Indianapolis-based eyewear company One Click runs its entire business, particularly its customer care center, by implementing core values and spreading its brand mission. Angie Stocklin, Co-founder and COO, recently shared how the company hires and trains new contact center agents at Ecommerce Operations Summit 2019.
“Our customer care center is less of a traditional call center, it’s a talk about everything call center,” said Angie Stocklin, Co-founder and COO of One Click at Ecommerce Operations Summit.
Stocklin told attendees the company sat down in 2009 to discuss what the company stands for, which translated into these core values: People matter most, create customer happiness, win through teamwork, act like an owner, share open and effective communication, never settle, seek honesty and integrity in all we do, embrace change, think big and spread happiness beyond our four walls.
“Our current mission is to be the world’s most people focused eyewear company,” said Stocklin. “While the purpose of the company hasn’t changed, it took us a while to figure out how to put it in a way that people understood it, remember it and recite it.”
Stocklin said that any company’s mission, its vision and purpose, needs to be higher than just making money.
“We’re all about the people,” said Stocklin. “That is what makes us stand out in the crowd, this is our north star and the reason we go to work every day.”
One Click describes people in three ways: Team members, customers and the community.
“We’re not just there for our customers, at the end of the day our team members are just as important,” said Stocklin.
The company relies heavily on its internal referrals when it comes to hiring.
Stocklin said One Click shares employment information through its website, on social media and throughout the city of Indianapolis where team members often speak at events about company culture, core values, startups and other topics.
“It’s just an opportunity to talk about One Click and who we are,” said Stocklin.
Stocklin said One Click also has college partnerships in an effort to share the brand with the next generation of professionals.
One Click aims to live through its mission with the hiring and interview process, which routinely involves a phone screening with human resources, peer and work interviews, meeting with the hiring manager, the COO and the CEO.
“When we hire, our interview process is pretty extensive, compared to other companies, but we want to make sure you are going to be the right fit,” said Stocklin.
One Click’s hiring questions are centered on its core values. Questions may include what it means to be a good teammate, overcoming obstacles, and knowing the difference between good customer service and great customer service.
“We also ask about personal experiences around customer service,” said Stocklin.
Stocklin said working in the call center at One Click can be unconventional. The company refrains from using scripts and it doesn’t measure the same metrics that agents are accustomed to using at other companies.
Customer care agents are expected to complete several months of onboarding training. This includes spending time with human resources, the CEO and an in-depth walkthrough of what One Click expects from its team members. Customer care agents are also trained on products.
“They get to talk to every single leader in our organization and find out what everyone in each department does,” said Stocklin.
New One Click customer care agents, also known as the customer happiness team, are given a customer happiness tone guide, which includes information about the company and how it treats its customers.
“We talk about our customers and how we act and react as an organization,” said Stocklin.
Stocklin explained that the company has quality assurance training for its customer care agents, teaching new hires about open and closed interactions, how to handle the contact, transaction information and soft skills such as asking effective questions and communicating information during a call.
“Nowhere in the quality assurance training are we going to say anything about being off the phone quickly,” said Stocklin. “It’s all about the experience being positive for [the customer].”
When it comes to retaining customers, One Click has several goals and objectives it aims to achieve, including focusing on how to grow revenue, ways to hit its EBITDA goal, as well as reaching its NPS average and customer happiness score.
“What that does is cascade into departmental goals and individual goals as well,” said Stocklin. “This is what everyone is responsible for on a quarterly basis and it goes into their annual review.”
For the NPS average and customer happiness score, One Click looks at customer interactions on various channels to help achieve the company goal of 93%.
“We look at it from a channel perspective and from an individual perspective that rolls up to a global score to the customer experience manager,” said Stocklin.
The company continues to infuse its culture through other avenues as well, including awarding team members in all departments, company-hosted events and the opportunity for employees to volunteer their time.