This document summarizes how HGS partnered with a publishing company to improve efficiency and reduce costs by handling their customer service and internet support programs. HGS centralized operations, reduced training time, and standardized processes. This allowed them to reduce agents needed by 20% and average handle time by 35%. HGS also implemented new solutions like e-faxing, data analysis, and voice recognition to further cut costs and improve customer experience. Through these partnerships, HGS helped the client realize significant operational improvements and cost savings.

1. Increasing Efficiency and Reducing Cost
- Publishing Industry
Publishing Industry Company | HGS Client Since 2005
Services provided: Business-to-business customer care | outbound data collection
Channels: Inbound and outbound phone | email | fax
In 2005, this client was managing an in-house team of agents in support of national print and online
yellow pages-published listings through a business-to-business contact handling solution. The company
approached HGS with the challenge of improving productivity and reducing costs. Prior to moving to
HGS, the program was largely decentralized, and the
client experienced new employee training time of six In the last 12 month period,
weeks, and 10 to 15 minute average handle time. HGS has achieved an
average AHT of 5 .4 minutes.
To prove our partnership value, our team immediately
sought ways to ensure our client experienced the HGS difference firsthand. We immediately identified
innovative ways to improve the program, increase productivity, and reduce client cost along the way.
In partnership with our client, HGS designed and deployed a business-to-business solution with two
overarching programs: customer service and internet support. The Customer Service program provides
inbound service for business advertisers inquiring, through email and inbound phone, about billing
invoices and business marketing programs. Our dedicated agents assist advertisers who need to make
payments, check account balances, inquire about advertising, or ask questions about their invoices.
Advertiser’s Issue HGS Resolution
Access the account and explain charges, proration,
I don’t understand the charges.
new advertising, late fees, etc.
Fax a consolidation form to be completed, signed,
I would like to consolidate multiple account
and faxed back to HGS at which time we send a
statements into one.
request to client’s billing department.
Fax a split form to be completed, signed, and faxed
I would like to split their account into multiple
back to HGS at which time we send a request to
accounts.
client’s billing department.
I would like to change their billing terms. Implement the requested changes.
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2. Advertiser’s Issue HGS Resolution
Payment Search Search for missing or incorrectly applied payments.
I would like to make payment. Process payment.
Understand, explain and process request to have
I want to disputes late fees. late fees removed via follow up to client’s billing
department.
Request payment history by submitting follow up to
Business ownership succession
client’s billing department.
The Internet Support program involves our team of dedicated agents working with small- and medium-
sized businesses to update online business profiles and establish mini-websites directly on the client’s
online web presence. Our team consults with business owners to maximize their online
advertisements, suggesting key words for search criteria, and helping complete details about their
business profiles.
Our partnership approach showed immediate value during our implementation phase. Prior to
partnering with HGS, the company was managing operations in several different centers. HGS
centralized the operations through a consultative approach and designed a cross-training strategy to
staff a frontline team at HGS.
Additionally, HGS’s training team evaluated existing training materials to ensure consistency across
training efforts, creating a 200-page training manual and accompanying online manual, which
reduced the time to train new agents by 50 percent. Additionally, through our cross-training and
centralization strategy, we were able to reduce the number of agents required to handle the inbound
contacts by 20 percent.
Once the programs were live at HGS, we conducted an audit of operational processes to seek areas for
improvement. Through this examination, we identified an opportunity to increase productivity and
reduce client cost. For example, we implemented a desktop e-faxing solution to reduce the average
handle time for inbound contacts, reducing our
client’s inbound contact handling costs by 35 In the last 12 month period, HGS
percent.
has achieved an average:
In a true partnership approach, HGS • ASA 5 seconds below goal.
continuously sought actionable
recommendations to improve productivity and
• abandon rate 1 % below goal.
reduce client costs. For example, we conducted • 2 % variance in NCO to forecast
drilldown analysis of customer case data to help
understand the reasons for customer contact. Through this analysis, we were able to identify a gap in
billing information printed on invoices. By sharing this information with our client, the invoices were
adjusted and as a result, call volume reduced.
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3. As we learned more and more about the program, we quickly identified ways that we could drive
process and quality improvements. For example, we started by closely examining the way contacts
were handled, and soon discovered that by standardizing the types and content collected during our
Internet Support contacts, we could handle more contacts per hour while also offering consistency in
business references.
In 2009, we worked with our client to implement a voice recognition solution for their customers to
listen to their account information. After customers say their account number, our speech recognition
IVR sends a session-based web service request to our client’s database and retrieves the customers
current balance, current due date, last payment date, last payment amount and next due date. Using
this web service feature ensures there are no confidentiality or privacy concerns since only these five
data elements are available to the IVR, and they are only available until the call has ended. During the
first six months of launching this service, approximately 50 percent of callers received one-call
resolution, decreasing the need to talk to a live agent. This operational efficiency allowed our client
to realize a return on investment in only three months.
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