1-800 Contacts has always done things differently. Founded in 1995 with a bold idea, to make buying contact lenses easier and more affordable, the company quickly became a pioneer in direct-to-consumer healthcare. Today 1-800 Contacts is part of SeekWell, a group of vision care brands dedicated to making eye health more accessible, innovative, and more consumer-driven than ever before. But as the company scaled, one thing became clear: delivering exceptional service starts with hiring the right people.
When 1-800 Contacts partnered with Vervoe in 2022, their goal went beyond filling roles faster, they wanted a smarter and scalable hiring approach that preserved the essence of their brand. Three years on, they’re still seeing strong results, strengthened by an ongoing partnership and a shared commitment to elevating their hiring.
Then: High volume, low visibility
With over 24,000 applications a year and a 5% hire rate, the team at 1‑800 Contacts faced a familiar challenge: how to fairly and efficiently identify candidates who could thrive in high-touch customer support roles.
“People think customer service over the phone is easy, but once they get into the role, they then realize it takes more skill than they expected.” said TA Partner Jill Bailey.
With high attrition in their call center and a slow, manual hiring process, the team knew something had to change. They needed a faster way to get quality candidates in front of hiring managers, without sacrificing fairness or fit.
At the time, their process relied on basic assessments that focused on literacy and typing speed, offering little real-world insight or predictive value. Internal mobility lacked structure, and the overall experience felt generic and time-consuming. It was clear the process wasn’t keeping up with the demands of high-volume, high-quality hiring.
“I really have enjoyed seeing the results Vervoe has provided. While we have only been using the assessments for a few months, it has helped us to narrow and focus on the best candidates, leading to faster hiring and higher quality. I am so happy we have decided to partner with Vervoe in our hiring process.” – Jill Bailey, TA Partner
They needed to raise the bar on both speed and quality, without sacrificing fairness or experience.
Now: A high-performing hiring engine
Through a close partnership with Vervoe, 1‑800 Contacts transformed their approach to hiring by building a tailored suite of role-specific assessments—each designed to measure not just aptitude, but also soft skills like empathy, resilience, and communication. Rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all test, Vervoe developed three distinct assessments for Customer Service, Warehouse, and Chat Agent roles. This allowed 1‑800 Contacts to test the right skills for the right roles, creating a more accurate and fair hiring experience. To keep candidates engaged and reflect the real nature of the work, each assessment combined text, audio, and video-based questions with practical tasks like typing tests.
The results? These assessments have become a cornerstone of both external hiring and internal mobility, with insights now used across onboarding, coaching, and even long-term performance planning.
And the impact speaks for itself:
Pre-hire improvements
- Time to offer reduced from 30 days to 17
- Time-to-hire cut by 62.5%, from 8 weeks to just 3
- Offer acceptance jumped from 84% → 94%
- Candidate satisfaction climbed to 95%
- Forecasting flexibility improved by 64.3%
Post-hire impact
- 25% reduction in total training time
- Agents report higher confidence and stronger performance
- Internal candidates now have clearer pathways to growth
“Our ability to hire and talk to higher quality candidates faster has been a game changer for us. Instead of taking four to five days in a stage, once the candidate completes our Vervoe assessment, they can be automatically moved to an interview. Seeing an improvement in the quality of our hires has been worth the investment. As an added plus, we have been able to use our time better.” – Jill Bailey TA Partner
A partnership built on more than just software
What began as a way to reduce time-to-hire has become a trusted talent solution across the entire employee lifecycle. From refining assessments to supporting career progression and enabling better workforce planning, Vervoe has scaled alongside 1‑800 Contacts, adapting and growing as their needs have evolved.“
Vervoe made our hiring process as legendary as our customer service experience” – Rachael Avila, Seekwell
