Providing the best in customer experience is important for most any company that wants to see repeat business. There are almost as many ways to improve the customer experience as there are companies eager to take advantage of these, and Hargray Communications is looking to take advantage of one such measure by focusing on customer support software. To that end, it is bringing in Monolith Software's AssureNow platform to help improve its operations.
Monolith, meanwhile, reports that Hargray Communications has successfully put the AssureNow system in place, and will be able to put it to work over the coming weeks. With AssureNow in place, Hargray hopes to bolster its goals of "envisioning and delivering customer delight". Hargray deals in Internet service, as well as phone and digital television service for residential and commercial customers alike, so Hargray has to have a clear focus on customer satisfaction.
That's what made AssureNow a great choice; with AssureNow in place, Hargray could not only provide service assurance, but could also take several older tools dealing with performance and fault management out of the system entirely. But Monolith didn't bring the system to Hargray in isolation; partner company Cyient did much of the deployment work. With AssureNow in place, users get access to a scalable platform built around a single codebase that can provide not only data collection and visualization tools, but also reporting systems to help make sure that the data gathered leads to more actionable results.
Hargray's vice president of network and information technology, Tom Walsh, offered up some comment on the new addition, saying “We selected Monolith Software's AssureNow after an extensive evaluation of traditional OSS suppliers. It became clear that AssureNow was uniquely positioned to support our strategic objectives. The AssureNow platform is able to capture an unparalleled breadth of data and convert it into actionable information. Coupled with Cyient's service assurance expertise, we are now able to proactively manage our networks, resulting in world-class customer service in our local market."
For companies like Hargray who are so deeply customer-focused, the use of customer support software can be a huge benefit to the customer experience, and by extension, customer retention. As we've seen from Comcast's example on several occasions, not having that customer focus often generates bad feeling from the customer base, and those customers who aren't well-disposed to a business are likely to leave it, if at all possible. Hargray's own existence suggests that it's in an environment where there's more than one competitor afoot—a quick look for ISPs around Hilton Head, where Hargray is headquartered, suggests nine top-rated providers on Angie's List and fully 34 to avoid—so being ready to provide the best in customer experience should help keep Hargray to the front of the pack.
Customer support software isn't a magic bullet solution, but it can be a major help to organizations looking to stay on top thanks to an improved responsiveness to customers' needs. If Hargray can put this new system to use effectively, it may well be able to better keep its current customers and bring in new ones thanks to happy customers telling interested friends.
Edited by Maurice Nagle