Contact Center Solutions Boosted the Bottom Line and Overall Efficiency for Waddell & Reed
How Aureon Contact Center transformed Waddell & Reed's help desk from a bottleneck into a competitive advantage, cutting average answer time from 3.5 minutes to under 35 seconds and achieving a 96% call answer rate.
Partnership Overview
A Help Desk Struggling to Keep Pace With Demand
Waddell & Reed, a publicly traded asset management and financial planning firm with nearly 80 years of history, was fielding up to 4,000 employee help desk calls per month across a central campus of 1,200 team members and 2,500 independent advisors nationwide. Technology support wasn't a back-office function; it was core to advisor productivity and client service.
The in-house help desk was falling short. Average speed of answer had climbed to 3.5 minutes, calls regularly went to voicemail, and abandon rates were high. Every minute an advisor spent waiting on hold was a minute not spent serving clients. Waddell & Reed knew they needed more than a phone answering service, they needed a partner with flexibility, accountability, and genuine understanding of financial services relationships.
3.5-Minute Answer Times
Advisors waited an average of 3.5 minutes to reach support, an unacceptable delay for professionals managing client relationships in real time.
Calls Going to Voicemail
Without sufficient live coverage, calls regularly rolled to voicemail, leaving advisors without immediate answers and forcing repeated callbacks.
High Abandon Rates
Advisors who couldn't wait simply hung up, driving abandon rates higher and leaving issues unresolved, compounding inefficiency across the business.
In-House Staffing Overhead
Recruiting, onboarding, and managing internal help desk agents added significant time and cost, without delivering the performance results the business needed.
Immersed in the Business, Built to Perform
Aureon Contact Center didn't start with a script, they started with a plane ticket. A dedicated team traveled to Waddell & Reed's Overland Park headquarters for immersive, on-site training, learning the company's systems, culture, and expectations from the inside. From day one, Aureon's agents were prepared to represent Waddell & Reed as genuine extensions of their team.
Aureon took full ownership of all tier 1 support from one of their four Iowa-based contact centers. Working side-by-side with Waddell & Reed's leadership, they redefined KPIs from the ground up, aligning on what truly mattered: speed, resolution, and advisor experience. Staffing models, coverage schedules, and quality standards were rebuilt around those goals.
On-Site Immersion Training
Aureon sent a team directly to Waddell & Reed's headquarters to receive firsthand training, ensuring agents understood the business, not just the call scripts.
Full Tier 1 Support Ownership
Aureon took complete ownership of tier 1 support from an Iowa contact center, freeing Waddell & Reed's internal team to focus on higher-value work.
KPI Redefinition
Rather than inheriting legacy metrics, Aureon and Waddell & Reed collaboratively redefined KPIs around speed of answer, resolution rate, and advisor experience.
U.S.-Based Contact Centers
Operating across four Iowa locations, Aureon's entirely domestic team brought cultural alignment and communication clarity essential for a financial services environment.
Faster Answers, Lower Costs, Stronger Advisors
The results came quickly and were measurable across every KPI that mattered. Average speed of answer dropped from 3.5 minutes to under 35 seconds, a 94% reduction. Waddell & Reed's calls-answered rate hit an all-time high of 96%, voicemail became a non-issue, and first call resolution climbed significantly. Beyond performance, the partnership delivered a clear bottom-line impact: Waddell & Reed estimates they saved nearly 25% on the time and costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and managing internal help desk staff.
94% Faster Answer Times
Average speed of answer dropped from 3.5 minutes to under 35 seconds, transforming advisor experience and eliminating a critical productivity bottleneck.
96% Call Answer Rate
Waddell & Reed's calls-answered rate hit an all-time high of 96%, with voicemail ceasing to be a fallback option for the first time in the organization's history.
~25% Cost Savings
Waddell & Reed saved nearly 25% on the time and costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and managing internal help desk staff, a direct bottom-line impact.
Advisors Back on Task
With frictionless support, all 2,500 nationwide advisors and 1,200 campus employees could redirect their attention to client service, the work that drives business growth.
Key Results
35 sec
Average Answer Time
Down from 3.5 minutes, a 94% reduction that transformed the advisor experience and eliminated a critical productivity bottleneck.
96%
Calls Answered
An all-time high for Waddell & Reed, with voicemail eliminated as a fallback for the first time in the organization's history.
Zero
Calls to Voicemail
Aureon's staffing model eliminated voicemail entirely, every advisor call reaches a live agent during business hours.
~25%
Staffing Cost Savings
Waddell & Reed saved nearly 25% on recruiting, onboarding, and managing internal help desk staff, a direct bottom-line impact.
3,700+
Advisors Supported
1,200 campus employees and 2,500 independent advisors nationwide now get fast, reliable tier 1 support, freeing them to focus on clients.
Iowa
U.S.-Based Operations
All support delivered from Aureon's Iowa contact centers, domestic teams with the cultural alignment financial services demands.
Aureon provides us with the responsiveness, adaptability, and work ethic that allows us to stay focused on running our business.
From Bottleneck to Competitive Advantage
Waddell & Reed has spent nearly 80 years building trust with individual and institutional investors across the country. With 1,200 team members at their Overland Park headquarters and 2,500 independent advisors nationwide, they operate at a scale where inefficiencies compound quickly. When their in-house help desk was generating up to 4,000 calls per month, and struggling to answer them in a timely, accurate way, something had to change.
Waddell & Reed's advisors relied on the help desk for everything from updating customer information to resolving technical issues. Every delay was a distraction from client service. When leadership decided to look outside, they weren't looking for a call answering service, they needed a partner with flexibility, accountability, and a genuine understanding of what it means to build relationships in financial services.
Aureon Contact Center fit that description. After sending a team to Waddell & Reed's Overland Park headquarters for immersive, on-site training, Aureon took full ownership of tier 1 support from one of their four Iowa-based contact centers. Working closely with the Waddell & Reed team to redefine KPIs, the results came quickly: average speed of answer dropped from 3.5 minutes to under 35 seconds. Calls answered hit a 96% all-time high. Voicemail ceased to be a fallback. First call resolution climbed significantly.
The bottom-line impact was equally clear. Waddell & Reed estimates they saved nearly 25 percent on the time and costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and managing internal staff. "Aureon provides us with the responsiveness, adaptability, and work ethic that allows us to stay focused on running our business," said Anthony Goble, IT SM Manager.
Frequently Asked Questions
With up to 4,000 calls per month, Waddell & Reed's in-house help desk was struggling with slow response times and high abandon rates. Advisors relied on the help desk for everything from updating customer information to technical support, so delays directly impacted their ability to serve clients. After recognizing that managing the help desk in-house was not the optimal solution, they sought a trusted, flexible, and accountable partner. Aureon's experience, U.S.-based operations, and relationship-first approach made them the clear choice.
Aureon sent a team directly to Waddell & Reed's Overland Park, Kansas headquarters to receive immersive, on-site training. Rather than learning the client's systems from a distance, Aureon agents experienced the environment, culture, and workflows firsthand. This upfront investment in immersion meant Aureon was ready to represent Waddell & Reed accurately and confidently from day one of full operation.
The results were quantifiable and significant: average speed of answer dropped from 3.5 minutes to under 35 seconds, a 94% reduction. Calls answered reached an all-time high of 96 percent. Calls no longer go to voicemail. First call resolution increased significantly. And on the cost side, Waddell & Reed estimated savings of nearly 25 percent on the time and costs associated with recruiting, onboarding, and managing internal staff.
By fully owning tier 1 support, Aureon removes the operational burden of managing a help desk from the client's internal team. Waddell & Reed's advisors and campus staff no longer lose time waiting on slow support responses, they get answers in under 35 seconds and return to client-facing work faster. "Aureon provides us with the responsiveness, adaptability, and work ethic that allows us to stay focused on running our business," said Anthony Goble, IT SM Manager.
Waddell & Reed wasn't looking for a phone answering service, they needed a partner who understood the value of relationships, accountability, and long-term commitment. Aureon is entirely U.S.-based, operates across four Iowa contact centers, and invests deeply in learning each client's business through on-site immersion. The combination of white-glove service, flexible solutions, and quantifiable KPI improvement sets Aureon apart from commodity call center providers.
Ready to Turn Your Help Desk Into a Competitive Advantage?
Aureon Contact Center delivers the responsiveness, adaptability, and work ethic that lets your team stay focused on what matters. Let's talk about what that looks like for your organization.
