|
Back
to Case Studies Back
to ResQ Enterprise™
EFMARK
Service Company is the Largest Independent Automated Teller
Machine Sales and Service Organization in the United States.
They got that way through good business practices, excellent
management and the utilization of corporate automation solutions.
With
the proliferation of information available to companies and
consumers, markets are opening up, and customers gain for
the first time an unprecedented choice of where to buy products
and services. At the same time companies trying to sell goods
and services to these customers find that the fight to retain
and win market share is at its fiercest. The players that
succeed in these aggressive market conditions are those that
identify the market's needs and deliver what the customer
wants, when they want it.
In the
United States, Efmark has gained a strong foothold in its
industry by pursuing its aim to be the leader in ATM sales
and service. The company's mission is to make it easy for
corporate customers to interface with Efmark as quickly and
as accurately as possible through the customer’s preferred
method of contact. When information is harnessed and utilized
effectively service performance is greatly enhanced and the
customer’s satisfaction is greatly improved.
The validity
of Efmark's mission is proven by the numbers.
They have grown at an average annual rate of 60% over the
past five years and are now the largest independent ATM sales
and Service Company in the United States. They have over 20,000
ATM’s under contract, 1999 sales were $60 Million, they have
over 500 employees in 37 offices and cover 36 states. Efmark
has a customer base in excess of 1,300 banks, savings & loans
and credit unions and they are adding contracts at an unprecedented
rate due in large part to the technology backing their service
promises.
So how
did they do it? Five years ago Efmark’s Strategy group took
up the challenge to find a service automation system. They
began to look for a solution that would provide the company
with an integrated technology platform, on which they could
automate clearly defined business processes to support the
service department. Having evaluated a number of options the
management team recommended a custom solution from Open Solutions
Inc.
Peter
Regnier, Senior Vice President of Efmark said, "We looked
at lots of off the shelf service dispatch products and we
didn't feel they were a good fit. They [vendors] said they
were flexible and could be customized, but they were either
a lot of money to do it or it took a lot of time."
Open Solutions
Inc. has built its reputation on providing unique software
solutions that solve customer’s current and future business
problems at an affordable and predictable price.
A concern
that used to come up was Open Solutions’ size. Being a small
company in comparison to some of the competition makes some
prospects question making a purchase. Being in business for
over 15 years helps, but it’s our service performance and
practices that ultimately remove any remaining doubt.
Peter
Regnier goes on to say, “service response with Open Solutions
is great; the turnaround time on minor development can be
the same day”. He continues, " The best thing however, is
the quality of the advice he [Brad Dempsey, owner and chief
developer of OSI] gives. Brad has business sense. The answer
is always, ‘We can make it work the way you want it to work’
and then he reviews it with us to make sure it will work for
us. Sometimes he suggests a better way, not with what's easiest
to program in mind, but with what makes the most sense for
the business and staff".
Since
ResQ Enterprise™ ’s implementation over two years ago, Efmark
has continually found new uses and pushed the limits of the
software. Their call center is handling in excess of 50,000
service calls a month. This is over and above customers accessing
Efmark’s web portal for service. Open Solutions developed
a secure access web site for Efmark where customers can login
and place service calls (these calls are automatically placed
in the dispatch queue, just as if a call center agent had
entered the information), check the status of existing service
tickets as well as view account information like past invoices
and service call history.
To complement
call taking and the web site, Efmark provided another option
for customers to contact the service center. Efmark recently
added an Interactive Voice Response system from Open Solutions.
Customers now have another automated option for placing service
calls or checking on the status of existing tickets.
No matter
how a customer chooses to open a service ticket, the end result
is the same. Once a ticket has been opened, the customer’s
information is immediately placed in a dispatch queue that
is automatically updated on the dispatcher’s computer screen.
As the
dispatcher works through the items in the queue, they can
quickly identify priority calls through the use of color codes
on the screen.
Because
ResQ Enterprise™ uses a centralized database, all the customer's
information is available through one screen. Using a series
of tabs on the dispatch screen, the dispatcher can quickly
see everything relating to the customer and the service call.
This information includes:
- Call Details: lists the open ticket and site.
- Call
List: lists the entire history of support calls for this
equipment.
- Events:
lists the events that have happened since the ticket was
created.
- Site
Info: this window displays all the detailed information
about the site.
- Equipment
Info: lists the equipment details and specifications.
- Dispatch:
this window is used to actually dispatch the call to a technician.
- Update
Call: the last detail tab in the dispatch screen is used
to update calls after they have been dispatched. This screen
is used to track calls until they are closed.
This entire
process is a closed circuit. Once a service call is placed,
either through a call center agent or through the self-service
web portal or IVR, the process is tracked and accounted for.
The call cannot be left behind or become lost. Using a series
of work queues the service call is moved through the system
quickly and efficiently. Each person in the process has their
responsibilities clearly defined and all the information they
need to perform their job is at hand.
With ResQ Enterprise™ , service personnel have complete and accurate information
about the customer and can complete a service call in just
a few clicks of their mouse.
One more
added benefit to this process is that behind the scenes ResQ Enterprise™ is automatically keeping track of problems and
their resolutions and compiling a knowledge base. Efmark staff
and customers alike then mine this data, making future service
calls easier to resolve.
All this
makes for excellent communication within the company and ultimately
between the company and the customer, which is the key to
success in bettering customer satisfaction and staff productivity.
Following
the success of the Service Department implementation, Efmark
is continuing to roll out ResQ Enterprise™ to its sales representatives
and is finishing a roll out the application to its marketing
and accounting staff by the end of 2002.
Peter
Regnier says "ResQ Enterprise™ gives us the power to explore
how we can build better relationships with our customers,
not just by responding to their needs but also by anticipating
them. With Open Solutions supporting us, we can work hand
in hand with our customers to build better business opportunities
across all our customer touch points and channels."
|
