Introduction:

Intrado is an American telecommunication company that deals with four main segments: Life and safety (including 911 operation), Enterprise Collaboration, Digital Media (including streaming operations), and Health and Wellness (including healthcare claims and customer support). It’s Health and Wellness (including healthcare claims and customer support) launched back in 2019 and is new in the market and has products that the customers are quite unaware of. It is highly important for them to get their service introduced to the crowd of the US, ensuring it’s well-received among them. Since they already have an old telecommunication system, the team is looking forward to setting up VoIP business phones with minimum changes. They need help in formulating the VoIP Solutions and unlimited VoIP minutes to connect with the customers. The Intrado team is in search of VoIP Engineers and salespeople who think out-of-the-box and do something extraordinary.

Challenges:

The team of Intrado approached the VoIPTech Solutions team and just like every time, we began the talk to counsel them better. They clearly told us the challenges that they face as a brand that offers a service that is very common in the market. Along with this, they also wanted some help in the ways they could promote both their brand and to help improve their customer service. Some of the major challenges that they faced were as mentioned below:

• No Unified Communication Tool: Businesses need to connect with the audience. Customers prefer multiple channels to communicate with a business, and for Intrado it is a must.
• Lack of manpower – The team of Intrado had a good team but still they needed cost-savvy solutions to cut down the added expenditure that includes more live agents for customer support, VoIP engineers, and new systems.
• System Upgradation – The support system of Intrado needed to be upgraded with the latest communication tools & software that can take their customer service to the next level.
• Infrastructure Setup – They didn’t have a proper infrastructure in place for the support team, which is one of the deciding factors for a business to survive & sustain in this ever-changing marketing landscape.
• Lack of operational visibility and accountability structures: One of the main challenges faced by Intrado, lack of clarity & accountability of calls made by agents. In general, what happens is field agents make calls from their mobile, so there is no trace of clarity of the calls that are being made, duration, attempts to reach individuals, to name a few. It all happens due to the unavailability of a tracking & monitoring system. Monitoring agents’ performance becomes difficult.
• Risk of Data Theft: Individuals getting access to vital customer info can possess a real threat to data privacy. 
• Inability to Adapt to The New Norm: With remote working has become the new norm in the wake of Covid-19, the majority of the organizations are forced to from home, and Intrado was not an exception. Their customer support team has gone down for a VPN set up to provide remote support. But the systems’ high installation cost, poor voice quality, flexibility, & reliability are a matter of concern for the organization.
• Virtual Office Phone: It is not possible to open an office in every state and it can cost a ton as well. They needed a solution to bring that local feel towards their brand. Virtual phone numbers were the only way out and effective.

On understanding these challenges and the other ones too, we decided to take up their concern and work on improving things for them.

Getting Started,

To begin with, the team of VoIPTech Solutions had to come together and work on first setting up a team. We assigned the task to a group of our VoIP engineers, marketing specialists, and sales people who would curate, research, and execute simultaneously. The team was given a thorough introduction about Intrado and its products and various aspects such as the way it had to be marketed, the strategies we had to implement and all the other things associated with VoIP minutes and VoIP phone systems were discussed. After this, a proper agenda of choosing the right VoIP plan was made and put into action.

Requirements Gathering:

Before we began, we had to specifically make a note of our requirements so that the journey of setting up customer support for Intrado became smooth and easy. The team of VoIPTech Solutions jotted them down and the most vital requirements were planned to be made available. Out of all the following was important. 

A quick draft was created so as to figure out what Intrado wanted as output from the VoIPTech Solutions team. After several discussions, we filtered and listed out their needs to focus on them and to work on them effectively.

• Long halt time & call queues: Call volumes can vary during business hours or days. On certain days, it goes beyond your capability that eventually results in long queues or calls waiting times that increase customers’ frustration levels, which is not good for any business. Intrado needed an advanced system that can immediately transfer calls to other free agents or staff available on the desk. 

• The Need for Cloud-based solutions: By integrating cloud-based telephony solutions in your existing system, you can assign virtual numbers to each individual and keep track of all the incoming & outgoing calls. When an individual makes a call using his/her mobile phone, it is routed via this number and the calls are being tracked successfully and recorded automatically. It empowers your quality & control team with the authority to review the performance and outcome of calls. It also helps maintain 100% adherence to SLA compliance, quality checks, areas that need to improve, and effective management of remote agents.

• Cloud telephony: By introducing cloud-based telephony, you can deny unauthorized access to customer data. Intrado agents can use the virtual number given by VoIPTech Solutions to request a call to any customer that the system permits and connects automatically. Isn’t that great? A cloud telephony system quickly transfers calls to agents available to respond, irrespective of their geographic location or the device they are using, reducing the call drop rates, long waiting times, thus giving a great customer experience 24/7.

• The call center set up: The fact of the matter is that setting up a business contact center can cost a ton, whether you would like to go this way or that way. Big enterprises may have the budget to rent a new office space in a prime location and make it fully operational with live agents. Some of them also prefer to set up call centers overseas where operational cost is a bit on the lower side. However, none of the options are really ideal for a small-scale organization, having less than 100 employees. We made it possible for Intrado.

Solution:

The solution of the case was easily sorted out and cracked by the team of VoIPTech Solutions. The team of VoIPTech Solutions listed out the right solutions that would enhance the customer experience and brand loyalty. The list of the things that had to be done was as mentioned below.

• Cost-Effectiveness: One of the biggest drawbacks of using traditional phone services is that long-distance phone call charges are quite high. By using VoIP service, you make use of your existing internet connection that you already have without paying anything extra for the plan. Nevertheless, you get a number of advanced features that not only save you a ton but also help take your business communication to the next level.

• Easy Maneuverability: In this day and age, every single opportunity counts, and those who have understood the new norm are already ahead. VoIP services allow for calls to be made or taken wherever they are connected to an Internet device. If you have corporate offices off-site or a workforce that requires to travel often, your employees can easily make & take phone calls on their own device even when they are away from their desks.

• Implementation of Futuristic Technology: The needs of business houses keep changing over time. The things that are in demand, maybe of no use 10 years down the line. So, technology has to be futuristic. VoIP’s cloud-based services allow businesses to make changes according to their growing communication needs. Whether you would like to fly off to a new location or move to a different office, you can still enjoy all the benefits of VoIP without any extension.

• Hardware Requirement: A VoIP service can be hosted entirely over the cloud, thus requiring less on-site equipment or hardware for setup. All the business communication happens through a single network.

• Hassle-Free Process: VoIP is an easier & sophisticated way to communicate & collaborate. You can say it is less messy, more organized. With VoIP, companies can focus more on their business and less on other things, as all the stakeholders stay well-informed about the ongoing process, especially the customers.

Research:

Thorough research was made on the followings:

• How to Deliver exceptional customer service: Always keep in mind that for a successful business, enhanced customer service is the prime key to emerge your business reputation on the top of the list in this competitive market scenario. However, every organization is focusing on executing new ideas and techniques for being the pioneer in this industry. Along with a persistent availability of a representative and faster resolution of customers, queries get you closer to success. Well, in that case, a Toll-Free Number with IVR systems creates an amazing customer-friendly communication channel. It directly connects you to the concerned department with the desired resolution to your queries. Ultimately it addresses a smooth resolution without investing any extra effort ensuring completely extraordinary service and support.  

• Ways to Enhance business credibility & professionalism: The opportunity for businesses to gain credibility and prove how professional they are is literally drying up day by day because of the competitive market growth. They needed a system that is designed so well that there is not a single possibility of being unreachable and also incorporating a callback or missed call option to avoid losing a potential customer. However, these attributes help businesses to emerge as a success by delivering extra effort and the highest quality level of service to the customers they need.  

• How to Get a competitive advantage: Apart from all the marketing efforts, the most significant one is branding. When it comes to securing a competitive advantage, a strong branding strategy really helps a lot. And, always do remember that to emerge on the top list you really need to have a reliable and accessible business contact number. 

• How to Empower the Marketing initiatives: They needed tools that can help empower their marketing efforts as well. In fact, a great recall value for both new as well as existing potential customers. Apart from that, tracking a number is also required. Last but not least it creates a database for the marketing team to make them connect to the customers later more efficiently. 

• To Drive an extensive cost-saving solution: quite affordable and easy to set up. As compared to regular telephone services, a toll-free number subscription is much lower. Offering affordable monthly plans, a toll-free number is available on a pay-as-you-go basis instead of a contract. However, implementing an IVR system with a toll-free number is undoubtedly affordable for every business size. 

Implementation:

• DID Integration: With the integration of DID, you can certainly decrease the required trunk lines for connecting to your business. With an advanced VoIP system, they can use the call forwarding feature & send the DIDs to different continents, hence saving a ton on long-distance calls.
• More free time: Call routing to individuals without the help of a receptionist or phone menu, allows you more free time. Now, they can easily follow-up a client.
• Improved customer experience 24/7: Customers can get to speak to the concerned person without any hassle that eventually ends up with an enhanced customer experience with a better satisfaction rate.
• Better collaboration among team members: Team members can speak to each other over a dedicated extension, no matter their geographical location.
• Local phone numbers: No matter where your office is located, you can still have a local phone number for the native audience. This helps build the trust factor towards your business. A business operating in Los Angeles can have the number of Mumbai or Paris displayed on customers’ phone screens in that market.
• No on-premise hardware required: With VoIP, you don’t need any kind of on-premise hardware for the setup. You make use of your existing phone system & components for the same.
• Auto call forwarding: You can forward incoming calls to any virtual numbers or personal numbers without the knowledge of the callers.
• More flexible work environment: With DID, you have more control over your calling options.
• Auto time setter: You can set a particular time for a call to be made, and it automatically dial those numbers exactly at that time. This is a great tool for teams working abroad, in different time zones.
• Marketing attribution: You can easily track the ongoing marketing campaigns & individual performances with 100% accuracy.  

Result:

After we implemented all the strategies that we planned, we achieved all that the team of Intrado wanted us to do. They not only improve their customer service to a great extent but also now serving customers in many countries with local numbers.

We Were Told:

We had no idea about how things worked with VoIP Phone Systems & the benefits of going cloud. We thank VoIPTech Solutions for taking our concerns with care and thinking out of the box to provide us the best service. We have improved our customer service, brand identity, sales, & service quality with the help of them. They were the right choice that we made.