RAC was in the midst of a corporate “cloud-first” transformation program when it began to contemplate bringing in a new contact centre solution.
Its old contact centre system, Cisco UCCE, was an on-premises platform that was approaching end-of-life. It was difficult to support and its limitations created a fragmented member experience while adding many extra steps to the consultants’ jobs.
In addition to Cisco, RAC used other disparate solutions such as webchat and email which added to the complexity.
Croyden McLennan, Product Owner at RAC explains: “With all of the different applications, the consultants frequently had issues such as ‘Which login do I use for this application?’ ‘What’s my user name and password?’ ‘Where’s the link for this application?’ ‘Is this application installed on this particular PC?’ Many ongoing issues made it difficult for them to use the system.”
The system’s limitations created additional frustrations for consultants. “Some PCs had a certain number of licenses for web chat so if consultants had to answer a chat, they needed to move to another desk. The fact that the phones and PCs were tied to physical locations made the consultants’ lives difficult,” says Croyden.
Reporting was also a challenge across the disparate systems. “From a reporting perspective, trying to integrate all those systems into a centralized view so the business could see what was happening with their consultant across channels was very complex. Many reports required extensive customization such as collecting and merging data from different sources,” says Croyden.
It was also difficult to use the Cisco system remotely. “During the COVID pandemic, we needed to quickly move our consultants to working from home. It was very difficult, however, to set up Cisco so it supported a remote environment. In fact, we only got some of the functionality operational. It was very much a ‘cross your fingers and hope it works for the period we need it to,’” says Croyden.
THE SOLUTION
RAC realized it was time to look at other options, and simplification and member satisfaction were key goals. “Because we had a very complex environment, we wanted to simplify. Part of our cloud-only strategy was reducing customization and improving the member experience.”
He continues: “It was important to include the contact centres in our decision of which platform to choose. The cloud strategy came from our IT team, but we also wanted the contact centres involved so they could evaluate each solution for member interactions, ease of use and so on.”
RAC created a list of six criteria the new platform needed to fulfill. NiCE CXone came out on top for satisfying the organisation’s strategic, commercial, legal and regulatory requirements. CXone also provided an omnichannel experience, out-of-the-box functionality, quality management integration and integration with RAC’s other internal systems.
OPPORTUNITIES IDENTIFIED
Omnichannel improves the member and consultant experience
Omnichannel was important to RAC because it wanted to provide a more seamless experience across channels for its members and consultants. One of the CXone Omnichannel Routing features that Croyden loves is the ability to elevate channels.
Croyden explains, “We use a contact Delivery Mode called ‘Single Contact’ which allows routing one contact at a time across multiple channels to each consultant. For instance, while an consultant works on a web chat or email, they will not receive a second chat or a voice call to handle. But the next contact routed could be a call, another chat or an email.”
“The consultants love that they don’t need to physically move desks anymore; they don’t have to log in to another application. With CXone omnichannel, all the channels are in the same environment which makes it much easier for the consultants to service interactions.”
Reduced reliance on data centres
One of RAC’s goals was to remove data centres from its environment to eliminate significant costs associated with hardware, power consumption, storage space, infrastructure licensing and maintenance.
CXone contributes to that objective because it’s a cloud platform. “It’s very costly to run the electrics, air conditioning, resiliency, redundancy, generators and UPS for the data centres. By shutting down the on-premises Cisco system and replacing it with CXone’s cloud platform, we removed 7% of the data centre infrastructure.”
“We eliminated a lot of servers by moving to CXone. We’re on track for getting out of the data centres completely over the next 12 months.”
90% reduction in IVR scripts
The theme of simplification extends to the IVR. The Cisco system had over 350 scripts which were difficult to manage and update.
“The IVR scripts in the Cisco environment were specific to each business unit and included options for different call flows. With the CXone IVR, we pared that down to 25–30 scripts which is a 90% reduction. We also set up the scripts so that if one of the contact centres improves a script, it automatically benefits all of them.”
Centralises everything consultants need
The consultant experience improved with CXone; logging in and out of different systems is a thing of the past.
“We really appreciate CXone’s simple and easy-to-use interface. It’s made everything more streamlined for the consultants. They don’t have to learn different systems or reset passwords. With CXone, everything is centralised, which means all the functionality the consultants need to do their jobs is found in one place.”
Croyden adds: “CXone has the dual benefit of being completely customizable, but you can also use it right out-of-the-box.”
Assessing call quality has also been simplified with CXone Quality Management. “The call evaluation process definitely improved with CXone Quality Management. The supervisors know which requirements consultants need to satisfy, including the metrics to track for each consultant. The details are linked to a call recording, which is sent to the consultant and they can see and hear the supervisor’s feedback. It makes it easy for the consultants to recall a particular customer conversation.”
“The workforce management team also uses CXone Quality Management to easily monitor intraday levels to reallocate skills if needed.”
RAC’s executives aren’t left in the dark about how the contact centers are performing, either. “We use the out-of-the-box dashboards in CXone Quality Management to inform upper management when specific targets are achieved. It’s terrific to be able to keep them informed.”
“CXone is a great platform”
When asked how CXone contributes to improving the member experience, Croyden says: “The consultants now have information at their fingertips to answer queries the first time around; it’s much quicker to find the necessary information to help a customer.”
He concludes, “CXone is fantastic. It’s an amazingly simple solution that’s easy to learn. But it also has advanced functionality that’s available whenever we need it. It’s a great platform.”
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ABOUT
Since 1905, the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) has helped Western Australians with a broad range of services including roadside assistance, security monitoring, travel packages, loans and insurance. With a keen focus on its members, the organisation is focused on inspiring community change that makes life better in Western Australia.
The busy RAC contact centres employ 750 consultants who provide 24/7 phone, email, chat, and mail support. The contact centre organisation is spread amongst six different business units, three main contact centres and 10-member service centres in Western Australia.
Consultants answer many different members’ queries such as motor vehicle breakdowns, insurance plan costs and travel packages. They handle an annual average of 3.5 million inbound contacts and more than five million total outbound and internal interactions.
