Call Center Transforms Culture and
Delivers Bottom-Line Results
- Five Years of Sustained Progress -
This client is one of the leading global diagnostics companies, providing diagnostic equipment and consumable supplies for the healthcare industry worldwide. Their Technical Assistance Center (TAC) is a call center with specialists who help clients in pathology labs with technical questions or problems related to use of their equipment and consumables. The TAC plays a key role in the company’s success. After examining customer satisfaction results, the management team realized that this department was simply not meeting customers’ needs. They decided to make some fundamental changes. The TAC’s stated mission is: to enhance people’s lives by providing proactive and responsive solutions that drive excellence in the world of medical technology. This is their story.
The Challenge: In 1998 and 1999, independent surveys rated the TAC as one of the worst in the industry in customer satisfaction. A new Vice President came in to lead the TAC with a vision that they would be: NUMBER 1! ABSOLUTELY THE BEST! No Question —No Compromise!
He shared his vision with his people: “Our goal is to be perceived by our customers, our competition, and ourselves as the BEST Technical Assistance Center in our industry. We will be recognized by internal and external customers as superior to such a degree that the TAC is a competitive advantage in the selling process. Each of us will become empowered to do whatever it takes to totally delight the customer.” These words were used to announce the launch of a training process called The Pursuit of Customer Excellence to his team of 200 Technical Call Specialists, supervisors and managers who at that time comprised the frontline technical assistance for thousands of hospital and clinical laboratories worldwide. “What we are really looking at here,” the new VP explained during the planning process, “is a culture change… creating a culture that focuses not only on technical excellence, but also on customer service excellence.” He continued by emphasizing the need for personal accountability within an empowered environment:
Success Story: A Call Center Transforms its Culture and Gets Bottom Line Results