The challenge of everchanging complex processes
The pharmaceutical industry is committed to providing consistent, accurate, and prompt information to consumers. This commitment is exemplified by Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie company, a pharmaceutical organization dedicated to improving people's lives through innovative medicines and solutions. Every day, the Allergan Aesthetics Customer Operations Team handles thousands of inquiries regarding their line of products, with a notable surge during their highly anticipated one-day promotional events.
The Allergan Aesthetics Customer Operations Team had been relying on multiple platforms to document their processes, including Microsoft OneNote, SharePoint , and a traditional knowledge base. The frequent updates to their processes made it difficult for agents to receive information in a timely manner and ensure accurate information was being given to their customers. Frustrated by the sheer number of processes, systems, and programs they were supporting, agents faced the increasing challenge of quickly locating accurate information.
The Allergan Aesthetics Customer Operations Team recognized the importance of simplifying their processes to expedite information retrieval for agents, ensuring customers would receive timely and effective support. They made the decision to implement ProcedureFlow, a knowledge management guidance solution that would provide a single source of truth for their multitude of processes.
Decreasing information search time by simplifying processes
With ProcedureFlow, agents of all experience levels could now easily navigate processes step by step, enabling them to quickly locate precise information. ProcedureFlow’s collaborative knowledge-sharing approach enabled real-time changes to process documentation, eliminating misinformation and guaranteeing that all processes remained up to date.
This consistency across the organization led to a notable decrease in errors and incorrect transfers, resulting in a significant callback reduction of 91%.
Another benefit that the Allergan Aesthetics Customer Operations Team experienced by simplifying processes was in the streamlined new hire training program. With ProcedureFlow acting as a visual guide, there was no longer a need to memorize lengthy text articles. The stress associated with learning and retaining an abundance of complex processes was alleviated. Anyone could effectively perform the job by adhering to the exact process steps outlined in ProcedureFlow.
The outcome was an impressive decrease in new hire training duration, from 3 weeks to just 1, and an acceleration of agent proficiency, shortened from 4 months to a mere 2.
I give ProcedureFlow a 5-star rating. It has helped us decrease our new hire training time, reduce the number of escalations and incorrect transfers, and in turn, has significantly improved customer satisfaction.
Minimizing training time for seasonal hires
ProcedureFlow played a pivotal role in aiding the Allergan Aesthetics Customer Operations Team during their annual Botox promotion, during which they hired outsourced agents for the one-day event. Prior to ProcedureFlow, agents faced significant challenges in locating the information they needed to accommodate the influx of questions. The frequent changes to their processes, sometimes occurring multiple times within a single day, made it difficult to quickly distribute accurate information to every agent on time.
Since the adoption of ProcedureFlow, the Allergan Aesthetics Customer Operations Team has created flows for outsourced agents to address the most common callback types. This meant training could be held the day before the promotion, after which agents could accurately respond to customer inquiries by quickly retrieving precise information. Additionally, ProcedureFlow’s ability to implement instant process changes across the organization ensured that agents had immediate access to updates in real-time.
The training time to support the one-day promotion was reduced to just 3.5 hours for internal agents and 1.5 hours for their outsourced agents.
Remarkably, both internal agents, who handled these tasks daily, and the outsourced agents, responsible only for the one-day promotion, spent the same amount of time handling calls.
With the introduction of ProcedureFlow to the one-day promotion training, AbbVie realized an outstanding decrease in callbacks by creating flows for outsourced agents to address the most common callback types:
- 2020 pre-ProcedureFlow = 336 callbacks
- 2021 ProcedureFlow training = 31 callbacks
I am extremely impressed with ProcedureFlow’s visibility and ease of access to information, especially during our one-day promotions. Our vendor’s agents review the processes in ProcedureFlow either the day before or even on the day of the event, and they’re able to accurately answer all customer questions.
The positive impact on agent and customer experience
After gathering feedback from their agents, the Allergan Aesthetics Customer Operations Team was pleased to discover that ProcedureFlow had simplified their job and improved their workflows. The agents emphasized the value of the visual, step-by-step guide, which led them to the correct information and who to transfer to for each product scenario.
By implementing ProcedureFlow within the new hire training curriculum, the training team successfully reduced the time and effort allocated to training new hires on processes, allowing them to spend more time developing essential soft skills such as personalization, empathy, and communication. Additionally, the time to proficiency for new hires was reduced. As a result, customers receive accurate information the first time they call in and experience a more positive and human-centered interaction, granting Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie company, a distinct advantage in an increasingly competitive landscape.
Allergan Aesthetics Customer Operations is part of Allergan Aesthetics, an AbbVie Company.
