Regional truck supplier improves reporting and reduces outages
With over 70% of its business conducted by phone, Allstate Peterbilt needed to solve its frequent outage problem and improve reporting in order to maximize the customer experience and keep its bottom line healthy.
Challenge
Allstate Peterbilt’s phone system wasn’t keeping up with the demands of the rapidly evolving company, which was impacting customer experience. Frequent outages caused issues with logistics and communication.Solution
Allstream delivered UC Cloud Voice Communication and Contact Center solution – with a unified data network supported by centralized SIP trunks.Outcome
Allstate Peterbilt now has true and real-time reporting data for callers and service on 1500 calls per day, with no more outage issues.Benefits
- Service
- Scalability
- Flexibility
- Support
Allstate Peterbilt now has true and real-time reporting data for callers and service on 1500 calls per day, with no more outage issues.
Business Challenge
Founded in 1971, Allstate Peterbilt Group is the largest privately held dealer group in the Upper Midwest. From sales, leases and rental options to convenient part stores to fully operational service bays and even mobile service units, Allstate Peterbilt offers everything the trucking industry needs to stay on the road. The company offers customers access to over 50,000 truck parts from more than 800 manufacturers and a full range of service options and OEM certified diesel technicians at over 20 sites across the region.
“The engineer we worked with was phenomenal… There were times he figured out solutions within minutes.”
Ryan Wuotila, Director of IT, Allstate Peterbilt
Unfortunately, Allstate Peterbilt’s phone system wasn’t keeping up with the demands of the company, which was impacting customer experience. According to Ryan Wuotila, Director of IT, “our biggest challenge by far was reporting. We didn’t have an accurate picture of how many calls we were missing, who was answering calls, and whether people were using the phone correctly or incorrectly.” Without an accurate assessment of the phone usage, the company couldn’t address potential customer experience adequately.
The second biggest challenge for the company was the frequency of outages. “In the eyes of leadership, we were down regularly,” Wuotila said. “We had a minimum of one store down once a week. Sometimes we had to do things on our end that took a long time.” With over 70% of the company’s business conducted by phone, every outage meant potential lost income. The new system would need to address how to keep the phones up and running even in remote locations; 18 of Peterbilt’s sites are in areas with unreliable bandwidth.
“It turned out that we didn’t have to buy any additional equipment to make the old system in the stores talk to the new system at the call center.”
Ryan Wuotila, Director of IT, Allstate Peterbilt
Solution
Allstream proposed its UC Cloud Voice Communication and Contact Center solution with a unified data network supported by centralized SIP trunks. The cloud-based system meant that Allstate Peterbilt would not need to own or maintain its own onsite equipment; all phones would be hosted on the Allstream network and access backed up by public internet, thereby reducing the risk of a “last mile event” disrupting communications at one of the stores. The Allstream solution would also provide streamlined, “out of the box” reports to more adequately meet Allstate Peterbilt’s reporting needs.
One big challenge of implementation was the question of whether to upgrade the call center first or the stores. Wuotila’s concern was how to make the Shoretel system and the new Mitel System and the new UC Cloud system talk to each other.
A unique feature of Allstream’s UC Cloud solution is its ability to connect to an onsite old PBX to provide transfer capability between the systems for an easy customer transition if required, “It turned out that we didn’t have to buy any additional equipment” to make the old system in the stores talk to the new system at the call center”, Wuotila said. Once the call center upgrades were complete, Allstream’s local installation team implemented the solution at the stores. With certified expert engineers in the area and onsite, Allstream can provide a personalized high touch local support to even remote field offices.
Wuotila had high praise for the Allstream team. “The engineer we worked with was phenomenal,” he said. “There were times he figured out solutions within minutes.”
“On the UC cloud dashboard, I can easily pull a report and show the true data on calls.”
Ryan Wuotila, Director of IT, Allstate Peterbilt
Results
The solution addressed both of Peterbilt’s biggest challenges. On the previous system, Allstate Peterbilt couldn’t get true and real-time reporting data regarding how callers were being handled and what level of service was being delivered. Customers repeatedly expressed frustration that they couldn’t reach employees; many of those customers simply hung up before a call was answered.
In addition, every time an unanswered call bounced to a new phone—for example, from store to call center and back to store—the system considered it a brand new call. The company couldn’t get an accurate picture of call volume, nor could it assess potential staffing issues.
Reporting with the new cloud system is now much easier and now accurate. “On the system, I can easily pull a report and show the true data on calls,” said Wuotila. Once he could get accurate call data—volume, peak times, unanswered calls, etc.—the company was able to address many of the customer frustrations through staffing adjustments. Wuotila said the company has hired some new staff, and some stores have adjusted staffing schedules to address peak times. “The number of answered calls is steadily rising” since the company has been able to pinpoint the specific challenges, said Wuotila. Typical call volume is about 1,000 – 1,500 calls per day on the parts lines.
The Allstream UC Cloud solution has solved Peterbilt’s outage problem as well—despite some initial hiccups. Unlike a traditional phone system placed onsite, the UC Cloud Voice provides complete business continuity. All phones and Contact Center Agents are hosted in Allstream’s Cloud and backed up through dual local Internet connections. Now that Peterbilt is using the auto failover, users barely notice interruptions in the primary connection. “The only thing they notice is that the phone restarts,” said Wuotila. Wuotila is pleased with the system and the implementation experience. “Allstream has been great to work with,” he said. “They’ve been super responsive to our needs.”
Benefits
Service
Comprehensive and accurate reporting that gives management a clearer picture of customer experience.
Scalability
Scalable for future technology, including Omnichannel.
Flexibility
Twinning to mobile phones for users who are frequently out of the office.
Support
Support for the 18 sites located in areas with unreliable bandwidth.
Other benefits include:
- Three layers of redundancy to minimize risk of outages.
- Built in Audio, Desktop Collaboration and Web conferencing.
- Planned rollout of soft phones for homebased ACD agents to help address customer needs in remote locations.