MetTel - Back-Office Customer Service Professional of the Year

Company: MetTel
Entry Submitted By: AxiCom Public Relations
Company Description: MetTel is a leading global provider of integrated digital communications solutions for enterprise customers. By converging all communications over a proprietary network, MetTel enables enterprise companies to easily deploy and manage technology-driven voice, data, wireless and cloud solutions worldwide. MetTel offers superior customer to more than 8,000 clients, ranging from local single location.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Individual Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Back-Office Customer Service Professional of the Year - Technology Industries

Nomination Title: How Analyzing Billing Invoices Far Exceeded Customer Expectations

Angela Thomas is a member of MetTel’s Client Experience (CX) team who has advocated for a better billing experience for the company’s abundant base of small business customers. She became the first MetTel CX Billing Analyst, a role she defined to bridge the gap for business owner clients who struggle to decode lengthy telecom statements, but lack the resources to staff an expense management team (yes, those lengthy telephone bills still exist for business clients!). Within 90 days, her work had reduced billing-related call and email volume by 27% while reducing dispute handling times by 50%, correlating to an overall 14% reduction in department operating costs.

Outline the nominee's achievements since July 1 2019 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):

In Angela’s initial role as a frontline customer service agent, she learned firsthand what research has long borne out: consumers have difficulty understanding their billing statements. In a survey, communications billing firm BriteBill conducted a study sampling over 3,000 consumers in eight countries and found that 68% of customers say the bill is not clear or easy to understand. Angela made it her mission to raise the bar at MetTel and successfully petitioned senior leadership to let her take on the task.

Angela partnered with MetTel’s IT and Development teams to design a new system workflow she called “Invoice Analysis Request”, making it available to all customers who wished for an in-depth review of their billing inquiries beyond the general support that the contact center agents are able to provide. Her clever system-based solution had the twin advantage of setting up an accessible work queue within the company CRM while also providing MetTel leadership ample reporting data to prove that her initiative was clearly meeting a pent-up customer demand.

Over the past year, Angela has performed over 460 invoice analyses and maintains an average customer satisfaction survey rating of “far exceeding expectations.” Her ongoing commitment to distinguish MetTel’s billing support from the lackluster industry norm has garnered accolades from clients and internal departments alike. MetTel’s head of Risk Assessment praised Angela’s attention to detail in handling bill disputes as among the best she has seen in her 17 years at the company.

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the nominee's past performance (up to 250 words):

On top of becoming MetTel’s subject matter expert for billing inquiries, Angela consistently goes the extra mile for her peers by moderating company message boards and putting in extra hours to coach new employees. Her get-it-done attitude and willingness to take on new challenges are tremendous assets to the entire MetTel organization.