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  • July 1, 2012
  • By Leonard Klie, Editor, CRM magazine and SmartCustomerService.com

Service to Sing About

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For nearly 30 years, Wren Solutions has supplied retail loss prevention professionals with a wide range of physical security solutions, including enterprise-class video management software, access control systems, loss prevention and operational assessments, surveillance cameras and hardware, and professional services.

The company, based in Jefferson City, Mo., offers integrated Web solutions in its Encapsulon Physical Security Suite. Clients interact with Encapsulon online via a unified, easy-to-use interface, but its internal systems for managing customer relationships were anything but integrated, unified, or easy to use.

"We had three separate systems: a customized Salesforce.com system for ticketing, Microsoft Sharepoint for our knowledge base, and Excel spreadsheets," recalls Sean Chambers, internal support and client services manager at Wren. "It was time…to consolidate our systems and make workflows easier."

For Wren, customer support goes beyond simply answering a call and talking a customer through a software issue. Cases can involve hardware returns and replacements, scheduling technicians to go on site, and creating license keys.

To make it easier to reach support personnel, Chambers wanted to bring a live chat support function online. He installed TeamSupport's Enterprise Edition with Advanced Customer Portal, Issue Tracking, Customer Chat, and Product sections late last year.

Chambers found TeamSupport's "ease of use and customization, plus an incredible number of features for the price," particularly attractive.

The solution enabled Chambers to replace multiple spreadsheets and tracking systems with a single system.

With TeamSupport's Web-based customer support management system, tickets and other support data can be shared and assigned to individuals or functional groups across the company. TeamSupport can also exchange contact and ticket data with most existing CRM systems. Now, tasks that once took 20 to 30 minutes take five minutes, Chambers says. Wren is also saving 20 percent in man hours and 40 percent in monthly seat license fees.

Chambers' Client Services Group also developed task-specific workflows that cleared up confusion about where to find information and help cases move more efficiently through departments.

Chambers originally fielded TeamSupport to six departments, and has since expanded it to the training department. "We had a very easy time rolling this out. Within the first week, we effectively streamlined the entire support workflow across six groups and had everyone trained. The software's very intuitive, and support has been excellent."

Chambers and his team have customized the ticket and customer detail sections, configured the TeamSupport system to import essential customer information directly from their CRM system, created an automated ticket response, and developed custom reports. Next is the creation of a customer-facing self-service portal to allow customers to monitor the status of installations and sign up for product evaluations.

Chambers will also be expanding the product to the company's product development group for tracking bugs and enhancement requests.

"[TeamSupport has] made a huge impact," Chambers says, "at a very reasonable cost."

The Payoff

Since installing TeamSupport's Enterprise Edition customer support management system, Wren Solutions has seen:

  • tasks that used to take 20 to 30 minutes to complete cut down to five minutes;
  • a 20 percent savings in man hours; and
  • a 40 percent savings in monthly seat license fees.

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