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 competitive business sectors. Data consumption across the industry is climbing 75% year over year, while average revenues are only growing 3%. That gap is pushing providers toward aggressive switching offers and promotional price wars, and with 30% of customers actively weighing whether to stay loyal to their current brand, retention has become critical.
Foundever had built a strong relationship with this client, growing from 170 to over 450 FTEs across tech support, B2C and B2B customer care, and back-office services over 24 months. But retention, a line of business owned by another CX partner, remained outside that scope.
The proposal
Foundever’s position inside the client’s business gave it a clear view of where retention could improve. Rather than wait for a future RFP, Foundever brought the client a proactive pitch: give us the chance to prove we can do this better. Foundever covered the upfront costs of training, onboarding and redeploying 20 agents into a new retention team, removing the barrier to entry and showing real conviction in the approach.
The pilot, proposed by Foundever’s account management team alongside operations leadership, built a 20-FTE team sourced entirely from existing operations, with performance tied to clear targets on save rate, first contact resolution and service level.
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 focused on finding agents suited to retention conversations, where a customer’s intent to cancel has to be met with genuine, personalized value. Agents went through a redesigned training curriculum built on simulation-based learning and a retention playbook tailored to the client’s needs, followed by a five-week nesting program run in close coordination with operations, training, quality and the client.
The playbook itself was built with the client, reflecting their specific offers, escalation paths and retention levers rather than a generic saves framework. Daily performance reviews, structured coaching and quality calibration sessions were in place from the start, giving the operation the visibility to catch and fix 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 launch, the team hit a 64% saves rate and a 76% three-day FCR. Ongoing coaching and playbook refinements built toward consistency, and within 90 days the team posted its first sustained month above target, giving the client confidence to expand the team from 20 to 40 FTEs.
Five months in, even as call volumes rose, the team, now 70 FTEs, is consistently beating the 80% service level target, with a 69.6% saves rate against a 65% goal and a 93% three-day FCR against an 85% target.
With the model proven, the partnership is expanding. Talks are underway to grow the team further, bring the same approach to the client’s Spanish-language markets and extend it into new geographies and segments. Foundever is also building the case for an outcome-based model backed by predictive retention analytics.