A positive customer experience (CX) drives business growth. Every accountant who’s worth their salt knows this.
The challenge is coming up with an informed strategy and committing to the day-to-day execution that delivers these positive customer experiences.
At TOA Global, we know that as our customer experiences continue to improve, the knock-on effects can be life-changing.
Team members motivated by a meaningful employee experience and accountants whose work lives are made easier by a seamless client experience grow more productive firms.
To create these experiences, our CX Team draws support across the business—from IT to People Experience and Finance—and data-driven insights from our Atlas people management and Luna employee management platforms.
In February 2023, for example, the CX Team resolved cases in just a quarter of the time it took them to handle cases in the same month last year. Wins like this fuel our continuing improvements.
We asked Jeremy Lobascher, TOA Global’s Vice President for Customer Experience, about how the CX Team keeps working toward collective brilliance, providing effective customer support for global accounting teams.
What’s a regular week like for the CX Team?
Each day starts with a huddle to check our performance from the day or week before and to set our plan for the day, highlighting any priority issues or cases.
The team then focuses on meeting our 24-hour response time each day. As we come to the end of a shift, we prepare our handover for the next shift, day to night and then night to day. Each day follows that basic formula – know our numbers, escalate where we need to, and focus on our customers.
How does your team ensure that all concerns lodged on Luna are addressed seamlessly?
We use our case management system Titan to make sure all requests are resolved and attended to in order. We also create and maintain detailed procedure documentation to be sure requests are resolved correctly.
Where we find an issue we’ve not seen before, our CX Support Team documents the issue and what the solution should be, so the entire team can benefit.
What is the most challenging part of handling the Luna chat feature and team members’ concerns?
The challenge with chat is that we don’t control when the requests come in – we need to always have enough people available in the chat team to be sure we respond to chats in a short amount of time.
Also challenging is that a customer can chat with us about anything. Our chat team needs to know how to assist across a very broad range of topics.
On average, how many cases can your team resolve in a day?
A little over 510 cases each workday, on average.
How does the CX Team identify which cases or concerns to prioritize?
We prioritize based on the type of cases we’re receiving, as not all case types are equally time-sensitive, while also prioritizing cases from our clients to be certain we provide them with the best service we can.
How does your team meet the expectations of team members when it comes to assisting them with their concerns?
We can tell from our post-case survey data that the majority of customers have their expectations met. In February 2023, for example, 84% of customers advised that their case was resolved and 82% of customers found it easy to get that resolution.
We’re achieving this high level of satisfaction by being customer-focused, by knowing what the solutions to issues should be, and by providing clear responses to requests.
Has your team encountered frustrated team members? How did they handle the team members’ concerns?
The team does encounter some team members (and clients) who are frustrated due to a problem they’ve encountered impacting their work or personal life.
We seek to understand where the customer is coming from, provide them with the best possible solution or options and provide that resolution as promptly as we can.
That said, while we want to help everyone, not every request can be serviced in the way the customer may want. Sometimes we will get requests that cannot be agreed to.
When that happens, we do our best to explain why we’re not able to provide the outcome the customer wants and provide alternatives.
Tell us about the most rewarding experience the CX team has had in their job.
Well, each team member will have their own rewarding experiences, but as a team, our highlight is reducing the amount of time on average it takes to resolve a case.
In February 2023, we have that resolution time down to 36 hours on average, compared to 141 hours in the same month in 2022.
Let’s talk about TOA values. Which of the four values resonates well with your team when it comes to providing team members with great service?
Choosing only one is tough! I’ll have to go with Bring the WOW, though. Our number one focus in CX is going the extra mile and delighting our customers.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve given to your team that helped them become even better at what they do?
Be relentless in championing solutions for customers.
An empowering experience
As the leading provider of outsourced accountants to growing firms, TOA Global commits to constant improvements in both our clients and team members’ overall experience.
One way we do this is by empowering our customers with opportunities for further education and industry updates. This focus informs everything we do, from our employee experience and people management platforms to our events, to the courses we provide through Ab² Institute of Accounting.
If you’re a TOA Global team member, stay in the know. Explore our Featured Articles and Popular Topics in the Luna knowledge base. Luna – Knowledge Article (toaglobal.com)
If you’re an accountant or bookkeeper who’s curious about having an international accounting career, you’ve come to the right place. Explore the #TOAlife today.
Life at TOA Global – where people count
