Providing world-class service to clients, building loyalty, and increasing client growth were key business objectives in fiscal 2017 for Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for payroll, HR, retirement, and insurance services. It’s not uncommon for a sales representative to visit a current client in search of a referral or to upsell Paychex products. It is also not uncommon for a client to ask the sales representative about a service-related situation, such as billing or a discrepancy in payroll reports. An operational gap was identified, and it was determined that sales reps could increase their referrals for new products and new clients if they had a way to expedite the service inquiry quickly to a supervisor for resolution, allowing them to spend quality time with the client contact on needs analysis for new products or to gain a referral for a prospective client.
In response, Paychex introduced its Sales to Service (S2S) Mobile Escalation App.
Program Details
The training plan for this new app included Service and Sales learning objectives and was delivered in a top-down approach.
Sales leaders were briefed on expectations, and 815 sales representatives were enrolled in a mandatory self-study training. Learning objectives included:
- How to download and use the mobile app
- Benefits of using the mobile app
- Submission and status process
- Service leaders received a communication with a 15-minute self-study reference guide. Learning objectives included:
- Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and submission follow-up process
- Instructions on accessing and updating the Client Escalation form
- Root cause identification of issue for future CPI initiatives
- Progress updates for sales representatives
The download of the app is part of the Core Sales new hire training program, ensuring all new sales representatives have the app and are prepared to use it right away during their orientation and new hire training period.
Results
The S2S Mobile Escalation App has generated 30,244 submissions since the pilot in September 2016. On average, 1,255 members of the sales organization submitted through the app each month. Of the client submissions, 98.2 percent were contacted, and 75 percent were within the expected Service Level Agreement.
Preliminary results show that adherence to the SLA for contacting clients is having an impact on satisfaction scores. For the pilot areas, there was a 17-point increase in net promoter scores (NPS) for the six months of the pilot.
While many factors can increase the number of referrals a sales representative can secure, the new application and corresponding training have helped the sales division see a 26 percent increase in the number of referrals for new products in fiscal year 2017. Paychex’s virtual sales division saw a 19 percent increase in new client referrals, which, in turn, impacted the sales unit growth of more than 11 percent for the fiscal year.
