SaskTel Reduces Truck Rolls with Blitzz Concierge

SaskTel is a telecommunications services provider based in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. Owned by the provincial government, it offers telephone, internet, TV, and security services for around 1.4 million subscribers,

Retaining those customers and attracting new ones requires the telecom to keep its equipment operating, so efficient repairs are essential to SaskTel’s bottom line.

“We had been looking at how we could provide a better customer experience because we do have such a diverse customer base throughout the province,” says Carmen Zimmerman, business consulting manager for business transformation at SaskTel. “We have very dispersed rural residents who use all of our services, so we are always looking at ways that we can better provide services to our customers.”

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the need for efficiency in repairs and installation became even more critical, particularly as customers added and upgraded services to stay connected while locked down at home.

“They didn’t want people in their homes to do those installs; so, we were looking to expand our self-install or assisted-install methods that can be done remotely,” Zimmerman recalls.

To make that possible, SaskTel took advantage of a 30-day free trial for Blitzz Concierge, a remote video support service that it piloted in December 2021 before rolling it out.

Blitzz Concierge is helping SaskTel’s technical support teams save money, reduce site visits, and improve customer service by lowering the average issue resolution time. It also automatically adjusts bandwidth based on the user’s internet connection strength and allows trainees or supervisors to join a call as a silent observer during remote video sharing. In a single click, SaskTel’s support team connects to customers and resolves issues faster, which reduces multiple call-ins.

SaskTel started providing the service to customer service agents in April 2022, then to all customers in December of that year.

Instillation was simple, because Blitzz Concierge operates as a stand-alone web page, according to Zimmerman. “All we needed to do was create an administrator who adds users. Once those users are added, all they need to do is log in with their ID and password, then they have all of the Blitzz functionality.”

The results so far have been outstanding, Zimmerman states. “We’ve seen some really good results. The first year of having service, we leveraged their customizable survey tool. Customers are really excited about using this. They’re able to resolve their issues on the spot. It’s empowering them as well.”

Zimmerman said nearly all (96 percent) of those who used the service said that they liked it and would most likely use it again.

“The other benefit that we are seeing is that we are able to start resolving issues as soon as a customer contacts us.”

Beyond the customer satisfaction improvement, SaskTel has seen its operating costs drop due to reduced truck rolls, Zimmerman adds.

“We’re avoiding having to dispatch technicians because we are resolving issues right on the phone. In the first fiscal year that we rolled Blitzz Concierge out, we saved 443 truck rolls,” Zimmerman says.

The Blitzz Concierge benefits continue to increase. Since the new fiscal year started in April, 395 truck rolls have been saved, according to Zimmerman. “That is a huge KPI for us.”

For the future, Sasktel is working to integrate the Blitzz Concierge tool into the telecom’s current call platform, Zimmerman says. Doing so would allow users to open the tool without opening a separate window. The telecom company also expects to expand the use of Blitzz Concierge to other parts of the company.

The Payoff

Since Sasktel started using the Blitzz concierge tool, the company has seen the following results:

• wide customer acceptance, with 96 percent of customers who have used the tool saying they liked it and would use it again;
• elimination of 443 truck rolls the first fiscal year; and
• elimination of 395 truck rolls from April through August in the second fiscal year.