Search past winners/finalists


  • MESA logo

CareerBuilder

How to EnterCompany: CareerBuilder, Chicago, IL
Company Description: Founded in 1995, CareerBuilder has the largest online job site in the U.S., but we're more than just a job board. We are a global leader in human capital solutions. Through constant innovation, unparalleled technology, and superior customer service delivered at every touch point, CareerBuilder helps match the right talent with the right opportunity more often than any other site.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Award for Innovation in Customer Service

Nomination Title: CareerBuilder's Service Culture of Innovation

Tell the story about your organization's innovations in customer service since the beginning of July 2011 (up to 500 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:

Over the past 17 months, the CareerBuilder Customer Service Team has reinvented the way we engage our customers, and how we keep our employees motivated to deliver on our promise of superior service. We began by launching a “Culture Program” to eliminate barriers to employee and customer satisfaction. This program included 100% team participation in defining obstacles that prevented us from providing world class service. We determined that measuring average handle time, slow performance feedback, and minimal employee engagement negatively impacted our performance. Based on feedback and survey data, we instituted departmental changes and measured our improved performance against our historic Q12 Employee Satisfaction Survey and our primary customer KPI, namely, NetPromoter Score (NPS).

Based on the Satmetrix 2012 Industry Benchmark study, the average NPS score for online services is 46%, while world class organizations have scores exceeding 75%. The “Best in Class” organization averages an 83% NPS. Our approach was to eliminate any obstacle that negatively impacted the customer experience; thus, we stopped monitoring average handle time and allowed our agents to completely address customer concerns. We made the decision to become a delight center that exceeded customer expectations versus a cost center that simply met the needs of our clients. This was not a popular decision as senior leaders equated the higher handle time with longer hold times and added costs; however, we demonstrated how this approach improved first call resolution and customer satisfaction. The results showed an improved NPS score of above 83% for the last 12 consecutive months with a high of 87% in August of 2012 while not impacting costs.

The culture program also uncovered that our feedback/coaching process was extremely reflective and not impactful. This led to the development of a real-time agent performance dashboard capturing all relevant metrics and customer feedback. This dashboard led to our servicing team developing a “360 Closed Loop” employee and customer engagement process. The dashboard allows leaders and agents to see all the details of customer interactions including links to recorded calls, customer survey scores, recorded feedback, and internal quality scores if monitored.

The results yielded a more informed agent that self-corrected behaviors based on immediate feedback from clients while being better prepared for performance conversations with their leaders. We also saw value in senior representatives following-up with clients who were not delighted by our service to proactively address glitches in our offering.

Our call center encourages, values and rewards innovative solutions.

Implementing an “Ideas from Everywhere” program allowed for entry level call center employees to submit an idea that will impact the company. If the employee’s idea is selected as a winner they are awarded $70,000 and a potential promotion to support that new line of business. This program keeps employees engaged and it improves morale as agents can see that their opinions matter and their voices are heard. Several ideas from the team have saved hundreds of man hours and improved organizational processes. We’ve seen the employee satisfaction score increase above 90% this year.

 

Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated customer service organization:

Abe Barghouti started with CareerBuilder in 2007 as a customer service representative. Abe went on to be promoted into various roles, prior to accepting the role of Customer Service Manager. Abe drives our team morale.

Tiffany Williams joined CareerBuilder in 2012 as a Customer Service Manager. Her professional motto is, “Commit Yourself to Constant Improvement’, and she models this in her interactions with her peers and team.

Eric Newton is the Service Director and as a “Service Fanatic”, Eric aims to convey the value and benefits of delivering exceptional internal and external customer support to everyday consumers and business users.