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I. SUMMARY |
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Challenge: Capital One is an enterprise that constantly strives to maximize productivity. When internal surveys revealed that email overload was a growing productivity challenge for associates - Capital One took action.
Solution: The Capital One Productivity team partnered with CKS to develop a ground-breaking email efficiency seminar called TeamMail. The seminar was based on CKS' Email Efficiency & Etiquette seminar methodology. Over 2,000 associates participated with the following results:
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Post 60-Day Survey: Two months after experiencing the seminar, participants cut email processing time by 23% and reported a 52% improvement in email quality. The combined effect of reducing quantity and improving quality provided participants with the opportunity to re-allocate 6% of their time, or 14 workdays, towards more productive activities. |
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Post 1-Year Survey: Results were sustained over one year. 88% of associates continued to utilize best practices a year after training. |
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II. SITUATION |
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Capital One (COF) has earned a sterling reputation for innovation, customer service and leadership in the diversified financial services sector. Capital One manages $80 billion in assets for 50 million customers worldwide.
Capital One's Productivity team isolated email as a major opportunity to increase productivity. Associates reported that email was consuming more than 30% of their work day. Internal surveys reflected serious concerns about the quality and quantity of email. |
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Capital One's Productivity team, led by Matt Koch , made the bold decision to design an email productivity training solution with the following principles in mind: |
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Grounded by data: Partnering with CKS, Capital One gathered as much information as possible via focus groups, surveys, external research, observation, etc. |
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Customize and target solution: The seminar objectives were carefully tailored to reflect the exact needs of Capital One associates. Capital One survey data was incorporated into the seminar to gain added buy-in from participants. |
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Fit the solution to the culture: Capital One has a corporate culture that expects excellence while always doing the right thing by the customer, the associate and the company. The seminar was designed to resonate with these core values. |
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Apply intellectual rigor : Actual results were measured carefully against seminar goals and a pre-intervention baseline survey in order to validate participants' 1.5 hour time investment in the email productivity seminar. 2,000 surveys containing over 100,000 individual question responses were collected and analyzed. |
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| IV. RESULTS |
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| Post 60-Day Survey Metrics: An analysis of post 60-day survey responses documented significant improvements in the value of email at Capital One. As a result, the average associate could reallocate 14 workdays per year. |
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Email processing time dropped by 23%: Participants reported a 23% reduction in time spent on email. There was a 21% reduction in email sent and 10% reduction in email received. |
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Email quality improved by 52%: Participants documented an impressive 52% increase in email quality. Clear, concise and actionable email naturally helps associates accomplish more in less time. |
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Leadership gains: The seminar helped to empower associates to take control of the email environment via a new style of information coaching. 60 days after training the percentage of associates comfortable with email coaching had risen by 29% to a total of 76%. |
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Post 1-Year Survey Metrics: Capital One and CKS conducted a post 1- year survey to determine if results could be sustained over time. The findings were extremely positive: |
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88% continued to leverage seminar best practices |
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83% would recommend the seminar to all associates |
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80% believed that the seminar made them more productive |
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78% indicated that they continued to apply coaching principles gained in the seminar |
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V. CONCLUSION |
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The Capital One Productivity team did an excellent job of diagnosing and addressing an all-too-common productivity challenge: email overload. They partnered with CKS to develop a highly effective break-through training experience that resulted in major time-savings, improved productivity and a better work/life balance for associates. Results were sustained over one full year. |
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