Achievers - Back-Office Customer Service Team of the Year
Company: Achievers, Toronto, ON, Canada
Company Description: Achievers’ mission is to change the way the world works. Our Employee Success Platform is specifically designed to drive higher levels of employee engagement. It’s built to align everyone with business objectives and company values, driven by recognizing shared victories every day. It’s designed to make success a way of life.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Back-Office Customer Service Team of the Year - Technology Industries
Nomination Title: Achievers, Back Office Customer Service Team of the Year, Technology Industries
Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since the beginning of July 2017 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:
The Achievers Operations team supports a myriad of business needs, growth initiatives, and customer care commitments on an increasingly global scale. Resolving order/invoice inquiries, curating regional catalogs, managing vendor relations/integrations, and supporting customer needs offer but a brief snapshot of the responsibilities the team bears. Amidst the ever-dynamic blueprint of organizational growth, the pleadge to deliver upon an exceptional reward experience from beginning to end remains our guiding beacon.
This past year, we have welcomed new customers into the familial fold of Achievers (including our largest), we have gained new vendor partnerships across far-reaching borders, and have benefited from the growth of newly acquired organizations throughout the world. The expeditious pace with which we continue to push our own boundaries necessitated the review of opportunities to scale.
To ensure the quality and consistency of our service would not be sacrificed given business growth, several initiatives were taken on:
Vendor Automation. As partnerned vendors continue to grow alongside the footprint of the member base we support, the refinement of current integrations was sought. Several global partners were identified;
Canada-A long-standing partner implemented a new processing flow that was personally showcased to members of our Operations team. In 2018 we implemented their API leveraging these new capabilities. This mitigated manual work and risk of human error by both parties, improved shipment time frames by 53%, reduced instances of product substitutions by 81%, and grew the vendor’s offering by 14%.
Latin America – Our member base in Latin America continuously grows; timely order fulfillment and product maintenance has become increasingly paramount. One such partner within the region has iterated upon their API to meet thease needs. We have further refined this integration, improving shipment time frames by 23%, and decreasing inquiries by 10%.
UK/Australia – With organizational growth within the UK and Australia, we have gained the opportune fortune to partner with new local vendors. Supporting a cross-functional effort to connect these independent business units into the Achievers platform, a new integration was implemented. Through this partnership, our Australian offering in particular grew by 209%. We have since welcomed new customers within each of these countries, who have greatly benefitted from the partnership.
Holiday Management. Historically, the holiday season is the source of peak fulfillment volumes and product demand. Two criteria required change. Firstly, behavioural response to holiday campaigns needed to be better examined. Secondly, the operating boundaries required review for better future proofing.
In 2017, a new holiday campaign and sale was presented to our member base. Supplemented by an aggressive communication campaign, platform traffic was seen to increase an average of 63% upon each instance. Following the success of the season (an increase of 32% from the year prior) a survey was distributed to gain insight on what drove the redemptions.
Survey Snapshot:
Overall Satisfaction: 95%
Order Prompted by Sale: 3%
Order Prompted by Points Received: 63%
Takeaways from the survey and cross-departmental meetings contributed to an entire reimagining of our holiday season. Never before has our holiday strategy shifted so significantly, and backed by data insights.
Vendor Launch and Review Processes. The commitment to offer our members locally relevant rewards at an efficient rate required the onboarding process of new partners to be refined. Through the implementation of task management software, we have enhanced the visibility of vendors in the pipeline, tracked inter-departmental needs, and maintained traction on deadlines. This has been a fantastic process addition, increasing our vendor launch rate by 19%.
We have additionally established automated reporting practices that support the regular reviews of vendors and their performance. A task that formerly took two weeks to complete, was reduced to 20 minutes.
The Stone Age did not end due to a lack of stones. Rather, we adapted to better solutions. So too has the Operations team; seeking new ways to refine work flows as we continue to offer the best support to colleagues and customers worldwide.