Protection 1 Earns Top 5 Ranking in Call Center Excellence Awards
LAS VEGAS — Protection 1 earned a top five listing for “Best in Class Call Center — Over 200 Staff” category at the 2011 Call Center Excellence Awards. This is the first time the company entered the competition.
With awards given in eight categories, the Call Center Excellence Awards honor innovative call center solutions from the past year. The Int’l Quality and Productivity Center (IQPC), a company that provides tailored conferences and trainings to help executives keep up-to-date with industry trends, hosted the awards program on June 15 at the Planet Hollywood Casino in Las Vegas.
Protection 1 placed among well-known brands such as Discover, CIGNA Corp., ING Direct USA and Puget Sound Energy in its category. So, what does the ranking mean for the company? It shows the true value Protection 1 places on customer service, Chief Marketing Officer Jamie Haenggi tells SSI.
“Consumers today are not comparing us to other security providers, they are comparing us to their other experiences,” she says. “Knowing how we rank against other companies outside our industry that are known for high quality customer service is important to us. The awards provide a forum to learn from others, share our accomplishments and also bring attention to our industry.”
With 419 employees working in the call center, Protection 1 executives place great emphasis on customer service and leadership training. The company recently hired a training director to provide leadership tools for all supervisors and managers. Additionally, all employees are cross-trained to become universal agents so that they can handle nearly any call they receive, Haenggi says.
“Being transferred from agent to agent is a customer’s biggest complaint in customer service,” she explains. “We hold our centers to a less than 10-percent transfer rate — and we consistently accomplish that. We also deploy technology on the back end that enables us to route calls effectively without involving the customer.”
Another technique the company uses is its “one ring, live person” program, where an agent answers a call on the first ring. Only one agent is expected to answer the customer’s issue, and the problem should be solved the first time the customer calls.
“We keep our metrics simple, yet tied to the critical things that impact the experience,” Haenggi says. “This allows agents to focus only on the necessary things so they can deliver a consistent, quality experience.”
Ashley Willis is associate editor for SECURITY SALES & INTEGRATION. She can be reached at (310) 533-2419.
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