Lighthouse Works focuses on experiences to build its “double bottom line”

Inside the social enterprise

Many customer experience (CX) leaders talk about creating an impact beyond their organization through exceptional experiences. Lighthouse Works is one organization delivering on that mission.

Lighthouse Works is a social enterprise nonprofit focused on job creation for individuals in the US experiencing vision loss and blindness. It’s been quite successful in that endeavor; the organization was responsible for most new jobs for workers experiencing blindness nationwide in its past fiscal year. Its BPO contact center employs 500 agents working both onsite and remotely across 22 states, handling more than 90,000 calls monthly for private- and public-sector clients.

Lighthouse Works takes an approach it calls the “double bottom line”: creating and advancing careers for individuals with vision loss and blindness, while delivering commercial services on a competitive playing field. These goals aim to address the fact that 70% of Americans experiencing blindness are either officially unemployed or not part of the workforce at all. And the service levels at Lighthouse Works demonstrate that businesses trade neither value nor quality by signing on.

The organization enjoys agent attrition rates below 5% — well below the industry average. Its agents are experienced and many of its supervisors were promoted from within.

The organization also competes dollar-for-dollar with other BPOs. “Everything at Lighthouse Works starts with value, performance and quality,” said Kaleb Stunkard, COO of Lighthouse Works. “We work hard to give prospective customers confidence in our competency.”

Lighthouse Works also relies on the Genesys Cloud platform to support those efforts. “Our workforce needs tools to outperform a customer’s internal team and our competitors,” added Ryan Brown, VP of Operations for Lighthouse Works.

A new beacon

The contact center platform that Lighthouse Works previously used was an older cloud environment that wasn’t meeting the organization’s needs. Visibility into real-time data was limited, while quality assurance and call recording capabilities lagged competitive offerings. The platform lacked speech-to-text processing and scheduling functionality. Agent notifications were inconsistent and unhelpful.

All these issues were having a palpable impact on agent morale and performance. “Our agents were continually frustrated by the notifications, by accessibility issues, usability issues and uptime issues,” said Stunkard. “Guess what we don’t want on the phone: frustrated people!”

The team at Lighthouse Works began researching options for a new contact center platform. They investigated several solutions, hoping to find the perfect mix of platform sophistication, capabilities, flexibility and professional support.

They were immediately impressed with Genesys and its offerings — both its current capabilities and the future roadmap — and the fact that professional input is just a phone call away. “Moving to Genesys has been a dream for our agents,” said Brown. “The capabilities are like going from a Pinto to a Ferrari. It’s made a huge difference for us.”

The depth of real-time data available in Genesys Cloud allows for immediate staffing adjustments and timely agent coaching. Sophisticated workforce management has made it easier for lead supervisors to engage in the moment of need with agents.

Recording quality far exceeds the organization’s previous solution. Automated speech-to-text is already helping the organization better identify root causes of caller issues.

The organization’s trust in Genesys Cloud is further bolstered by the ability to use its preferred cloud host, Amazon Web Services (AWS). “We have promises to fulfill for our customers, and we find that the Genesys Cloud on AWS provides supreme uptime, and the reliability has been second to none,” said Stunkard.

Benefits abound

One of the most powerful outcomes since implementing Genesys Cloud has been the ability to integrate unique productivity aids that Lighthouse Works designed specifically for the needs of its employees who are experiencing blindness. This includes EquiVista, a comprehensive audio guide for navigating screen fields — an accessibility tool so powerful it’s available on the Genesys AppFoundry^® Marketplace for any organization looking to provide a fully accessible option to their employees.

“Leveraging technology from Genesys, in partnership with our software development capabilities, is changing the game on employment for the individuals who are experiencing blindness, giving folks opportunities to work and grow with upward mobility,” said Brown.

Stunkard concurred, adding a call to action: “Our partnership with Genesys has been incredibly empowering for our agents. So, EquiVista is available in the AppFoundry for anyone who’s on Genesys Cloud. The fact is, Lighthouse Works is extraordinarily passionate about creating long-term sustainable careers for individuals experiencing vision loss and blindness — and we would really love for other companies to join us in that.”

The organization has realized other notable benefits, as well. Genesys workflow tools have helped improve caller outcomes and agent productivity. For example, by activating virtual assistants to collect callers’ demographic information, Lighthouse Works has cut 45 to 60 seconds from certain call types. This helps agents focus on more detailed questions and serve callers more efficiently.

The improvements in contact center operations have helped Lighthouse Works boost its already high agent retention rate. The organization continues to explore other avenues to improve both agent workflow and caller experience.

“Our plan is to harness AI to become another value-add for our customers, to save them time and get their happy consumers to where they need to be,” said Brown. “As long as it’s of high quality — and with Genesys we know it will be — we can focus on where we really create value in the marketplace.”

Genesys proved to be the exact solution Lighthouse Works and its unique mission needed to deliver both effective communication with callers and an upgraded experience for the professionals who use the solution every day.

“We were an early adopter in the cloud, and Genesys has demonstrated its ability to innovate continually,” concluded Stunkard. “Being able to offer our customers a truly integrated and powerful omnichannel solution gives us the confidence to say yes to any requests a customer may have.”

To learn more about the solutions featured in this case study, visit www.genesys.com.