Let's face it. Of all the companies you deal with for service provision on a regular basis (utilities, banking/financial services, health care), it tends to be the telecom providers who are most customer service…ahem…challenged. It's a truth universally recognized that most telecom providers, be they wireless, cable, telephone, satellite or pony express, frequently capitalize on their sort-of-monopolies (it's a hassle to change telecom service providers in most cases, so most people are willing to put up with a lot more bad service than they would from their grocery store or a restaurant, for example) by providing lackluster customer relations. Part of the problem is that the customer service is so disconnected: one agent will tell you one thing on a Saturday, and another agent will tell you just the opposite on a Monday. A lack of cohesive customer service policies, no integration between communication channels and a great deal of disparate data is often to blame.

 

So it's nice to see a telecom provider striving to centralize knowledge to the benefit of its customers.

 

InQuira, Inc., a provider of integrated software applications for intelligent search, knowledge management, analytics and user experience, announced today that MTS (News - Alert) Allstream Inc., one of Canada's leading national communications providers, has chosen InQuira to power its knowledge management initiatives for its operations in the province of Manitoba and to improve its customer service experience. The company is leveraging InQuira’s KM solution to consolidate multiple content sources used across its call center, as well as its intelligent search capabilities to make the knowledge base efficiently and effectively accessible by its employees.

 

Serving residential and business customers with local and long distance services, Internet access, wireless services and digital television, MTS Allstream’s 700 service representatives in Manitoba were relying on multiple content sources to handle service inquiries from its customers. Starting in its wireless business, MTS Allstream deployed InQuira Information Manager to enable its contact center representatives to contribute to and access the consolidated knowledge base through a single Web-based interface. This not only creates consistency throughout the call center, but also leads to more productive customer interactions. Through the close integration with InQuira’s Intelligent Search, MTS Allstream has also improved its training of new service representative by making process, product and service information readily accessible via an intuitive search tool. 

 

“In the fast-paced telecommunications market, superior customer service is the best way to maintain competitive advantage,” said Pat Solman, VP of Customer Care, MTS Allstream. “After evaluating several other solutions, we felt that InQuira’s integrated KM and search solution offered us the best possible option for creating efficiencies in the call center and continuing to improve our interactions with our customers.” 

 

InQuira’s Intelligent Search automatically indexes any information asset by the semantic meaning of its content to match the user's request with the most relevant responses. The combination of semantic search and KM allows MTS Allstream to productively leverage its entire knowledge base, including unstructured content, structured data sources, and even transactional business applications. In addition, InQuira’s Analytics module provides MTS Allstream with actionable insight into customer data and intent to improve service interactions and its knowledge base.

 

“For companies with large service operations, the ability to effectively manage and access content is essential,” said Mike Murphy, CEO of InQuira. “MTS Allstream is an innovative telecommunications service provider with an unfaltering commitment to its customers and employees.  We look forward to working with them as they roll this initiative out to the rest of their business.”