Name: Brad Pacheco
Department: CalPers
Contact: Brad_Pacheco@CalPERS.CA.GOV
Area(s): Customer Service
Idea: To reduce callers wait time and improve customer service
Description: The California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) operates a customer contact center that serves as the central clearing house for questions from the System’s 1.5 million active and retired members. The contact center is supported by more than 92 full-time telephone agents and 20 retired annuitants. During the 2006-07 fiscal year, CalPERS contact center handled more than 656,000 calls from members. During this time, 10% of callers abandoned their call and the average time in the contact center holding queue was 5 minutes and 22 seconds.
In an effort to improve customer service and contact center operations, CalPERS retained Virtual Hold Technology, headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company provided CalPERS a queue management solution that allows members to choose to receive a call back rather than stay on hold. The technology met the pension fund's customer service needs, security requirements, and was a product that would easily integrate with the pension fund's existing call center applications.
Results: After four months with the new technology, call abandon rates dropped 12% and the average time in the contact center queue has been reduced to approximately 3.5 minutes. Since implementation, CalPERS has saved more than $16,000 by avoiding 700,000 minutes in the toll-free holding queue.