Homework answers / question archive / ALL AUTOMOTIVEHall Automotive Accelerates Customer Relations with inContact Hall Automotive, a group of 14 multi-franchise auto dealerships located throughout Virginia and North Carolina, knew they wanted to improve their ability to interface with their customers and enhance their overall experience, especially when that experience included contacts with multiple Hall dealerships

ALL AUTOMOTIVEHall Automotive Accelerates Customer Relations with inContact Hall Automotive, a group of 14 multi-franchise auto dealerships located throughout Virginia and North Carolina, knew they wanted to improve their ability to interface with their customers and enhance their overall experience, especially when that experience included contacts with multiple Hall dealerships

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ALL AUTOMOTIVEHall Automotive Accelerates Customer Relations with inContact Hall Automotive, a group of 14 multi-franchise auto dealerships located throughout Virginia and North Carolina, knew they wanted to improve their ability to interface with their customers and enhance their overall experience, especially when that experience included contacts with multiple Hall dealerships. To reach their goals, they turned to an inContact solution including Automated Call Distributor (ACD), Computer Telephony Integration (CTI), and Interactive Voice Response (IVR) technologies. The inContact solution has helped Hall Automotive create complete customer centric system that »interfaces with multiple CRM and back office systems, »increased production by 350 percent while cutting the price-per-call from 83 to 23 cents and »allowed for significant expansion from 14 to 63 dealerships.

Integration Drives Increased Communication

When Corran Ashby started work as the Contact Center Manager for the Hall Automotive Customer Information Center (CIC) almost four years ago, he brought with him knowledge of a company he appreciated: inContact. So when Hall Automotive wanted to improve their customer's multiple contact experiences with all 14 of the auto dealerships under the Hall umbrella, Ashby knew where

to look.

The challenges facing Hall Automotive were complex. Customer information was segmented and distributed throughout the CRM system at each dealership. Call center agents lacked the technology to synthesize this information and customers would receive multiple, unrelated service calls as a result. However, when an agent can see that a customer has visited three different dealerships and examined SUVs each time, a different story emerges—the customer is researching SUVs, and with that knowledge, an agent can provide a single, informed follow-up call rather than risk annoying the customer with three separate follow-ups.

Ashby and his team worked to integrate the inContact solution with the dealerships' CRM systems as well as multiple back office systems. Ashby's team developed sophisticated in-house software that integrates completely with inContact. What emerged was a single CIC capable of advanced, coordinated contacts that actually improved the customer relationship. The inContact solution includes ACD software that instantly routes contacts to the right agent with the right information, CTI to empower CIC agents by providing comprehensive customer information, and IVR software to simplify intelligent call flows and improve customer satisfaction.

Now, Hall Automotive customers can contact the group through a wide variety of integrated technologies: phone, email, text-messaging, blogs, chat, and even social media such as

Facebook and Twitter. "However a customer wants to

communicate with us, we want to be available to them,"

Ashby reports. "We use the availability within inContact

to route based on the customer's requirement. We view

inContact as a resource scheduler for the human body. When

there needs to be a human interaction with a customer,

inContact is our way to deliver that interaction." As a result,

agents increased their hourly call rate from 12 calls per hour

to 43, resulting in a 350 percent increase in production and

a 73 percent drop in the price-per-call. As Corran observes,

"That is a great ROI when you handle over twenty thousand

calls per month!"

Turning to Benefits

Currently, the CIC has 18 employees who handle 5,000-5,500

monthly inbound calls along with 45,000 to 50,000 monthly

outbound calls. "For Hall alone we have over 600 toll-free

numbers," says Ashby. "Thanks to skills-based routing within

inContact, we're able to make sure agents are well-versed

on each particular call." Ashby sees several benefits to the

inContact solution: "First, agents get a reliable platform that

allows them to do their job without worrying about the quality

of the phone call or email failing them in any way. Second, it's

an easy piece of software to use and doesn't require extensive

training, yet it has all the bells and whistles we've ever needed

to perform our jobs."

These benefits extend to the customers themselves. "The fact

the customer never knows we're using very sophisticated

software to make these phone calls seem easy is a real positive

attribute to inContact. The agent is not so busy worrying

about technology with inContact; they're able to focus on

the customer. Customers benefit from agents able to listen

to them and their individual questions rather than following

some scripted guide. inContact makes it so easy!"

Ashby enthuses.

Hall Autmotive also profits from the scalability and flexibility

native to the inContact solution. Ashby increases agents in

the summer, when car sales increase, and decreases them

in the winter without any trouble. "inContact's scalability is

paramount," says Ashby. "I just call up inContact and an hour

or so later I have as many ports as I need. Getting toll free or

local numbers has never been easier. All the traditional call

center manager's worries are off the table. In 15-20 minutes

I can fix a script to do whatever I want it to do. If the market

changes, we can respond right away—in a day rather than

three months. With inContact there's very little I can't do.

inContact just makes my job easier."

Roadmap for Future Success

Ashby's success has not gone unnoticed. Atlantic Automotive,

which owns Hall Automotive along with 49 other dealerships,

wants to expand the Hall model, and Ashby's team has

been working hard writing software entirely integrated

with inContact that will allow the CIC to take on the 63

dealerships. As the expansion occurs, Ashby is also excited

to bring additional inContact products on board. "We really

want to use the customer survey and eLearning solutions.

We're fully embedded with our custom software in inContact,

and as the survey and eLearning integrate seamlessly into

inContact, it just makes sense to use them to measure

customer satisfaction and train agents."

Is Ashby worried about the magnitude of this expansion?

Not likely. "The thing I like about inContact's integration

possibilities is that inContact will support you however you

want to do it. If I need a little help, they're right there, ready

to work. They encourage you to be creative, which is a really

cool aspect about inContact."

Additionally, Ashby believes in the people behind inContact:

"I feel like they're a part of my family. The quality and

integrity of everyone I work with at inContact amazes me.

They are truly there to help, and they put you first. That is

what keeps us connected to inContact. The reason we've

invested a lot of hours and money integrating our software

with inContact is because we've always felt that even when

there was a problem that inContact was behind us and we

wouldn't be left alone to fend for ourselves. And we never

have been."

Ashby has seen a positive change in Hall Automotive's

corporate culture. "We now have tools available to us to

allow us to change the customer experience and therefore

it demanded that we relook at how we interface with our

customers and it drove us to improve. inContact is part of

the reason we, as a company, are better." Hall Automotive

will continue to cultivate a customer-centric culture much to

the satisfaction of Virginian auto consumers. The rest of the

nation will have to wait a little longer.

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