Contact Center
Case Study: USDA Discrimination Financial Assistance Contact Center
Client's Challenge
A federal government department launched a national initiative to distribute $2 billion in financial assistance to eligible individuals impacted by historical agricultural lending discrimination. The scope and sensitivity of the program required rapid deployment of a large-scale, bilingual, multi-channel contact center within just six weeks to provide equitable, accessible support to this sensitive, high-profile program.
Key challenges included:
- Standing up a 150-agent bilingual contact center under a strict six-week deadline.
- Ensuring agents could handle complex and sensitive inquiries across voice, email, and digital channels.
- Delivering high-quality service with rigorous QA and compliance requirements.
- Managing performance reporting and client communications under a high-visibility federal initiative.
Midtown's Solution:
Midtown delivered, provisioned equipment, and operated a rapid 150-person bilingual contact center under tight timelines and with strict quality and reporting expectations. Our holistic approach integrated staffing, training, technology, and QA to support both the agency and program beneficiaries.
Rapid, Compliant Staffing and Onboarding:
- Recruited and onboarded 150 bilingual agents and supervisors from our extensive network of Contact Center alumni.
- Completed client-defined background checks for all personnel.
- Deployed secure, work-ready agents with Midtown-issued equipment and systems access.
Custom Curriculum and Knowledge Management:
- Midtown instructional designers created the entire training curriculum, including scripts, how-to guides, service tools, and SOPs.
- Initial two-week training included assessments, wrap-up, and post-training support.
- QA specialists and supervisors conducted pre-shift meetings and 1:1 coaching.
- Established a continuing education cadence to ensure quality, knowledge retention, and compliance throughout the project lifecycle.
Integrated Technology Stack:
- Amazon Connect: Utilized for call handling, WFM, email, and case management.
- AppStream/Auth0: Supported access to claims processing and online portal.
- Slack: Used for internal communication, instant messaging, and access to a dynamic knowledgebase.
Performance Tracking and Client Collaboration:
- Met and exceeded all client performance metrics, including responsiveness, handle time, and abandonment rate.
- Delivered weekly and monthly reporting to the federal agency for accountability and transparency.
Exceeding Quality Standards:
- Deployed a fully functional, 150-person bilingual contact center within 6 weeks.
- Applied Midtown’s QA methodology to develop a program-specific QA framework aligned to client KPIs, achieving a 94.8% QA pass rate, significantly above the client’s 85% target.
- Managed multi-channel support (voice, email, portal) for a sensitive, high-volume federal assistance program.
- Developed and deployed custom training curriculum tailored to client content and policies.
- Achieved top-tier performance metrics:
- Average handle time: 5 minutes, 30 seconds
- Average queue time: 24 seconds
- Call abandonment rate: 2.7%
- Provided real-time access to program guidance and updates via Slack-integrated knowledgebase.
- Maintained consistent communication with the federal client through detailed weekly/monthly performance reports.
- Built scalable infrastructure for future support or program expansion.
