CASE STUDY
CashCo: Scaling CX for small-
midsized business (SMB)
midsized business (SMB)
The story of how CashCo Financial Services Chairman and CEO,
Michael Rosenberg scaled his specialized instalment loan business
across states while levelling up customer experience and service
Michael Rosenberg scaled his specialized instalment loan business
across states while levelling up customer experience and service
THE
CHALLENGE
When CashCo Financial Services Chairman and CEO, Michael Rosenberg
looked at ways to scale and grow his traditional instalment loan business,
he was faced with numerous dilemmas. He knew that the small-midsized
business (SMB) was at the tipping point of needing the rapid deployment
of human resources, processes, technology and platforms to underpin the
business’ growing footprint and loan customer base, and at the same time
wanted to avoid the capital-intensive outlay that comes with expansion of
bricks and mortar operations. While looking for ways to scale and grow
the business across different states, this needed to be done in a manner
that would limit the take on of more risk in what remains an uncertain and
volatile economic environment. At the same time, this was not simply a
case of achieving scale, but also about levelling up and improving on
customer experience and service.
When outsourcing came onto his radar, Michael’s suggestion to work with a specialist BPO provider was met with some trepidation by his team.
“For one, I think the concept of outsourcing is typically associated with very large businesses with deep pockets and huge technology infrastructures, and not readily seen as a solution for SMBs. Another really big consideration for our business was that CashCo sits in a niche and specialized market, and as a nearly 35-year-old family-owned business, we have an incredibly personal approach to customer service. Customer experience sits at the heart of what we do. As our first foray into the BPO space, it was incredibly important as to how an outsourcing partner would be able help us realize value in terms of CX and really enhance our sophistication in this space,” explains Michael.
When outsourcing came onto his radar, Michael’s suggestion to work with a specialist BPO provider was met with some trepidation by his team.
“For one, I think the concept of outsourcing is typically associated with very large businesses with deep pockets and huge technology infrastructures, and not readily seen as a solution for SMBs. Another really big consideration for our business was that CashCo sits in a niche and specialized market, and as a nearly 35-year-old family-owned business, we have an incredibly personal approach to customer service. Customer experience sits at the heart of what we do. As our first foray into the BPO space, it was incredibly important as to how an outsourcing partner would be able help us realize value in terms of CX and really enhance our sophistication in this space,” explains Michael.
“The more I researched, the more convinced I was that with the right niche BPO
partner, we could achieve the CX gains we were looking for and scale the growing
business, while maintaining that personal touch that we’ve become known for,”
he adds.
When CashCo started engaging with iContact BPO, it was important to get a good understanding of the cultural fit of the South African team not only with its own incredibly diverse base of customers, but also the staff within CashCo who iContact BPO would be supporting and engaging with.
“We wanted a solid fit between our company’s brand, culture and ethos, and our chosen outsourced CX provider – this is easier said than done as an SMB, where large BPO providers will either not take on a smaller account like ours as it is just not profitable for them, or will try and push their own formulaic process and systems that may not be the right fit. We wanted our chosen BPO partner to become a natural extension of the CashCo team and brand, that enhances our customer experience and service,” explains Michael.
As this was CashCo’s first foray into outsourcing and completely new territory, CashCo also needed a BPO partner that would be willing to walk the outsourcing journey with them on a discovery basis, understanding the needs of the business and its customers, and then building the CX outsourcing strategy collaboratively.
“I realized that the right BPO partner would also bring a lot to the table in helping us build an adaptive outsourced customer service model that could be used as a blueprint for extending our operations beyond Oregon into neighboring states. We wanted direct access to an experienced executive BPO team working hand in hand with our management and leadership teams – something that was impossible to find in larger BPO operations that enforce a pre-determined playbook,” adds Michael.
When CashCo started engaging with iContact BPO, it was important to get a good understanding of the cultural fit of the South African team not only with its own incredibly diverse base of customers, but also the staff within CashCo who iContact BPO would be supporting and engaging with.
“We wanted a solid fit between our company’s brand, culture and ethos, and our chosen outsourced CX provider – this is easier said than done as an SMB, where large BPO providers will either not take on a smaller account like ours as it is just not profitable for them, or will try and push their own formulaic process and systems that may not be the right fit. We wanted our chosen BPO partner to become a natural extension of the CashCo team and brand, that enhances our customer experience and service,” explains Michael.
As this was CashCo’s first foray into outsourcing and completely new territory, CashCo also needed a BPO partner that would be willing to walk the outsourcing journey with them on a discovery basis, understanding the needs of the business and its customers, and then building the CX outsourcing strategy collaboratively.
“I realized that the right BPO partner would also bring a lot to the table in helping us build an adaptive outsourced customer service model that could be used as a blueprint for extending our operations beyond Oregon into neighboring states. We wanted direct access to an experienced executive BPO team working hand in hand with our management and leadership teams – something that was impossible to find in larger BPO operations that enforce a pre-determined playbook,” adds Michael.
Specialized Brand Outsourcing Consideration
“Another really big consideration for our business was that CashCo sits in
a niche and specialized market, and as a nearly 35-year-old family-owned
business, we have an incredibly personal approach to customer service.
Customer experience sits at the heart of what we do”
Michael Rosenberg,
Chairman and CEO CashCo
THE
SOLUTION
On a purely ‘operational’ level, iContact BPO was tasked with setting up a dedicated outsourced
CX function for CashCo, with high-performance, engaged agents to pre-qualify the loan
applications received via its online applications process.
Agents use three system applications to complete each lead – CRM (Lead generating system), Deal pack (Lead Verification system) and Elevate (Dialler system). All agents are measured through production, number of calls made and the quality of the calls.
Transitioning the loan application process from an in-house team to an outsourced provider required careful planning and coordination, and there was significant knowledge transfer, systems integration, and ensuring a smooth handover without disrupting ongoing operations. Proper planning, testing, and implementation was fundamental to making this transition effectively.
Agents use three system applications to complete each lead – CRM (Lead generating system), Deal pack (Lead Verification system) and Elevate (Dialler system). All agents are measured through production, number of calls made and the quality of the calls.
Transitioning the loan application process from an in-house team to an outsourced provider required careful planning and coordination, and there was significant knowledge transfer, systems integration, and ensuring a smooth handover without disrupting ongoing operations. Proper planning, testing, and implementation was fundamental to making this transition effectively.
THE
OUTCOMES
The solution however transcended way beyond the metrics of financial or scale, and it’s what
happened in the actual engagements between CashCo clients and agents that made the magic
happen. CashCo and iContact BPO have a highly collaborative working relationship that fosters
a culture of continuous improvement between both parties, backed by analyzing the CX metrics
and customer feedback that plays a key role in guiding changes and enhancements in
processes, policies, technology, training and quality assurance. All the data, analytics, quality
management and metrics could be brought together to help inform business strategy, the
customer journey, and how to approach CashCo’s expansion in a measured way that ensures
that that while the business scales, there’s no compromise on service and CX.
“One of the standouts for us has been the quality of the people and agents who engage with our clients – when we listened to the recordings of customer engagements, we were immediately struck by the empathy and service-ethic which is next level. The relationship between our inhouse and outsourced teams is exceptional, and the team is well-entrenched as a natural extension of our business.
“Working with a niche CX BPO provider like iContact BPO means we are able to deliver the specialized customer service support demanded by our hybrid business model of online and in- store credit applications, but also means that we negated the need for the business to scale up internally with the people, processes, technology, onboarding, infrastructure and requisite capital expenditure. It makes absolute business sense to work with iContact BPO which provides the time, management, skills, technology, scale, quality management, compliance, and cost savings with a lot less risk, volatility and liability for our business. Furthermore, a big win has been the best practices, systems and processes that we have collaboratively brought to the table, and how we have been able to solve some of the complex challenges that come with expanding the business into new territories and states, while maintaining our customer relationships that we are known for.”
“One of the standouts for us has been the quality of the people and agents who engage with our clients – when we listened to the recordings of customer engagements, we were immediately struck by the empathy and service-ethic which is next level. The relationship between our inhouse and outsourced teams is exceptional, and the team is well-entrenched as a natural extension of our business.
“Working with a niche CX BPO provider like iContact BPO means we are able to deliver the specialized customer service support demanded by our hybrid business model of online and in- store credit applications, but also means that we negated the need for the business to scale up internally with the people, processes, technology, onboarding, infrastructure and requisite capital expenditure. It makes absolute business sense to work with iContact BPO which provides the time, management, skills, technology, scale, quality management, compliance, and cost savings with a lot less risk, volatility and liability for our business. Furthermore, a big win has been the best practices, systems and processes that we have collaboratively brought to the table, and how we have been able to solve some of the complex challenges that come with expanding the business into new territories and states, while maintaining our customer relationships that we are known for.”
One of the standouts for us has been
the quality of the people and agents
who engage with our clients – when we
listened to the recordings of customer
engagements, we were immediately
struck by the empathy and service-ethic
which is next level. The relationship
between our inhouse and outsourced
teams is exceptional, and the team is
well-entrenched as a natural extension
of our business”
Michael Rosenberg,
Chairman and CEO CashCo
Michael points out that making the decision to outsource this crucial function within the
business was never an easy decision, and it was challenging in many respects considering the
diversity of CashCo’s own customer and employee base, as well as the regulatory demands that
come with the financial services sector. But it was a decision that has paid dividends many
times over.
“Working with a specialized CX outsourcing partner like iContact BPO has been key to realizing our growth potential and seeing different pathways to achieving it. It’s definitely an area that we will continue to invest in,” concludes Michael.
“Working with a specialized CX outsourcing partner like iContact BPO has been key to realizing our growth potential and seeing different pathways to achieving it. It’s definitely an area that we will continue to invest in,” concludes Michael.
