August 11, 2023
Case studies
Other
active
Many operators are dreading a technical upgrade of their telephone system. True to the motto "Never touch a running system", they prefer to forego many of the advantages offered by a modern solution. However, netconnex has shown that such a conversion can also be carried out in a completely different way at the sight and sun protection manufacturer Teba GmbH & Co. KG.
Teba planned to modernize its 14-year-old telephone system from Alcatel and its in-house call center with 45 employees. In addition, the existing software from Data Dimensions was to be replaced by a more modern system. In order to be able to compensate for seasonal fluctuations, additional workplaces for temporary staff were planned. This should also be possible after a rebuild. The general availability was perceived as poor by customers. In addition, they often had to wait in queues until they could be put through to an employee. Callback campaigns did not exist and could not be carried out in terms of time. A statistical evaluation that would have helped to localize the causes was also not available. Comprehensive reporting was not possible.
"In the past, we always had our backs against the wall when it came to accessibility complaints. Today, I can look into the system and see: The customer has already left the queue after 15 seconds."
Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales
The first draft envisaged only a test balloon with 5 workstations. Already at an early stage of the feasibility study, about 4 weeks after the first contact, this was expanded to the entire internal service with 40 workstations. No problem thanks to the good scalability of netconnex solutions. Finally, the project was extended to the entire company.In October 2019, netconnex will start as one of three providers in the race to modernize the telephone system at Teba. Quickly, the concept of netconnex could prevail over the competition. The cloud solution "Made in Germany" not only convinced the management, but was also quickly accepted by the works councils and employees. In this context, Teba even speaks of an increase in transparency for the employees.
"In part, I already had a solution to my problem after a few minutes. The simple and uncomplicated communication with netconnex accompanied the whole project. "
Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales
On December 9, Teba's entire office staff had already been smoothly switched over to the new cloud-based IP telephony. A small team of netconnex employees supported the changeover on site. In addition, support was largely provided remotely, partly due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The winter lull in the seasonal business was also used to train the staff in detail in the use of the new technology. In the spring, with the start of the lockdown, another advantage of the new technology came into play: employees can be sent to the home office without any additional effort.
"A big advantage of this solution was the ability to just send employees to the home office. That was a big competitive advantage, especially with the start of the lockdown."
Michael Kusenberg, Head of IT
On April 2, in the middle of the lockdown, the entire conversion was completed. A special challenge was the connection of the production and the warehouses. Employees at changing locations and in addition a lot of shielding metal, which prevented the use of WLAN. This was no easy task to master. The solution implemented by netconnex relies on cordless telephones according to the DECT standard, which operate on different frequencies than conventional IP telephones. In order to be able to integrate these telephones into the new system, special base stations are used which are connected to the network. The employees' telephones automatically dial into the next base station as they walk through the halls, thus enabling them to be reached at all times.Conclusion:The feared outage during the changeover did not occur, of course. Queries were resolved quickly and without complications. Problems were more likely to occur in the details. For example, the telephone book for production, which was forgotten during the planning phase, but was quickly added.The first baptism of fire is now behind the system. Just in time for the start of the season, the lockdown ended and the prevented vacationers became eager building owners who wanted to upgrade their own home with a sun protection solution from Teba. From the first conversation to regular operation, just 6 months passed. The improved accessibility enjoys great approval among customers. The only exception will probably remain the following complaint, which was probably not entirely serious:
"A long-established customer recently complained about the accessibility with our new system. He said the wait times are so short now, he doesn't come in to smoke or drink coffee. These are luxury problems that we simply didn't know before."
Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales
Even after a year of operation, Teba is still more than satisfied. The performance of the telephone system has fully met all expectations. Outages have become the absolute exception. The acceptance of Teba employees is growing with each passing day. The intelligent distribution of customer inquiries by means of the Contact Center, also from caseris, has also had a direct impact on availability, which is now stable at 95% with a daily call volume of 700-800 incoming and 300-400 outgoing calls. Before the introduction, this was just between 50% and 60%. If the customer now calls several times within the same day, he is always connected to the same employee. Even if all lines are busy, the customer is usually called back within a few minutes. Accordingly, customers are fully satisfied with the new service. The initial skepticism of many customers as to whether the high level of availability would last has now been dispelled.The management is also enthusiastic. Whereas last year overtime and Saturday work were still necessary for order entry, today the company is up to date on a daily basis during regular working hours, and without any temporary staff at all. Simply because the capacity of the employees can be better controlled using the monitoring and statistics functions. A service level of 85% KPI leaves hardly anything to be desired.
"We have practically turned the tables. Now it's no longer us who are hard to reach, but our customers who get a callback after 2-3 minutes and are no longer on the phone."
Jörg Augstein, Head of Internal Sales
In retrospect, Teba is glad to have taken this step. An uncomplicated implementation, excellent support and a solution that adapts to the customer's wishes. A product that is simply convincing and which Michael Kusenberg, Head of IT, says he would choose again and again.
The cooperation between Teba and netconnex goes into the next round. Several innovations are planned. For even more convenience, netconnex telephony is to be integrated into Microsoft Teams. An intelligent IVR system (Interactive Voice Response), which is linked to the ERP system, will enable customers to find out delivery dates quickly and easily themselves. Last but not least, communication is to be expanded to include video telephony and chat functions. The latter includes the integration of live chat, AI chat and the integration of WhatsApp into the call flow.
