioned in the submission
- New Hire Orientation Outline (Day 1 and Day 2)-Client-Centric Training
- Universal C.A.R.E Training Outline (Day 3)-Emphasis on Building Rapport with Client and Diffusing Escalated Conversations
- Optima Tax Relief-Client Bill of Rights
- Optima Tax Relief-UNITED Core Values
- Link to Optima Tax Relief website
- Links to various client review sites:
- Better Business Bureau
- Business Consumer Alliance
- Trustpilot
- SuperMoney
- Links to press releases:
- Optima Tax Relief-BBB Torch Award for Ethics
- Optima Tax Relief-Top Places to Work
- Optima Tax Relief-Inc 5000
- Optima Tax Relief-Civic 50 Award
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the team's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 249 words used.
These achievements are not simply metrics that we strive to reach. We continuously embed a customer-centric approach in our company culture from Day 1 and cultivate a culture of ongoing education. We post our Company Core Values and Client Bill of Rights along the walls of our building and intranet page. Our focus is on developing our employees, so they can help fulfill our mission of creating lifelong client relationships and providing solutions that take the stress out of tax.
This has translated to several positive ratings on customer review sites. The feedback has awarded us an A+ rating with Better Business Bureau (BBB) with an average customer rating of 4.44 stars out of 5, 4.6 stars out of 5 with Trustpilot, 4.6 stars out of 5 with Supermoney, and an A rating with Business Consumer Alliance.
We understand that it starts with our employees and the level of care we provide them. We have an award-winning culture and have been recognized as Top Places to Work in Southern California by the Orange County Register 8 years in a row.
Honored with some of the most prestigious awards in business, Optima is a seven-time honoree of the Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies. In 2021, we were awarded BBB’s Torch Award for Ethics. This award is a testament to our commitment to serving clients with integrity and trust, proving that our achievements are not only about the number of customers served, but the quality of our service.
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