SACS at Work

Online Book Retailer Tells Story of Improved Employment Screening

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times for one of the nation's best-known online book retailers.
A period of strong sales and steady growth spurred rapid expansion in the company's call center. However, the expansion was not without its downside. Most notable was the high level of employee turnover, absenteeism, tardiness and poor work habits among call center agents.

The company needed to improve the quality of its agents who, in most cases, provided the only 'human' impression the growing customer base would ever encounter. Filling seats with better agents would require improving the tools and processes used for hiring.

Positive Results Fit to Print

The bookseller turned to Select's SACS call center software as the primary boost to its employment screening process. Profiles for success were created to measure a candidate's true potential to succeed and stay with the company based on the specific environment and tasks. After just eight months of using SACS, the company reported significant improvements in the following areas:

• The quality of new hires. Call center management provided extremely positive feedback regarding the quality of new hires, noting a vast improvement in their customer service performance, written communication skills and work ethic.
• Call center training success rate. Prior to using SACS, a high percentage of the company's new agents failed to complete the required training course. With SACS in the hiring process, almost all new agents successfully complete the training program.
• Attendance and tardiness rates. Thanks to SACS, new hires are more likely to come to work - and to arrive on time. There is a direct correlation between this improvement and a reduction in employee turnover, which most often occurs in the first few months of employment for call center agents.
• Interviewing time. SACS increased the company's hiring efficiency and control of the candidate flow for Human Resources staff. Now, fewer candidates need to be interviewed. Plus, these candidates are certain to be more qualified because they are properly screened and assessed before they ever see a recruiter for a final interview.

Each chapter of this bookseller's story has proven to be better than the last. With its effective employment screening assessment in place to identify the best customer agents, SACS continues to deliver a variety of productivity and performance benefits throughout the company's call center.

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