Contact‐center training ignites culture change at DRL : Program boosts profitability and standards of service

Purpose – Describes how UK online white‐goods retailer DRL Ltd has seen higher sales, better customer satisfaction and a greater appetite for change following award‐winning training for its contact‐center employees. Design/methodology/approach – Explains the reasons for the training, the form it took and the benefits it has brought. Findings – Reveals that the company's inbound‐sales conversion has risen from 37.4 percent to 50.9 percent and the outbound conversion rate from 14 percent to 17.8 percent, while the amount of compensation being given to customers has fallen from more than £10,000 a week to £5,400 a week. Practical implications – Claims that agents are implementing their newly developed skills in empathy and building rapport with customers in a genuine and caring way, as DRL's net‐promoter score, a measure of customer satisfaction, has risen by 64 percent since the training. Social implications – Demonstrates what a motivated and engaged workforce can achieve with the right training and development focused at specific areas of behavior. Originality/value – Details a training program that has ignited change across an entire organization.