Case Study
Fortune 500 Financial Services Company
Challenge
Rapidly increase staff to meet call volume
Hurricane Ike was the third most destructive hurricane to ever make landfall in the United States. When it hit Galveston, Texas on September 13th, 2008 the winds were nearly 125 miles per hour. Before it was over, the storm caused extensive flooding, demolished buildings and left millions of people and offices without power for weeks. Thousands of people were ordered to evacuate the coastal areas of Texas.
Faced with the likely closure of its Houston-based call center as well as the evacuation of most of the staff, a national Fortune 500 financial institution began looking at ways it could continue to provide the high quality service its customers had come to expect. While some of the calls could be re-routed to other internal centers, there simply were not enough agents to handle the remaining call volume. Outsourcing calls to a random facility wasn’t an option as extensive financial knowledge and experience with the company’s existing systems and processes were required. Just 24 hours before Hurricane Ike was predicted to hit Texas, the company turned to Alpine Access.
The Alpine Answer
Utilize unscheduled trained professionals located around the country
As an existing outsourcing partner, Alpine Access was an ideal choice because:
1. We had experienced employees already trained on the company’s procedures.
2. Our home-based employees are located throughout the United States, so many were unaffected by the hurricane.
Alpine Access was challenged by the financial services company to find as many additional customer care professionals as possible in a very short time. Only a small percentage of the agents on the company’s account were scheduled to work that fateful Saturday. This left over 100 available professionals who were trained and familiar with the company.
Through phone calls, email and instant messaging, Alpine Access tapped into those employees to ask for help. The response was immediate. Within minutes, agents were located and agreed to start working. Alpine Access continued to add customer service professionals to handle the company’s customer service needs throughout the weekend.
Results
Consistent high-quality customer service
In less than one day, Alpine Access was able to flex up staffing by 22% over the originally scheduled hours. With a unique blend of planned and solicited extra hours, Alpine Access’ employees provided the much needed support to effectively handle the call volume from customers unaffected by the hurricane. It is estimated that service levels that weekend were twice as high what they would have been without the extra resources. In addition, calls were answered within an acceptable 30 second timeframe and the company maintained its standard for consistent, high-quality service.