TELUS Digital and Google Cloud: Collaborating for customer experience innovation

Republished from the June 15, 2017 issue of FORTUNE.

TELUS Digital provides customer support to some of the tech industry’s most innovative and respected brands. And in many instances, it uses the technology it supports to deliver the best customer experience to a savvy user base.

Take its collaboration with Google, which started in 2011 when G Suite (previously Google Apps for Work) was growing rapidly; those new customers expected service in line with Google’s world-class brand.

At the same time, TELUS Digital was looking to enable its fast-growing global operations. Products like Google Docs, Google Drive, and Google Hangouts have helped TELUS Digital integrate its operations, including acquisitions on three continents, onto a common collaborative platform.

“Deploying Google Cloud has made our more than 25,000 team members more productive when supporting customers,” says TELUS Digital president and CEO Jeffrey Puritt. “From collaboration and standardization to business intelligence and machine learning, Google enables us to speak the same language across our global business.”

Google selected TELUS Digital as a partner in customer support because of its strong employee retention, brand commitment and compatible culture. TELUS Digital enjoys attrition rates well below industry average, and employee engagement scores exceed 80%, according to Aon Hewitt.

Months into the pilot program, Google saw its own customer satisfaction ratings climb, and as the Google customer base exploded, so too did its relationship with TELUS Digital. Now, TELUS Digital devotes 2,000 employees to handling support cases for several Google products, while Google continues to grow its Cloud customer base.

And when it comes to customer experience innovation, both parties bring a lot to the table.

From enhancing Google’s training, quality and coaching programs to finding the right success metrics, TELUS Digital and Google Cloud have worked together to provide a positive experience for both employees and customers.

Likewise, Google has helped TELUS Digital by equipping its team leaders with Google Chromebooks loaded with up-to-the-minute performance data while they walk the floor. “They can use relevant information in real time to influence immediate and meaningful changes, including on-the-spot coaching of agents,” says Peter “Scotch” Scocimara, senior director of support for Google Cloud. “It really changes the dynamic of the entire call floor.”

An important side benefit: as Google seeks continual feedback on products, TELUS Digital shares from its own experience.

Most important, like Google, TELUS Digital strives to make work satisfying, providing exceptional perks, from on-site daycare to game rooms to gyms, to thriving community giving programs. “Our industry has been slow to realize that surrounding employees with the finest tools and technologies is great, but if engagement is low and attrition is high, customer service will suffer,” says Puritt. “The customer experience will never exceed the employee experience.”

With aligned corporate cultures and a shared dedication to customer experience innovation, it’s clearly a collaboration that works both ways.