Atento offers service to hearing-impaired customers in Latin American countries
- The service allows hearing-impaired consumers to be attended to in sign language through videoconferencing;
- The project developed for an electronic product manufacturer that reached a 94.1% customer satisfaction rate in Brazil expands its operations to Chile and Bolivia.
SÃO PAULO, 18 January 2022 – Inclusion is very important for Atento, one of the largest providers of customer relationship management and business process outsourcing (“CRM BPO”) services in Latin America. With a view to helping out a public of approximately 500 million deaf people in the world—according to the WHO (World Health Organization)—the company has developed a customer service plan in sign language through videoconferencing for people with hearing disabilities.
The company currently offers services in this format to customers in the financial and electronics segments. The service includes customer service for technical support and customer questions. To be attended to, hearing-impaired customers must access the ‘service in Libras’ tab on the companies’ websites and ‘request service.’ The system automatically and immediately transfers the request to an operator, prompts the user’s device camera for authorization, and starts the conversation.
The company can offer this competitive edge after a careful selection process for attendants, who must have a specific profile and complete mastery of sign language. In addition, the company’s CX Consulting team has conducted a study to personify the service for deaf people, with which it is possible to show the consumption habits of this consumer profile and, thus, be prepared to serve them in the best way possible. To this end, a deaf person was included in the methodology used in creating consumer journeys.
“We realized how important it is to have not only multiple communication channels available, but also the ability to serve all audiences. It is a great example of inclusive service and is totally in line with our commitment to promote inclusion and diversity inside and outside the company. We are very happy with this initiative and with the positive indicators achieved so far,” says Pablo Sánchez, Global CMO and ESG Director at Atento.
Service in Libras cases
Providing an inclusive environment at Atento is a strategy that comes from the inside out. In Brazil, there are 10 million deaf Brazilians, or about 5% of the population, according to the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics). Taking into account the communication with hearing-impaired employees, the company’s training area has developed an introductory course—completely free of charge and for all employees—on Libras (Brazilian Sign Language). In addition, it offers Portuguese training for its deaf employees so that they can develop writing skills for written service, since learning this modality is comparable to becoming literate in another language with a linguistic variety.
In a project developed for an important Brazilian financial services company, Atento offers customer service for questions and support with a team fully immersed in the deaf world, by means of the customer’s own solution. It was the first operation within the segment with service focused on this profile, where 100% of the team of attendants had disabilities. More than a thousand video calls have been made in the last year, with a monthly average service level of 82%.
For Latin American countries, a client that manufactures electronic products, after three years of implementing the technical support service in Libras for these products, recorded 94.1% customer satisfaction in Brazil, a result obtained through the survey at the end of the service—10% above the expected target. The solution allows the contact with the consumer to be by video or chat, enabling the sending and receiving of files, online follow-ups of the volume information, and report extraction. The experience has been so positive that it has been expanded to serve customers from Chile and Bolivia.
About Atento
Atento is the largest provider of customer relationship management and business process outsourcing (“CRM BPO”) services in Latin America, and among the top five providers globally. Atento is also a leading provider of nearshoring CRM BPO services to companies that carry out their activities in the United States. Since 1999, the company has developed its business model in 14 countries where it employs approximately 139,800 people. Atento has over 400 clients to whom it offers a wide range of CRM BPO services through multiple channels. Atento’s clients are mostly leading multinational corporations in sectors such as telecommunications, banking and financial services, health, retail and public administrations, among others. Atento’s shares trade under the symbol ATTO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). In 2019, Atento was named one of the World’s 25 Best Multinational Workplaces and one of the Best Multinationals to Work for in Latin America by Great Place to Work®. Also, in 2021 Everest named Atento as a star performer Gartner named the company as a leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant. For more information visit www.atento.com
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