Employeees of Brink’s Home Security’s call centers are proud of their recognition for excellent customer service by J.D. Power and Associates.

“We’ve got a lot of great people here,” emphasized Carole Vanyo, senior vice president of customer operation. “We’re really proud of their achievement.”

Brinks operates three different call centers in Irving, Texas. One is a central station, another a customer care center and one only handles customers who are moving.

Vanyo cites recruiting and hiring as being key to successful call center operation. “When we hire folks, we run them through a rigorous selection process,” she revealed. “We have had a lot of success with folks who have face-to-face service contact, such as in the hospitality industry, retail and then with previous customer service skills.”

Brink’s places more importance on customers’ problems being solved so they do not have to call back again for the same problem (called contact resolution) rather than on how many callers CSRs speak with (called average handle time, which is the industry norm, Vanyo explained).

“That has been very successful for us,” she maintained. “Based on that data, we are able to measure if they call back and the reason, who they spoke with and go retrieve the calls and listen to the interaction and see if we need to train or coach differently and use them for training and feedback.”

The company also uses software that prescribes a standard set of protocols to follow and actions to take in various situations.

“We make [call center employees] understand the company culture and the economic model of our business,” Vanyo continued. “Customer retention is what we are about, so we indoctrinate new employees on how to create customers for a lifetime.”