U.S. telecoms provider surpasses its customer retention targets in just five months
The goal
To deliver increased retention performance for a major U.S. telecoms provider through a proactive pilot designed to prove capability, minimize client risk and earn the right to scale.
The outcome
70%
Saves Rate (target: 65%)
92%
3-Day FCR (target: 85%)
89%
Service Level (target: 80%)
5 months
from pilot launch to above-target performance
250%
team growth in five months
The challenge
As a fast-growing U.S. telecommunications and internet service provider, our client operates in one of the world’s most challenging and competitive business sectors. This is because, despite record-breaking demand, globally telecoms providers have seen data consumption increase 75% year over year — average revenues within the industry are only growing at 3%.
The gap between what customers consume and what they’re willing to pay for is widening. This is turning the industry into one where aggressive switching offers, year-round customer acquisition campaigns and promotional price wars have become the norm. And when you’re competing in a market where 30% of customers are actively considering whether or not to remain loyal to their current brand, retention is critical.
But equally important is whether your retention operation is genuinely good enough to change someone’s mind when every market force is pushing them toward the door.
Foundever developed a strong and growing relationship with this client. Success through successive RFPs led to responsibility for tech support, B2C and B2B customer care, and back-office services, growing the partnership from 170 to over 450 FTEs over 24 months. But the relationship had not yet extended to customer retention, a line of business owned by another of the client’s CX delivery partners.
The proposal
Foundever’s position within the client’s business provided the understanding and operational oversight to identify where retention activities could be improved. That kind of insight is valuable. But insight without action is just observation — and in a market where the cost of underperforming retention compounds every day, observation isn’t enough.
Rather than wait for a future RFP or contract review, Foundever went to the client with a proactive proposal and a simple premise: give us the opportunity to prove we can do this better.
To get the pilot off the ground, Foundever invested in the upfront costs — training, onboarding and absorbing the operational disruption of redeploying 20 agents from existing lines of business into a new retention team. That initial investment removed the barrier to entry for the client and demonstrated genuine conviction in the approach. From there, Foundever and the client worked together to support the pilot through its remaining phases — a shared commitment that reflected the strength of the partnership and the client’s early confidence in what the team could deliver.
The pilot, proposed by Foundever’s Account Management team in partnership with Operations leadership, involved building a 20-FTE team sourced entirely from existing operations and tying performance to clear success criteria against the client’s key retention metrics: save rate, first contact resolution and service levels.
The solution
Service delivered from the Philippines to the U.S. market
Industry
Telecoms
Channels
Voice
Language
English
Foundever structured the engagement in deliberate phases, recognizing that the retention operation required building agent capability and operational discipline simultaneously.
Hiring and onboarding were designed to identify agents with the right profile for retention conversations; interactions where a customer’s intent to cancel must be met with genuine, personalized value. These agents underwent a redesigned training curriculum. It used simulation-based learning and a retention playbook tailored to the client’s specific needs. They then completed a five-week nesting program, supported by close collaboration between Operations, Training, Quality, and the client. This end-to-end approach accelerated agent readiness, strengthened retention capabilities, and established a scalable foundation for sustained performance.
The retention playbook was built in close collaboration with the client, reflecting the client’s specific offers, escalation paths and retention levers. Rather than deploying a generic saves framework, Foundever developed an approach tailored to the client’s product portfolio and customer base, ensuring agents had the right tools to make every save attempt count.
Governance and coaching routines were established early and maintained consistently throughout the ramp. Daily performance reviews, structured coaching cadences, and quality calibration sessions gave the operation the visibility and agility needed to identify and correct issues quickly.
Results
70%
Saves Rate (target: 65%)
92%
3-Day FCR (target: 85%)
89%
Service Level (target: 80%)
5 months
from pilot launch to above-target performance
250%
team growth in five months
Within a month of the pilot’s launch, the team achieved a saves rate of 64% and a three-day FCR rate of 76%. As the operation continued coaching, process and playbook improvements were actively identified and deployed to build the consistency that would lead to sustained success. This meant that within 90 days, the team achieved a sustained month above target, giving the client the confidence needed to greenlight the team’s expansion from 20 to 40 FTEs.
Five months after going live, even as call volumes increased, the team, which has now grown to 70 FTEs, is consistently surpassing the client’s service level target of 80% while achieving a saves rate of 69.6% against a 65% target and a three-day FCR of 93% (target 85%).
With the operational foundation now proven, the partnership is already expanding. Discussions are underway to grow the team further and to adopt the same approach for the client’s Spanish-language markets and expand the retention model into new geographies and customer segments.
Beyond scale, the next phase will focus on building an outcome-based model underpinned by predictive retention analytics. Foundever is currently building the case to pilot this model with the client, with the goal of deepening a partnership that has already demonstrated what’s possible when both sides are willing to invest in a better outcome.