Ryan Strategic Advisory
Using Happiness as a Driver for Customer Experience Delivery
A white paper for OneLink BPO – June 2018

Introduction

Today’s customer experience environment demands getting it right the first time. This is why so many enterprises place a premium on finding an outsourcing partner that lives and breathes excellence in consumer interactions. But this is not something that can be learned through instruction at the outset of an agent’s career – rather, it must permeate through a provider’s organization in the form of positivity that is reflected in results when dealing with end-users.

One Link BPO, a leading and rapidly growing provider of contact center services in the Americas, has taken the initiative to drive positivity through happiness as the hallmark of its workplace environment. This goes from the top of the organization through to the front-lines of its multishored operations. This strategy has proven effective in successfully managing customer experience for some of the world’s biggest brands.

OneLink BPO in a Snapshot

A household name in customer experience management throughout the American nearshore, One Link BPO is a third-party contact center services provider with capacity throughout some of Latin America’s most important delivery points, including El Salvador, Colombia, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Mexico. It services clients across multiple sectors, such as telecom, media, technology, financial services, travel & transport and retail / e-commerce. One Link BPO’s portfolio of services include customer experience management, technical support, back-office processes, order management order to cash, procure to pay, hire to retire, record to report and logistics.

Combined with one of the most experienced executive teams in third-party services, One Link BPO’s network of nearly nine-thousand employees (known as Incredybles®) drive strong interactions, using multiple languages for end-users throughout the Americas across voice and digital channels.

Driving Positive Work Culture through happiness at OneLink BPO

Enterprises have never valued their customer experience partners to ensure top-flight interactions more than they do today. After all, according to the Ryan Strategic Advisory 2018 Front Office Omnibus Survey, one of the major challenges for in-house contact centers relates to managing agent recruitment and retention. If the front-line team is not in a positive frame of mind, their interactions will be less than robust, cheerful and efficient. One Link BPO’s CEO, Eduardo Salazar, initiated a campaign to infuse the company’s delivery points with a workplace atmosphere that does much to drive the right environment in which its Incredybles® thrive. One Link BPO has created a value proposition that includes a unique coaching model, on site univeristies, financial aid, movie theaters and multiple benefits. This is built on a multipronged platform that includes:

• Happiness – unquestionably, by focusing on the above-elements, One Link BPO aims to foster an atmosphere of happiness in its contact centers, regardless of location. A happy group of front-line team members results in less truancy, lower attrition and better engagement with end-users.
• Empowerment – key to One Link’s BPO positive workplace environment is the company’s willingness to ensure that its front-line team is empowered in its interactions with consumers. This bolsters a sense of purpose in their respective roles. By providing initial and ongoing training on products / services supported, linguistic skills (in the One Link BPO Language Studio) as well as around customer experience delivery, agents feel confident in their decisions, which results in satisfied, repeat consumers. Work / life balance – while seen by many as a cliché, One Link BPO has taken it upon itself to promote a work / life balance for its team members. Whether it is pursuing a musical passion, engaging in sporting competition, or furthering education at a higher learning institution, One Link BPO aims to provide its agents with the support and encouragement they need to make sure that outside interests are embraced. It also includes incorporating the team members’ families into regular leisure activities. This engagement is essential in keeping motivated, dynamic agents.
• Career path – a common complaint in the outsourcing sector is a lack of upward mobility for recruits. However, One Link BPO has managed to address this issue by offering motivated team members a framework they can use to move into new areas of responsibility in customer experience in a steady fashion. This includes mentoring by more senior-level colleagues and leadership training classes, and university-level courses taught on-site in the delivery centers.

Results that Count

OneLink BPO quantifies its efforts to foster a positive employee environment in a number of ways. In the most recent One Link BPO employee survey (which had a participation rate of roughly 90%), four-in-five respondents indicated that they felt committed to the company, its clients and the end-users that they are supporting. Considering that there has been ongoing growth in this proportion of committed employees, it is logical to conclude that One Link BPO’s approach to a positive company culture is having the right impact its team members.
Attrition rates also validate One Link BPO’s positivity approach. With monthly levels as low as two-percent in some of its centers (with a cross-site average of just under three-percent), One Link BPO has some of the lowest agent churn rates in the Americas.

Conclusions

Enterprises cannot afford to miss out on driving consumer loyalty in every single interaction. By working with an organization that fosters positivity, engagement and empowerment, the likelihood of happy, repeat customers is augmented. One Link BPO aims to provide its clients and their consumers with such a work atmosphere, and the results are there to show that this approach is having a positive impact. In the current competitive environment, this approach goes far in cementing customer loyalty and long-term revenue streams.