It is extremely important to record the history of communication with customers regarding money and legal issues. Companies that discuss such things with customers should also respond as quickly as possible and maintain a high standard of service. To achieve all of this, the Polish company openNexus turned to Ringostat. Read how it has improved workflows and team productivity.
About openNexus and the role of calls in its business processes
The openNexus portal digitizes procurement in the public sector and business. The company provides solutions for the digitalization of procurement — from developing an action plan to servicing tenders.
openNexus’s mission is to create an active community, improve the user experience, and ensure the cost-effectiveness of public procurement. The portal currently serves more than 3,624 customers.
OpenNexus’ activities require compliance with the Law on Public Procurement and other regulations. This is the main point that affects interaction and communication with clients. But there are many others.
- Customers need quick answers to complex questions. Communication often involves legal issues and tender procedures requiring accurate information and immediate action. That’s why clients value the availability of managers and short waiting times, which includes answering the phone.
- Security and confidentiality are of great importance. The portal must protect customers’ personal data and other “sensitive” information.
- Customers occasionally require help using the procurement platform. They may ask how to use certain tools or other openNexus solutions, particularly the PrzetargOS training platform.
- Customers seek advice on optimizing procurement processes and adapting them to individual needs. Clients also typically ask about the steps in the tender procedure or the impact of changes in legislation on it.
Considering all these points, it is easier to communicate with customers by phone. First, customers will receive an immediate response. Second, a live conversation allows you to build a relationship with the customer. Thirdly, a consultant can quickly help with technical problems during a call, which is extremely important when dealing with complex tender issues.
Choosing telephony
Previously, openNexus used Focus Telecom telephony to communicate with customers. But then the team started talking about changing the solution.
They noted that the previous telephony no longer fully met our expectations. Financial considerations also played a role — we needed better value for money. Investing in a new telephony system had to bring tangible benefits to employees and customers without putting too much strain on the budget.
So we started looking for a solution that would be more convenient, increase team productivity, and positively impact the customer experience.”
When selecting the new telephony, management consulted with consultants to understand their daily challenges and preferences. The result was a list of six requirements for the new solution.
- Integrate with existing systems to ensure a seamless workflow.
- Quality and reliability of communication. The company wanted crystal-clear communication and stable telephony.
- Functionality: call recording, forwarding, advanced call management, and multichannel. That is so that several customers can call one number simultaneously.
- Scalability. Telephony should be easy to change as the organization grows. Both in terms of the number of users and the set of functions.
- Technical support should be fast and efficient.
- Transparent pricing. The solution should have no hidden costs while maintaining a high quality of service.
After conducting a thorough market analysis, openNexus decided on Ringostat. Our platform met all the criteria—in particular, it had ready-made integration with Salesforce CRM. The Customer Support Center now uses telephony, but another team tested it. This allowed us to better adapt the platform to the needs of all teams.
How calls are now handled in the company
Call distribution principle and call queue
- The common scenario. When a new customer calls, their call goes to the Customer Support Center. If a customer who is already in the CRM calls, their call is routed directly to the sales rep responsible for the transaction. This saves the team time because they don’t have to distribute calls manually between colleagues.
- In case of a malfunction on the site after hours. Instead of a standard greeting, customers hear a breakdown message that informs them of the problem and offers steps to get help.
- During the holidays. A voicemail is triggered with a warning about the non-working hours and a call to leave a message.
OpenNexus can receive more than 1000 calls in a month, so it’s not uncommon for several customers to call at the same time. If the company had used mobile instead of virtual communication, this would have been difficult. Only one person would be able to get through, and everyone else would hear short beeps. With virtual telephony, all customers can get help from openNexus.
The company also uses a call queue that keeps customers on the line without irritation. In openNexus, it works on the same principle:
- the call is added to the queue;
- Ringostat calls all operators in a circle;
- the first employee to leave the office answers the call.
The call queue also eliminates the need to call back customers who might not have been able to wait. This is important for our work’s efficiency and customer satisfaction.”
How the team handles calls using the Ringostat app for calls and CRM
For openNexus, it is crucial that the manager is at the computer during the call. After all, consultants often have to check large amounts of information and log into other systems.
To solve this problem, Ringostat offered openNexus a particular application for calls and CRM work. With its help, the team can:
- to call the customer’s number specified in Salesforce with one click;
- to see which customers are calling during a call and immediately address them by name;
- to store the history of communication with customers;
- to perform quick actions with contacts in the mini-CRM contained in the application, such as making a phone call — the data is automatically pulled from Salesforce;
- to see which customers contacted the company are currently on the website, etc.
The app is also designed so that essential fields in CRM are not covered when pinned to the right:
Integration with Salesforce CRM
Salesforce is used in openNexus not only for daily work but also for creating analytics. Ringostat’s integration with Salesforce allows you to transfer all the necessary information about calls to build reports. In particular, the workload of each manager, the duration of calls, and much more — so that you can monitor the team’s effectiveness.
The previous telephony service was also integrated with Salesforce. And thanks to Ringostat’s flexibility, the new integration was easily set up using the same logic.
At every stage, we were supported and informed about progress and other important points. This allowed us to respond quickly to changes and adapt processes to integrate the system with our internal tools.
The flexibility of integration allowed us to create a personalized work environment. It fully meets the specifics of our business and allows us to comfortably manage communication within the company. I am convinced that this gives our customers even better service and our employees tools that make their daily work easier.”
Results of cooperation with Ringostat: customer feedback
“Our cooperation with Ringostat is successful, and any minor issues are resolved quickly. The quality of service provided to us is very high. We also appreciate the ability to personalize settings and access analytics and reporting. This helps us better understand our customers’ needs and optimize internal processes.
In our company, every team member must be able to influence decisions and participate in business processes. However, it is critical for us to check the quality of customer service. We listen to calls, but not to control employees — it is a tool for developing and strengthening our team.
Phone calls are recorded, but we do this primarily for the safety of our customers. Audio recordings allow us to analyze and evaluate our communication and determine what to improve.
I’ll share an example of an insight we discovered in this way. From the conversations, it was clear that specific explanations of using the platform were too complicated for users. Therefore, we conducted additional training for the support team. As a result, the communication became more precise and more tailored to customers’ needs.
The most important indicators for us are those related to the quality and efficiency of customer service. We have seen many positive changes that demonstrate process improvements:
- the implementation of Ringostat went smoothly, which means that customers did not experience any negative consequences;
- our consultants are happy with the new telephony.”
