NOW TV, a streaming service from Sky, realized that its service agent portal needed to do a better job of presenting training and learning content. NOW TV connects customers in the UK and Ireland to their favorite TV, movie, and sports programming. And when customers have questions, a team of customer service agents at partner-operated contact centers in India and Ireland provide help. They wanted to give those agents a digital experience that offered better access to information.
Time for a change
Previously, NOW TV service agents turned to a training and learning portal that required them to log in to a system separate from their CRM. Then, then they had to sift through a wealth of content that was presented in ways that slowed them down — like massive spreadsheets, for instance. The result was that agents used the portal infrequently, with daily engagement levels rarely higher than 50%.
The NOW TV training and learning team had great ideas for better ways to share the content they created with service agents, but making those ideas happen was hard. That’s because the content management system (CMS) they used to manage portal content only supported a few presentation options. Plus, the customized nature of their CMS forced the training and learning team to involve IT in any new content presentation ideas.
“Our CMS and agent portal were showing their limitations,” says Andrew Jones, a product analyst at NOW TV. “There was little flexibility in how we presented content. For example, we wanted to create mini-sites around our Premier League and NFL options. Doing so would have been too expensive and time-consuming. It was time to make a change.”
Building better experiences—fast
NOW TV evaluated the options of developing another bespoke CMS or trying Salesforce CMS and Community Cloud. Jones quickly spun up a proof of concept (POC) with Salesforce in a sandbox. “The advantages of connecting CRM and CMS were immediately clear. We saw an obvious path to a better experience for agents.”
Jones and his team began the process of transitioning to the new agent portal by moving and adapting existing content. The training and learning team explored what their new CMS could help them build. They quickly realized that they had greater freedom to present more content – in more engaging ways. Trying layout and content organization ideas proved easy, letting them deploy improvements in a fraction of the time it would have taken with their custom CMS.
“Content creators go from exposure to mastery quickly,” says Jones. “Salesforce CMS empowers the learning and training team to create and present content in the best ways.”
From portal to agent-centered experience
Now, when customers have questions, NOW TV service agents find answers fast on an agent-centered digital experience that links content to their CRM. Like the old agent portal, the digital experience contains help content. But as a better digital experience, it’s easier to connect to the right content. Agents have schedules, tech tips, and even mini-sites about programming offerings at their fingertips.
“Agents navigate an intuitive interface to find content and keep up with the latest training, news, and offerings,” says Jones. “Agent engagement with content approaches 100% on many days. Improving the link between CRM and content has been transformative.”
Mini-sites raise sports savvy
With sports among the most asked-about programming, NOW TV content creators on the training and learning team focused their new abilities on connecting agents to sports information. The creators built mini-sites devoted to the Premier League and the NFL. These mini-sites gather content, such as background information, available packages, and program schedules, in one place. Customer service agents – many of whom had zero prior knowledge of the subjects – turn to the mini-sites to learn the latest information, especially as it relates to available programming.
According to Jones, “The mini-sites keep agents connected to information customers care about. Agents can spend their time consuming relevant content without wasting time looking for it.”
Agents say goodbye to 200,000-line spreadsheets
As part of the new agent portal experience, agents can now look up specific shows with a typed query. Results return showing schedules, channel, genre, and more information about the show. The best part for agents? They no longer have to wrestle with the 200,000-line spreadsheet they used to find show-specific information before.
“It’s an obvious win when you eliminate spreadsheets and confusing tables from the agent experience,” says Jones. “This win is even better. With the connection with CRM, we’re planning to start personalizing recommendations and helping agents educate customers about relevant shows and service options."
A better experience for customers
By empowering the people who create content, NOW TV solved the immediate problems presented by its legacy CMS. But NOW TV also built a digital experience that helps agents serve customers better. Jones explains: “Agents engage with more content because it’s more digestible. Content creators love having the ability to build better experiences for agents with content. So we’re seeing higher returns on our investment in content. But the biggest returns come in the form of quicker, more accurate resolutions to issues for customers."
Curious about how a CMS can limit or liberate content presentation? Get a handle on CMS basics by reading “What Is a CMS?” Read now.
