Offering consumers a way to repay credit card debt and avoid bankruptcy and foreclosure is a surefire way to succeed in this market. For one new financial services company, the challenge was delivering a patent-pending program through a cost-effective customer service infrastructure; a challenge that could be overcome with a VoIP call center.
To accomplish this, the company reached out to DOW Networks for the implementation of a multi-site call center operation. Inbound calls would be received from potential clients in a Philippines call center where agents would screen and qualify callers. Enrolled customers calling into the company would be routed to debt counselors in a Los Angeles location.
Outbound calling capabilities were also needed for each location as follow-up calls to applicants or to contact creditors were important. And, as a new business, the financial services company wanted to be able to start with a small number of agents in each location and have the ability to scale according to consumer response.
DOW Networks examined the company's requirements and then designed and implemented a hybrid/hosted solution in a VoIP call center that met all company needs. The Philippines location was outfitted with an Asterisk PBX (News - Alert) to mitigate costs and complexity normally involved in international bandwidth. A PBX, as well as VoIP call center functionality, was delivered to the Los Angeles site through hosted services in Atlanta.
A toll-free U.S. phone number is provided to prospects, clients and creditors by DOW Networks and all calls are routed to agents in the Philippines or Los Angeles based on voice menu selections. The VoIP call center phone system allows customers to easily reach the assigned agent.
Well underway, this financial services company now runs two shifts with 65 agents each and is on a consistent growth path. A new marketing program through U.S. law firms opened up a new opportunity and DOW Networks reconfigured the solution to allow agents to recognize inbound calls from those referred to the company by law firms.
With the hybrid, hosted VoIP call center, the financial services company can now avoid most of the upfront capital investment necessary to implement a premises-based solution. In addition, per-month pricing enables the company to budget a predictable monthly operating expense and scale according to their growth.
To learn more about how DOW Networks' hosted VoIP call center solutions improved the financial service company's operations, click here.
Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Patrick Barnard