TMCnews Featured Article

The key to quality service is ensuring customers have what they need before they realize they need it. Waiting in the wings when the unexpected arises is the call center. If agents in that center are slow to respond or standardization is lacking, the service delivered on the front end may be overshadowed by poor service on the back end.

Such was the case with Blueair. According to an 8x8 blog post, the company built significant success in the design and manufacturing of air purification systems. The challenge, before 8x8 (News - Alert), was that Blueair’s call center was struggling to keep up with the same level of quality. Agents were slow to respond due to a lengthy login procedure and a lack of standardization in the call handling process.

These challenges made it very difficult to keep customers just as happy with the company after interacting with the call center as they were with their air purification system. To make some drastic changes, Blueair reached out to 8x8. As a result, Blueair implemented 8x8’s hosted call center software with dramatic results.

"The change has been like night and day for both customers and agents," said Justin Warren, manager of customer support at Blueair's Chicago office, in an 8x8 case study. "Our goal was to handle more contacts more efficiently, and 8x8 has been a big help in meeting that goal."

In implementing the 8x8 virtual call center solution, Blueair was able to reduce wait times, increase customer satisfaction and eliminate unnecessary costs. In one case, 8x8 was able to demonstrate that hardly any calls came into the call center during early-morning and evening hours. The company was able to make the strategic decision to shift its support hours and concentrate its staffing on the hours when call volume was higher.

While 8x8 was the direct recommendation of the internal IT staff as viable option to improve the performance of the call center, the element that sealed the deal was 8x8’s ability to deliver advanced reporting and easy integration with NetSuite (News - Alert), a Web-based business software suite. Agents can immediately login, integrate their screens with NetSuite and receive caller ID and account information. Today, when customers contact the Blueair call center, an entire transaction can take just three minutes.

"In the past, our agents had to pick up calls without knowing who was on the other end and then manually enter customer information into NetSuite,” added Warren. “It was a time-consuming process for both parties. 8x8's NetSuite integration has significantly reduced call wait times for customers, and enabled our agents to complete calls within minutes."

Plus, Warren refers to the 8x8 platform as one of the easiest software apps he has ever worked with. Joining the company in 2012, Warren had no previous experience managing a virtual call center or a phone system. Wearing multiple hats at the office, Warren has a lot to keep track of and still meet performance expectations – something made much easier with 8x8.

For companies seeking to improve the call center and the overall experience for the customer, 8x8 offers a full range of hosted PBX and contact center options and benefits. Its solutions are designed to meet real-world challenges that exist for the call center today, while also providing opportunities for organizations to grow.