Automotive Care Centers

Unified communications improves customer service in-store and by phone.

CLIENT CASE STUDY

THE CHALLENGE

In retail, serving customers especially while they’re in the store is everything. And that’s why one of the largest Automotive Care retailers urgently needed a more efficient and effective way to handle thousands of daily phone calls to their store locations.

With more than 1,200 locations across the U.S. and Canada, the deluge of daily incoming phone calls presented in-store employees with a frustrating dilemma. They could answer the calls and ask the customers in front of them to wait, or they could put the callers on hold until they were finished serving the customers already in front of them. It’s a nice business problem to have, but not one any customer service oriented retailer wants to have for very long.

In this retailer’s case, the majority of inbound store calls were to ask basic questions: What are your hours? Is this item in stock? Can I make an appointment? Is my car ready? And while the remaining calls required varying levels of direct customer service, only a portion actually required assistance at the store level.

Here’s how this retailer worked with Greyson Technologies and their Florida-based team of certified, trusted professionals, to streamline voice communications and improve customer service in-store and by phone.

THE SOLUTION

Greyson worked closely with the retailer to design an integrated voice communications solution that would meet the following requirements:

1. Maintain direct-dial phone numbers for all stores
2. Route direct-dial store calls to a central contact center
3. Handle direct-dial calls seamlessly as if answered by the store
4. Utilize automated attendant function to satisfy common store questions
5. Connect callers to contact center representatives for direct customer support
6. Switch callers to store employees when required

To address these requirements, Greyson developed a technology adoption plan for the retailer that included components from several partners.

• Cisco® Unified Communications Manager
• Cisco® Unified Contact Center Express
• Cisco® IP Phones
• Cisco® 2900, 3900, 7200 Series Routers
• SIP technology (session initiated protocol)
• MPLS technology (multi-protocol label switching)
• Greyson Professional Services

The basis of the solution allowed callers to direct dial their local stores and have their calls seamlessly answered (as if by the stores) at a central contact center. There, an automated attendant presented the caller with a set of call-tree options specific to the store (e.g., press 1 for store hours, press 2 for directions, press 3 for a representative, etc.). Those calls requiring a live person were switched to a contact center representative, known as the knowledge base, with a screen pop for the store immediately prompting the representative how to handle the incoming call. And, if at anytime the call actually needed direct assistance at the store level, the contact center representative could contact and switch the call to an employee at the store.

THE RESULTS

The integrated voice communications solution delivered by Greyson significantly improved:

• Operational efficiency for handling incoming phone calls requiring:
  • Basic store information
  • General customer service
  • Store-specific customer service

• Operational effectiveness allowing employees to better serve more in-store customers without interruption

• Expense reduction enabled by:
  • Each store reducing the number of phone lines required for day-to-day operations
  • Centralized contact center operations