Trimble Customer Spotlight - NICE inContact

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Customer Spotlight

TRIMBLE NAVIGATION

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Improves Customer Service, Adds Revenue Stream and Enhances Call Center Efficiency As one of the largest global providers of GPS, laser, optical and positioning technologies, Trimble Navigation is transforming the agricultural, engineering, construction, public safety, utility and fleet management industries with leading-edge location solutions that translate positioning to productivity. To streamline its service and support response on a global scale, Trimble recently transformed its own workflow, adopting the inContact cloud-based contact center solution to power service and support across 16 global offices. By bringing its call center management functions together under the inContact umbrella, Trimble has been able to »dramatically

improve customer service delivery, »add new revenue streams, »enhance call center efficiency and »reduce operational costs across its growing global footprint.

Call Center Demands Outpace Legacy Systems

Business GPS, laser, optical and positioning solutions www.trimble.com

Challenges

••Inefficient, expensive call routing ••Excessive hold times ••Distributors and end-users competing for limited support resources

••Multiple disparate legacy call management systems

••Support was a cost center—no revenue potential

Results

••Improved customer service delivery ••Integrated, streamlined call management on a global scale

••Optimized call routing ••Value-added revenue stream with premium paid support options

••Reduced outsource operator routing costs by $20,000+ per month

••Reduced hold times from 4 hours to less than 30 minutes

As its global distribution has grown, so too has Trimble’s call center demands. With a business presence in just about every country in the world, its support and service functions were tasked with handling all types of service for its B2B and B2C customers, including repair support, warranty claims, product refurbishment, spare parts, installations and distributor and end-user training. Prior to inContact, each function was a separate entity operating on various call center management systems, including disparate legacy IVR and basic ACD systems. “In order to manage global demand, our support structure was segmented by geographic region with call centers to handle North and South America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and a dedicated system for China,” said Ron Quan, R & D Business Development of Trimble’s Global Services Division. “This presented two problems: first, we had a shortage of local numbers in certain global regions that caused easy access to our call centers. And, we had no way to segregate calls coming in from our end-users from those coming from our distribution partners. Resellers and customers were essentially competing for the same support staff, who were operating on independent, incompatible call center management systems.” Aiming to reduce what Trimble calls “customer leakage” (end-users who call the support line rather than seek support from their Trimble dealer) and improve service delivery for its distribution partners, the company tried both another cloud vendor and an on-premise system prior to inContact. “Neither were global or scalable enough to support our needs,” Quan said. “Scalability, ongoing reliability and proactive push of new features were the most important key factors for us. Only inContact offered the level of innovation and service to meet our needs.”

Caller Validation Reduces Hold Time, Improves Call Routing By implementing inContact across its global support network, Trimble has been able to bring its entire Global Services Division under a single management platform. To streamline service delivery, Trimble asked each of its distribution partners to complete a one-time registration process to obtain a unique service access code. The initial and ongoing challenge of keeping data clean for validation purposes goes hand in hand with automation. Through inContact’s deep integration with Salesforce.com, each time a dealer calls into the system, not only is the call automatically routed to the matched skill set of available support representatives based on geography and language parameters, but it is also recognized as a dealer inquiry by the

“Only inContact offered the level of innovation and service to meet our needs.” Ron Quan, Global Services Division Trimble Navigation Limited system and expedited to the triage IVR. If the number isn’t recognized in the system, the caller is prompted to indicate whether they are a dealer or a customer and their call is routed appropriately, giving those without a dealer access code the opportunity to leave a voicemail message and receive a return call at a later time. Quan says that while the process of distributing the dealer access codes was a bit painful at first, the end result has enabled the company to rein in the call process and gain better control of its operational efficiency. Not only does the system help filter callers by type, but it also offers the potential for revenue generation by offering distribution partners the option to augment their support services with another paid priority support offering through Trimble’s support and/or training programs. This will take time to market and sell through distribution, but is key to differentiating Trimble solutions from competitors’ products. In addition to the dealer-specific program, Trimble also implemented preferred customer support that enables endusers to obtain paid support on per-case or per-incident basis, or the option to obtain an expedited support code for the purchase of a certain number of cases per year.

866.965.SaaS (7227) | inContact.com

“The cost savings alone… have been in excess of $20,000 per month.” Ron Quan, Global Services Division Trimble Navigation Limited The caller validation capability has also helped to improve Trimble’s product service and repair fulfillment system. Prior to inContact, repair requests were routed to a fulfillment center in Dayton, Ohio or Germany, but with no warranty validation or service ticketing. With inContact in place, Trimble implemented a new preferred service provider program, certifying certain authorized resellers to perform repair work. The effort not only improved service quality, forcing PSPs to obtain the necessary training and certification, but also offered enhanced support options for the PSP through expedited assistance from live repair technicians with a unique PSP code, similar to the distributor code system for support. The PSP program is a bundle that includes: access to live repair technicians, live training classes, certification and e-learning programs.

Skills-based Routing Reduces Triage Costs, Bottlenecks With more than 200 classified skill sets in its support system (some further refined by spoken language), the ability to route incoming calls to the appropriate agent was critical for meeting Trimble’s goals for improving efficiency, lowering costs and improving customer satisfaction. Prior to inContact, a live “Level 0” outsourced customer service operator manually opened or updated a ticket for each incoming call and then routed it to the proper queue, billing Trimble for each call handled per month. As the number of support organizations on the Trimble system increased, the triage bill went up.

“The inContact platform is more robust than any system in the world.” Ron Quan, Global Services Division Trimble Navigation Limited

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“With inContact, we’re now able to leverage a centralized customer support organization that eliminates the Level 0 operator and routes calls automatically across a scalable infrastructure that can grow with us,” Quan said. “The cost savings alone in eliminating this manual process have been in excess of $20,000 per month, not to mention dramatically reducing the hold time for customers who no longer have to wait on the line to only get to a middleman.”

“It’s taken a tremendous amount of pressure off of my shoulders by streamlining our system and optimizing our workflow to reduce cost per call and overall operational costs.” Ron Quan, Global Services Division Trimble Navigation Limited

“It’s a win-win arrangement for all involved: not only are we able to provide a better, more efficient level of service for our customers but the interns also benefit from the employment opportunity and the hands-on experience they earn by working within their field,” Quan said. With the inContact system now fully implemented across 90 percent of its Global Services team—some 300 station IDs in all—Trimble has not only met its goals for call center reliability and scalability, but also benefited from inContact’s robust customer support, professional services and product development. “The inContact platform is more robust than any system in the world,” Quan said. “We get the reliability and support we need with new features and functions that meet our growing needs, as well as truly hands-on account management and quarterly QBR assessments to measure how well the system is performing for us. We are constantly pushing the limit with automation but it is our mission to continually streamline our system and optimize our workflow to reduce cost per call and overall operational costs.”

Hold time was a major issue for Trimble’s agricultural division—one of the company’s largest. Crop producers use Trimble’s GPS systems for planting and irrigation management. With the arrival of peak planting season each spring, Trimble historically saw an annual spike in the volume of support calls, driving up hold times to hours in 2010. With inContact, Trimble has implemented a proxy call-back feature, enabling its distribution partners to keep their place in the call queue while they address other business and await a call back from an agent as soon as one is available. The flexibility of inContact’s cloud-based solution has even allowed Trimble to quickly ramp up to meet demand from its agricultural customers through a partnership with Colorado State University. The company leased office space in a building near the CSU campus, purchased 20 laptops and telephones and staffs a Level 1 agriculture-focused helpdesk call center with interns hired through the CSU agricultural studies program. Taking advantage of this resource and the on-demand scalability of the inContact platform has enabled Trimble to reduce hold times to less than 30 minutes with interns triaging calls and quickly routing them to a more experienced Level 2 or Level 3 agent when needed.

866.965.SaaS (7227) | inContact.com

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