Success Stories 
TARP Worldwide Utilizes Angel.com Phone-Based IVR Questionnaire to
Strengthen Call Center Management
Download the TARP Success Story PDF (163kb) 
The Company
TARP Worldwide is a leading customer experience agency and research firm. TARP offers a complete suite of customer interaction services, including experience consulting, customer satisfaction measurement, benchmarking, workforce motivation strategies, customer interaction training and innovative contact center solutions. TARP has worked with dozens of Fortune 500 companies, including AAA, American Express, Coca-Cola and Pfizer.
The Challenge
TARP offers its clients a comprehensive training program for frontline call center managers, a notoriously high-turnover position in which many are first-time managers. To help maximize the value of the program, TARP sought to provide an innovative continuing-education element that would maintain participants’ interest level and excitement about the program.
“Call centers heavily influence the customer experience,” said Crystal Collier, COO and Senior Vice President, Practices for TARP. “But with high turnover rates among call center employees and managers, many companies find it difficult to provide consistently high call center service. Our clients expect a training solution that maximizes ROI through higher retention and customer satisfaction.”
The Solution
To help makes its call center training program more “sticky” for participants and more valuable for client companies, TARP leveraged Angel.com’s hosted IVR solution to supplement its “Follow-Up for Success” training reinforcement program. Participants call into the system each week to hear a management training reinforcement message customized for their company culture. After listening to the message, callers answer a three-question quiz based on the focus of the message to evaluate retention of the information. The participant with the most correct answers over the life of the reinforcement program – which typically lasts for several weeks after completion of the training curriculum – is rewarded with a prize determined by their company.
“Call center employees must be ambassadors for their brand,” said Collier. “The IVR-based reinforcement program is customized for each company, from the messaging down to the vanity phone numbers used for inbound calls. This highly-branded approach effectively reinforces a key training concept: repetition and reinforcement improve training effectiveness and customer interaction with frontline staff.”
The Results
Collier said the training reinforcement program, which has been in place for about 18 months, has helped participating companies improve employee retention rates in call centers by as much as 20%. It has also helped TARP differentiate itself to prospective clients.
“The call center training staff at TARP has many years of industry experience; when combined with our experience and products, we know this is a fairly unique offering,” said Collier. “Angel.com’s hosted platform makes it possible. The ability to create a customized and fully-branded IVR in as little as a week is phenomenal, and the knowledge and responsiveness of the Angel.com team is second to none.”
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