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SoftChalk Writes the Rules for Excellent Customer Service with ParatureAs the leading provider of content authoring software for educators in K-12, colleges, universities and medical programs, SoftChalk (www.softchalk.com) is committed to providing top-notch customer service for all of its education and corporate clients. With customer growth and inquiries quickly on the rise, SoftChalk realized it had to take a more proactive, efficient approach to managing customer questions and interactions that were coming in by both phone and email. Rather than continue the laborious process of manually opening each email and sorting them into file folders, SoftChalk executives began to look for a multi-channel, automated customer support solution that could track all of their customer inquiries and respond to them in real-time. SoftChalk turned to Parature (www.parature.com), a leading provider of cloud-based customer engagement software, in October 2010 to implement a multi-channel customer support solution, so that SoftChalk could respond to inquiries and engage with their customers through multiple channels and even on the company’s Facebook page. Parature allows SoftChalk to now operate very efficiently, fielding inquiries through its new Web portal, email, phone, and Facebook. With Parature’s customer support solution, SoftChalk has one centralized place where they can manage and track all inquiries, and prioritize urgent requests. SoftChalk can also now offer their customers a robust FAQ or KnowledgeBase where they can easily research their questions and receive auto-suggested answers through Parature’s EasyAnswer feature. If customers can’t find an answer to their inquiry, they can easily submit a trouble ticket right at the Web portal, and because it’s available online they can log in and check the status anytime, from anywhere. SoftChalk also now has a set of Reporting features available so they can track their response time to customers, and analyze the types of inquiries coming in and articles searched for in the KnowledgeBase to get a better understanding of customer trends and needs. SoftChalk also appreciates the fact that Parature’s solution is easily customizable, so they can instantly add additional fields whenever they need to collect additional information and also design their Parature portal to match Softchalk’s branding. “Prior to Parature, we were spending about 75% of our time on customer support, and 25% of our time managing the actual process,” said Mary Beth Huneke, Director of Support Services. “Within a week of implementing Parature we could spend 100% of our time on customer support. It has made us incredibly efficient and proactive in our interactions with our customers reaching us through multiple channels. We also loved the fact that this was a cloud-based support solution that we could grow with, so as we look at adapting more features, Parature can easily support us in those efforts.” In addition to improved efficiencies, SoftChalk has realized concrete cost savings as well. Huneke comments, “If it weren’t for Parature, we would most definitely have had to add additional staff members to our support team. The fact that we have not had to increase headcount is a major savings for our company.” Huneke also remarks that Parature’s software has been incredibly reliable, and that each interaction with Parature’s professional services team has been top-notch. “Customers today want to know they are being heard, that their inquiries are being read and automatically routed to the right person, and they expect that to be handled by an organized system,” said Huneke. “Parature has taken care of all of that for us, helping us to deliver better service to our customers while simultaneously saving our organization real money. That to me is the perfect combination when it comes to a customer support solution.” As a community-building service, TMCnet allows user submitted content which is not always proofed by TMCnet editors. If you feel this entry is of inferior quality or wish to report it for some reason, please forward the URL to "webedit [AT] tmcnet [DOT] com" with your comments. |