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Wheaton | Bekins: Improves Customer Service with Interactive Intelligence Group's Customer Interaction Center
[December 13, 2012]

Wheaton | Bekins: Improves Customer Service with Interactive Intelligence Group's Customer Interaction Center


Dec 13, 2012 (Close-Up Media via COMTEX) -- Wheaton World Wide Moving | Bekins Van Lines has reported improved customer service, increased productivity, and reduced costs as a result of deploying Interactive Intelligence Group Inc.'s Customer Interaction Center (CIC), the Company reported.



CIC, an all-in-one IP communications software suite, replaced a Nortel system, which was several revisions behind, according to Jerrod Carter, CIO for Wheaton | Bekins.

"It was going to cost us $100,000 just to bring our Nortel system up to date and with no added benefit," Carter said. "After evaluating systems from Avaya, Mitel, ShoreTel, and Tribox, we selected CIC based on its sophisticated and flexible feature-set." After making its selection, Wheaton acquired Bekins Van Lines, which was also using CIC. As a result, it created a more aggressive deployment timeline to facilitate communication between the two entities and prevent any disruption of service to customers.


"Our combined entity meant we were communicating with hundreds of independent agents across the country and thousands of service providers," Carter said. "CIC enabled us to create a four-digit speed dial to provide quick access to each agent or provider. This may seem like a small thing, but it enabled our staff to acclimate to the acquisition more quickly and our corporate employees to be more efficient." The company said that it was also handling a lot of military business, and operators would spend much of their day getting frequently transferred military personnel in touch with someone who knew the status of their move.

"By adding CIC's skills-based call routing we were able to immediately get our military customers to the person most familiar with their move," Carter said. "This has saved our operators countless hours and has further improved service." Also contributing to customer service has been CIC's callback feature. "Callback has equipped our agents with the information they need to more effectively serve customers as soon as the call is connected," Carter said. "It lets customers keep their place in queue without sitting on hold -- an option they've come to greatly appreciate." The move to voice over IP has also saved the company money by enabling it to drop its primary rate interface lines, while CIC's desktop softphone resulted in additional savings by eliminating the need to purchase pricey, button-laden phones, according to Carter.

Wheaton | Bekins said that it worked with Interactive Intelligence reseller, Communications Products Inc. (CPI), to assist with CIC's evaluation and deployment.

"CPI was indispensable throughout the entire process -- from its understanding of our objectives, to how we could best meet our goals within an aggressive timeline," Carter said. "The company gave us a clear plan, and the onsite training they did for our employees the week before going live proved critical to a smooth transition." Wheaton | Bekins sums up its deployment experience like this: "During the evaluation process, Interactive Intelligence and CPI were by far the most impressive vendors," Carter said. "Since then, we've not been disappointed. CIC's been so easy to use and it's given us all the functionality we needed and then some." Interactive Intelligence Group Inc. is a global provider of contact center automation, unified communications, and business process automation software and services.

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