Our client, a global retailer operated by the U.S. Government to serve active and retired veterans, had experienced robust growth of its online presence, but was having problems providing a consistent customer service experience. In addition to obsolete contact center software requiring two complete upgrades to bring it up to date, the end-of-life hardware needed a full “forklift” refresh. Of greater concern was the client’s difficulty in maintaining its current solution, as well as the need to retain highly skilled IT staff to provide the necessary support services to deliver a consistent, reliable operating platform. Add to this mix the budgetary constraints and oversight of a governmental entity hesitant to make a large capital investment into the upgrade, and you have the makings of a true Catch-22: unwillingness for further spending for software, hardware, and IT personnel, and the lack of the essential components needed to provide even the most basic customer service.
We addressed these concerns with our Hosted Collaboration Solution (HCS). Gone was the need for a giant cash outlay, the months of upgrade work, the need to hire and train IT staff. Instead, with the implementation of a holistic, everything’s included Cloud, all problems were addressed neatly and completely. The ancient PBX (private, company-only telephone network) and ACD (automatic call distributor) holding the client back were removed, the archaic software completely replaced, and the need for highly skilled IT staff dedicated to the upkeep of the contact center was eliminated. In addition to solving these issues, our Cloud solution provided web chat, email and Internet Protocol Telephony (IPT) for the client’s 3,000 phones and 250 contact center associates in two separate locations.
After implementation of the solution, the client saw benefits both in cost reductions and improvements in platform stability. Not only were interactions handled more rapidly, the contact center was now highly reliable, experiencing none of the system failures that had plagued its previous network. Transitioning from the capital expenditures to the operational expenditures model allowed the contact center to operate without having to budget for a large initial cash investment. In addition, the client was able to repurpose its IT staff to other tasks for a more productive distribution of talent. All of these factors pooled together allowed our client to realize an amazing 22.5 percent return on investment.
The client has since upgraded its system by adding its collections department, with the aim of possible future expansion with an automatic call dialer – a testament to our worth as a valued partner as the client continues to grow and evolve.
