CUSTOMER PROFILE
Pfizer is a multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation. Their customer service centers work to reinforce the value of Pfizer’s medicines with payer, provider, and channel customers. Customer service agents are an important part of ensuring patients have safe, efficient, and affordable access to their medicines. The company’s vision is to be recognized as the indisputable industry leader based on the quality of access and partnership. The contact centers have long used NICE’s CXone platform, and recently made the decision to combine all three locations’ Interactive Voice Response (IVR) tools into one to streamline operations.
01 THE BEFORE
Multiple IVRs, multiple challenges
Pfizer’s operations span across three contact centers. Two of the three centers shared the same IVR cloud while the third functioned on its own separate cloud platform. Each site had its own unique business needs that fluctuated frequently. This set up worked initially, but soon the company began running into challenges. The IVRs weren’t connected, leading to customers needing to continuously repeat information when routed to a new agent or contact center and resulting in very important customer information being stored in numerous locations.
Agents had to be logged into multiple different IVRs simultaneously or switch back and forth to ensure they could assist repeat callers or agents at other centers, which was inefficient and prone to errors. This inhibited Pfizer’s ability to scale as needed to provide the exceptional level of service customers expect.
02 DESIRE TO CHANGE
Reporting struggles and routing issues
Having to use multiple IVRs simultaneously led to low agent satisfaction across every contact center. “Switching between IVRs meant everyone had to be dealt with like a brand-new hire in the systems each time and routing was not ideal. Calls would be routed all over and not always to the best agent for that particular customer,” said Jay Soria, Customer Service Support Analyst at Pfizer. These delays inhibited agents from performing to the best of their ability.
With multiple IVRs in use, reporting had become a serious challenge. Customer data was duplicated, and agents had difficulty navigating the company’s extensive database. Metrics are key for Pfizer to make informed decisions on day-to-day operations, and without consistent, accessible reporting, taking data-backed action was challenging. To have a full understanding of how the contact center was performing, Soria would review reports from each IVR system. This was a very time consuming, and friction filled process. To improve this process and receive accurate reports, consolidating the IVRs emerged as the best option to streamline operations.
03 THE SOLUTION
Streamlining into one powerful IVR
The process to merge all IVRs into one took about a month to configure. Once the technical aspects of consolidating were complete, agents and managers were re-trained on the system to help move forward and ensure a smooth transition onto the new platform. The retraining process reframed the team’s mindset to a more unified, “one team” mentality.
During the transition, the team explored the various features of the NICE CXone platform and discovered different pieces to incorporate that would be even more helpful for agents. Soria’s role was also streamlined as part of the transition, with evaluating calls and running reports for managers now simplified. “I get to see several types of metrics in one view and use them to make decisions that make things easier and smoother for our agents,” Soria said. “Honestly I’d say my role has improved 100% since the transition.”
04 THE RESULTS
Giving the team their time back
The consolidation onto the CXone IVR provided immediate savings for Pfizer in both overhead costs and time. With only one IVR system to work in, agents found information much faster, improving first call resolution and employee productivity. Logging into one centralized system improved agent satisfaction, removing the burden of cross-checking notes, and giving the team back time to work on other tasks.
Communication has also improved on the team, with agents able to post a quick status update to step out briefly for school pick up or an errand before logging back on. “I have been impressed with how much the team says they enjoy logging in to the system now,” Soria said. The increased visibility allows supervisors to perform their jobs more effectively and give agents autonomy.
Soria is also finding the benefit of improved visibility in reporting. No longer needing to cross check multiple reports, he is now able to spend more time analyzing and understanding the data to take appropriate action and improve the businesses day-to-day.
05 THE FUTURE
A gamified future
Now that the IVR transition is complete, Pfizer is turning its focus to improving the agent experience further with collaboration through team building exercises to encourage team members to build stronger working relationships. Gamification is a priority, with managers experimenting with new ways to add in surprises and rewards for the team.
Soria plans to implement seasonal themes to keep things interesting. “We’ve had a few people tell us already that they were worried their planned vacation time would hinder their ability to participate and they didn’t want to miss out,” he said. “We’ll be using an approach that ensures that won’t be the case.”
