Case Study: Retail
Utility client’s exceptional retention, care, and sales team grows 1,100%
Reducing consumer complaints critical KPI for U.S. retail energy provider
16% Reduction of PUCT complaints in Q4 FY22 vs. Q4 FY21
80% Service KPIs met or exceeded in 2021
1,100% Increase in HGS FTE since 2015
Client background
Since 2015, HGS has provided customer retention, care, and acquisition/sales to consumers of this American energy and utilities client, a family of seven companies.
| Lines of business | Inbound voice | Outbound voice |
|---|---|---|
| Customer retention | ✓ | ✓ |
| Customer care | ✓ | |
| Acquisition/sales | ✓ |
Key call drivers
- Enrolling in a new energy plan
- Renewing an existing plan
- Reporting disruption of service
The program has grown exponentially since its inception, and the team size spikes each summer to address high volume. The agents are confident and personable team members, half of whom work from home while the others work onsite—a 50/50 hybrid model split that allows for redundancies.
Business challenge
After experiencing several years of success with HGS handling its customer service calls, the client approached us for an outbound sales team to help achieve the following two objectives:
- Win back customers who switched to other Retail Energy Providers
- Gain new customers for the business by calling customers who were with other REPs
Solution strategy
We launched a small pilot program with five agents upon the client’s request. The target varied per campaign but was an average of .25% sales per hour (SPH).
Infuse client’s culture for exceptional outcomes
We created a custom curriculum to ensure agents fully understand the client’s business and customer service goals. All product training and OJT is conducted in house versus remotely, as HGS Jamaica prefers training within the brick-and-mortar environment for cultural and infrastructural reasons.
Motivate employees where it matters most
The team is incentivized for their best performance with achievable targets. Agents can earn commissions up to 50% of their monthly earnings.
Results
Exceeded sales per hour goal
The team achieved an average of .40% SPH for 2021, which was ~60% above the target.
Quadrupled outbound sales team size
Because the pilot was such a success, the outbound sales team grew to ~20 seats in 2022—a 300% increase.
Gained new inbound sales LOBs
The success of the outbound sales team allowed HGS to gain new lines of business with inbound sales. The three-agent inbound sales team started in March 2022, assigned with a critical KPI: 35% of the product mix sold to customers must be lead plans, which have the highest margins for the client.
Nearly quintupled inbound sales team size
By the end of March, the inbound sales team achieved 34%, missing the goal by only one percentage point. Immensely impressed by how quickly the team could sell lead products, the client commented that no other vendor had ever achieved such excellent results, and they requested the addition of 11 more agents to the team in April 2022.
16% Reduction of PUCT complaints in Q4 FY22 vs. Q4 FY21
80% Service KPIs met or exceeded in 2021 (Quality, AHT, Hold)
~60% Percentage achieved above SPH target in 2021
300% Increase in outbound sales team size
367% Increase in inbound sales team size
1,100% Increase in total HGS FTE since 2015
Looking ahead, we anticipate a long-term partnership and even further growth with this client. Their Senior Director for Client Experience is a promoter of HGS and has expressed excitement and optimism on what the future holds for our partnership.
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