Toco Warranty - Customer Service Department of the Year

Company: Toco Warranty, Los Angeles, CA
Company Description: Toco Warranty offers month-to-month breakdown protection against vehicle breakdowns. Toco’s easy, affordable, & stress-free solutions shield customers from unpredictable disruptions, protecting their assets, families, and budgets. Toco's emphasis on customer satisfaction, company culture, and community outreach create an industry-leading experience and legacy that goes beyond the point of sale.
Nomination Category: Customer Service Department Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Department of the Year - Financial Services - Up to 100 Employees

Nomination Title: Toco Warranty

“You owe me $3,285.” How do you want to pay for that?
This is what it sounds like to be hit with an unexpected car repair bill.
Most of us do not have that kind of money lying around. What would you do?

This is not a sales pitch, but that is a real question. COVID-19 has tightened everyone’s budget. Most of us are watching our finances, minimizing expendable income expenditures, and do not want to purchase a new vehicle (or pay the cost of fixing a used one).

Toco customers buy a VSC, Vehicle Service Contract, to avoid having to come out of pocket or being forced to buy a new car. Some just buy it for peace of mind or to plan into their budget. Many buy it to avoid getting taken advantage of by mechanics who oftentimes overcharge or prescribe un-needed repair work.

Toco’s Customer Care team supports customers who commonly need billing and claims assistance. Toco’s call center actively services tens of thousands of customers who find themselves in financial hardships due to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing peace of mind and security during uncertain times.

Customer Care:

This year, Toco has rolled out multiple offers to customers to “catch-up” on past due payments, improving customer retention 15% year over year.

Many businesses face rising accounts that are past due or cancelling due to financial stress. Toco’ subscription service anticipated a 25% cancellation rate of past due accounts and minimized that number to below 10%, by offering Goodwill payments to customers needing financial assistance. Toco improved efficiency of operations and created a customer-focused department that takes claims in-house instead of using a third-party administrator.

Employee Experience:

A great customer experience begins with happy employees. Toco created the Ethos Council strives to nurture company culture, share values with stakeholders, and nurture our customers, colleagues, and community.

Toco’s Ethos Council is made up of four pillars:

-Success and Leadership
-Employee Experience
-Values and Communication
-Legacy and Philanthropy

In the face of the COVID crisis, Toco found a way to take all operations remote. Working remotely can be challenging for many dealing with burnout, frustrations, and lack of employee interaction. Toco’s Ethos Council continues to nurture the culture by offering employees information to articles that nurture the employee personally and professionally, provide weekly/monthly contests that are fun but also meaningful in sharing our values and vision, and ensure that employees do not feel alone or abandoned while working in a emote environment.

Training and Development:

Training and development of agents requires one thing above all, Trust. Toco understands that earning the trust of others presents opportunities to be candid yet compassionate and create an environment where we “Make Each Other Win”, Toco’s primary core value.

Toco strives to answer one question: “How do I know I am doing a good job”?

Using quantitative and qualitative metrics Toco identifies the factors that allow us to answer that question and set action plans to celebrate successes and improve any shortcomings.

Briefly describe the nominated department: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):

Toco's Customer Care Department improved Call center metrics YOY, reduced customer attrition, increased one-call resolutions, and became the highest overall rated provider in our marketspace.

2019 sparked a year of hiring, training, and continued development that the previous year did not have. Toco re-invented the QA process & scorecards and implemented weekly “Roundtable” sessions. As a result, Toco saw:

Employee turnover decreased (lost 18 employees in 2018, 3 employees in 2019)
Re-enrollments increase 34% YOY
Customer Retention increase by 8%
Customer Reviews increase by 400%
BBB Complaints reduce by 44% (39 in 2018/ 17 in 2019)

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

Customer Experience:
Toco maintains the highest overall BBB rating in our space with an A+ accredited rating and 4.75% favorable reviews ( Carshield “F”, Endurance “C+, Protect My Car “NR”).

In 2019, Toco joined Trustpilot (4.6- Stars) this year and Consumer Affairs (5-Stars) as an accredited partner, sending out review requests to customers and receiving an outstanding response. Toco responds to every review, positive or negative, and seeks out resolutions to customers with complications in their situation.

“I have the most amazing experience calling talking to my Toco Warranty customer service agent. Miss Shannon is such an amazing asset to this company. She's very descriptive and everything and anything that you need to know she's knowledgeable about all products and make you feel at ease to what you're doing is the right thing. This should be more customer service agent such as she. Thank you so much Miss Shannon.” Thomas V of Las Vegas

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 department's past performance (up to 250 words):

Achievements:
Business Metrics
-Sales increased 120% in 2019
-Past Due Rate under 10%
-Customer Retention Rate over 48% (for customer cancellation requests), a +13% growth YOY
-38% Customer Re-enrollment rate on expired contracts
-All agents currently performing 90 or higher in individual metrics (QA Scorecard attached)

Reviews
Highest Rated provider in the VSC Marketspace (Competitor Comparison attached)
Toco BBB: A+ Rating, Accredited, 4.5 Stars, 103 Customer Reviews: https: //www.bbb.org/us/ca/west-hills/profile/auto-warranty-services/toco-warranty-corp-1216-1015707

Toco Trustpilot: 4.5 Stars, over 300 Customer Reviews: https: //www.trustpilot.com/review/tocowarranty.com

Toco Consumer Affairs: 5-stars: https: //www.consumeraffairs.com/automotive/toco-warranty.html

Exceeds all global call center metrics

- Under 20 second hold time
- 3% ABN rate (1000 weekly incoming calls)
- 97% One-Call Resolution rate