askAFS, a leading provider of telephone and web-based financial counseling for its clients’ employees and/or members, was in the process of hiring expert financial counselors nationwide who could work from their home offices to serve askAFS’s diverse client base.
Working from home, during these economic difficulties, is not only a major benefit for those who are fortunate enough to find a position to do so but for the company as well. The savings earned with not having to deal with the maintenance and upkeep of a building for its headquarters or any other expense would be ideal for any company. And for those working from home, employees could finally experience the freedom of working in their pajamas!
“Our clients’ employees or members may call or email us with a simple question pertaining to everyday financial matters, or they may find themselves in a financial crisis, and call us for extensive counseling. Our counselors take pride in helping each caller see his or her situation through to a resolution. We help and advise with a personal touch and an emphasis on privacy,” says Mark Guyott, Vice President of Operations and Administration for askAFS.
Founded two decades ago askAFS’s client base includes employer assistance providers, corporations, unions, insurance companies, discount membership and reseller programs, and other major aggregators’ accounts. Its financial services bankruptcy debtor education, phone-base financial helpline, onsite and online seminars, financial education programs, benefit reviews and other online services.
askAFS, “wanted to be able to hire counselors across the country with expertise in various financial areas and with a nationwide reach, and the appeal of not relocating, we would be able to recruit the highly qualified counselors from anywhere in the country, not just from the region around our Minneapolis headquarters,” and using Contactual’s (News - Alert) Virtual Call Center made that happen.
Guyott also stated that askAFS, “expected that this web-based solution would be more cost-effective than a hardware-based system.”
With Contactual, askAFS’ management could easily monitor inbound calls from anywhere online, and configure call routing to automatically send callers to the best expert to handle individual topics while helping askAFS scale up cost-effectively as its business grew.
“Contactual is a great business partner for our purposes. We don’t need face-to-face contact with our customers for financial counseling and that’s why Contactual works so well for us. Our clients’ employees don’t have to take time out of their busy workdays to come into a business office to see us. They can call us when they get a free 10 or 15 minutes and get the financial counseling they need on the phone or they can reach us anytime by email,” commented Guyott.
Because askAFS could monitor their employees online from anywhere in the world and their employees can work from anywhere in the world, Contactual proved to be the best solution for hiring anyone, anywhere.
“We’ve handled well over 70,000 calls in the past 7 years. There’s a big range in the length of these calls – from 10 minutes for advice on where to find a tax accountant to over an hour on more complex issues. We also make many outgoing follow up calls through the application. Contactual has allowed us to manage our call volume and routing with ease. We expect Contactual will continue to do so as we grow.”
For more information on Contactual visit their Website or check out their Virtual Call Center Channel here on TMCnet.
Jessica Kostek is a channel editor for TMCnet, covering VoIP, CRM, call center and wireless technologies. To read more of Jessica’s articles, please visit her columnist page.
Edited by Jessica Kostek