QRM increases new hires by 50, enabled by Avaya solutions

Ben DePriest knew he had to take a clear and decisive approach to the emerging COVID-19 situation in early 2020. As Chief Operating Officer at Quality Resource Management (QRM)—the nation’s premier incident response center for insurance claims intake and private dispatch services—he was responsible for transitioning in-house staff (nearly 100% of the company’s workforce) to an at-home setup while maintaining operations and outstanding customer experiences. “We’re an essential service. There could be no downtime or disruption. ‘Stressful’ doesn’t even begin to cover it,” he explained

The Tennessee-based company also has an outstanding reputation for employee experience, most recently being recognized by “Great Place to Work” in 2020. For DePriest, this meant doubling down on the core tenets of QRM’s organizational culture. “We are a family company. We are driven by our culture, and it’s important to us that everyone experiences it. Otherwise, it can be easy to drift. Employees can feel dismissed or separated.”

Avaya quickly stepped in to help DePriest make the best decisions for QRM’s teams and customers, offering a free trial of Power User licenses so that all contact center agents could begin working remotely from their homes. In addition, they deployed Avaya Spaces UCaaS to enhance internal communication. QRM Leadership began immediately using Avaya Spaces for remote training sessions and audit reviews, virtual client visits, and exchanging information around the pandemic as developments constantly changed.

The company’s HR team is using the platform as a digital recruiting and onboarding tool and is now exploring the idea of expanding QRM’s employment pool nationwide. All the while, DePriest has been able to maintain QRM’s culture of family while hiring 50 additional staff members during the crisis. The experience with Avaya Spaces has been so successful that he is in the process of permanently shifting part of how QRM will operate post-pandemic using video meetings, team collaboration solutions and advanced contact center solutions from Avaya.

“We have been with Avaya for 10+ years and are always satisfied. I hope my clients see QRM in the same light I see Avaya; that we stepped up during COVID-19 to continue delivering the same level of quality and service that we have committed to. That’s why I chose Avaya, and that’s why I’ll continue to choose Avaya.”

“We’re able to safely accomplish everything we need to with an immersive digital experience.”

“Once the pandemic hit, we knew we had to do something different from our typical model,” DePriest said. “With changes happening so rapidly, we needed reliable communication across the organization so that everyone could be kept in sync.”

As an essential service, QRM also still needed to respond to major life events for individuals such as car accidents, roof leaks, and job injuries. “Those things don’t stop due to a pandemic. Our call center is a frontline defense for the insurance companies and third party administrators we service. Avaya Spaces allowed us to transition and keep communicating seamlessly. We can continue to share the great results for our clients and their policy holders. I have been able to continue to meet with the leadership team in a safe environment while ensuring everyone is on the same page. My operations department is able to stay informed, even with the many changes happening daily. We can also remotely train and coach agents now that they’re at home using the platform.”

Particularly helpful is the Avaya Spaces smartphone application, which sends real-time notifications of chat messages and other updates via the platform to your personal device. “There’s a major overlap of our employees’ personal and work lives at this time. At any given point, one of our contact center agents or managers could be making their child’s lunch or helping with distance learning or caring for an elderly relative who lives with them. I myself am a father of three. The Avaya Spaces smartphone app allows us to get real-time updates of meeting requests or chat sessions so we can continue delivering great customer experiences no matter where we are or what we’re doing. That has been enormously helpful and provides a lot of relief to our leadership team.”

As the company adapted to a fully digital model, DePriest saw how Avaya Spaces could improve the employee experience in unique new ways. Before the pandemic, the leadership team would gather in a conference room to talk face-to-face and share information through a conference room display, with one remote manager in Colorado dialing in via telephone. Now, this Colorado based manager can be more engaged with capabilities like video, chat, and screen share versus just phone.

Leadership is also utilizing agents in new ways by including them in sessions and training that they couldn’t beforehand. “When we have necessary training on new products or yearly benefit rollouts, the few remote workers we do have had to travel to the office to be there in-person. Now we have a platform that we can use no matter where someone is located. Employees can join us with the click of a button and have an interactive experience as if they were in the room right next to us. We’re able to safely accomplish everything we need to with an immersive digital experience. That would have been helpful long before the pandemic.”

“With the right tools, we can have it all.”

The rollout of Avaya Spaces has been so successful that the leadership team at QRM is now offering permanent remote agent positions. “I never would have imagined we’d be offering permanent remote positions. For over 21 years, our company philosophy was that employees had to be in the office to experience the family culture that we’re proud of and that our clients love. Now we’re seeing that with the right tools, we can have it all.”

QRM proves that companies can go beyond just surviving to thrive in a new landscape. “We’re fortunate enough to be hiring during this time, and our HR team is looking at using Avaya Spaces to attract new talent,” said DePriest.

“For us to be able to say that we have a dedicated at-home setup for working safely from home will be a huge attractant for potential new hires while continuing to deliver the high-quality service we’re known for.”

He added, “It won’t be a temporary fix during the pandemic. It will be a new strategy for remote work that provides the ongoing training and visibility we need to stay in contact and up to date with what’s going on as new information comes out. That has helped us breathe easier as we position for the path forward.”

As Tennessee’s largest and fastest growing claim center, this was not a time for QRM to just “get by.” Avaya enabled DePriest to not only maintain the company’s high quality of service but accelerate its digital transition to better compete in the new norm. “I can’t begin to describe how difficult of a situation it was, but we were able to make it through with our Avaya team and the tools they provide.”