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Customer-Centric Software is an Operational Must-Have

TMCnews Featured Article


June 10, 2015

Customer-Centric Software is an Operational Must-Have

By Tara Seals, TMCnet Contributor


When it comes to customer service, consumers often find themselves saddled with the classic bugbears of frustration: IVRs, phone trees, long hold times, internecine “online support” black holes and, worst of all, the requirement to be transferred through a series of service reps before getting one’s question answered—each of whom requires a reiteration of the same account verification and trouble ticket information.


But, it doesn’t have to be this way. Giving customer service agents better software tools to better do their jobs can boost customer satisfaction and offer a major differentiation point for one’s business. And as an added benefit, better processes mean more streamlined business operations, which directly impacts the bottom line.

Consider the case of hotel software provider Multi-Systems, Inc. (MSI (News - Alert)), whose cloud-based hotel technology solutions are used by more than 5,800 properties throughout North America for integrated reservation, payment and guest services. That includes independently owned resorts to large franchises like Best Western and Wyndham, so it’s likely that anyone who travels has made use of the MSI platform at some point or another.

At the heart of the MSI operation is, of course, serving customers. It’s what the company does. “The software we use to manage our 80-person customer support team, our customers, and their needs is easily one of the more critical pieces of our entire organization,” said Scott Little, MSI’s VP of customer services.

However, it found that the tools it was using weren’t meeting its needs in the digital age. “Our previous system had only a single point of support and did not allow for interaction with customers,” explained Little. “On top of that, we inherited a second support system when we integrated with another office, and the two systems didn’t interact well.”

Looking to scrap the legacy systems, MSI embarked on a vetting of new solutions, even going so far as to commission a replacement suite. But before implementation started, MSI decided to scrap the project or one simple reason: It wasn’t customer-centric. It was built around individual tickets, which weren’t necessarily all linked to a single customer account. That would lead to a fragmentation in visibility that would only frustrate travelers. In particular, MSI needed the ability to connect contacts to tickets, and multiple properties to a ticket. So, for instance, if there’s a phone outage that affects a customer’s group of properties, MSI needs to be able to associate all of the issues to that single ticket, instead of assigning hundreds of tickets to the same problem.

“In our environment, everything starts with the customer,” Little explained. “For us, we can’t create a ticket without applying it to a customer. [Most] software is built around tickets rather than customers.”

Eventually, the company turned to TeamSupport, which offers an omni-channel customer communication platform. The results have been positive.

For instance, customers are using TeamSupport’s Chat features, which helps drive down call volume and frees support agents for more complicated issues.

Also, customers are getting their issues resolved faster. MSI has their TeamSupport Customer Portal integrated right into their website so that customers can help themselves using the knowledgebase, and spend less time waiting on the phone for help. As one customer recently said: “This feature is awesome, especially when there is an issue but not an emergency.”

Customers can also follow their tickets in real time, monitoring how their issue is being resolved, by whom, and when. And, customers can directly update their ticket as circumstances change on their end.

 “Having the ability to give your customers more access to their information, and fuller visibility into their issues, really opens up the lines of communication, allowing you to build stronger relationships with them as you serve their needs,” said Little.

Overall, MSI said that the decision to modernize has helped it prepare for future growth. “The staff at TeamSupport have been extremely responsive to any question we’ve had, and they’re very engaged,” Little said. “We’ve seen a lot of enhancements to the software that we’ve asked for. It’s very telling that the team listens to customers like us and is committed to growing with us.”




Edited by Maurice Nagle







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