Telecom/Cable Industry
Cox Communications and Singo Solution
Cox Communications is known for their innovation and commitment to delivering superior customer care. With over 6 million customer relationships and 50,000 employees, it’s no easy task ensuring everything possible is done to provide the best services. According to the J.D. Powers and Associates 2009 Major Provider Business Telecommunications Study, Cox ranked highest in satisfying small/midsize and large enterprise business customers with telecommunications data services. This is certainly no accident. By employing services from companies such as Singo, Cox is able to ensure the highest customer satisfaction.
Foot in the Door
Offering more services and capacity is a key factor to Cox's future as technology continues to evolve rapidly. During the recent recession which started in late 2007, Cox decided to spend an extra $300 million to increase its residential fiber-optic network in Arizona. The upgrade was designed to quicken Internet service to roughly 1 gigahertz in addition to providing customers with better access video content.
Although the service disruptions were brief and only occurring during the early AM hours when most of us are asleep, Cox wanted to ensure all of their customers were notified of any possible disruption as part of their continuing effort to provide the best service. Singo was contacted by Cox’s Communications Liaison when their incumbent vendor was unable to meet the strict requirements needed to timely notify their customers as the Cox technicians upgraded the individual fiber nodes within the massive Cox network. This two year process was a careful coordination with the technicians, the affected area and timely/accurate notification.
It was with this initial project that introduced Cox to Singo’s responsiveness, quick deployments and stable platform. Within months, other department within Cox started noticing Singo’s performance. In less than a year, Singo’s services expanded into practically every Cox location and department within the US. This document is to showcase some of these projects.
Keeping Track of a Mobile Workforce
Issue: Cox wanted to give every customer the opportunity to provide feedback a few hours (sometimes minutes) after a service or installation technician left the customer’s residence or commercial location. Prior to Singo, most of the calls were made manually, thus driving up labor and not being able to contact every customer quickly.
Resolution: Singo, with help from Cox, created an automated post call survey which dialed every customer within hours after a dispatch was completed. This gave every customer the ability to provide immediate feedback, the same day. They were also given the opportunity to transfer to a dispatch coordinator – so if there were issues, often times, the same technician was still in the same area and could be immediately re-dispatched. This meant much faster resolution.
With Singo’s ability to quickly gather data soon after each visit, there were a lot of unexpected surprises in addition to the mountain of data that was being collected for each Field Tech. There were a number of patterns and trends that could be spotted easily with Singo’s Customized Web Based reporting tool. One of the unexpected surprises is how often the customer would request to be transferred only to give further praise about the technician. Although intended as an escalation method for issues, we discovered it ended up being a portal to providing more personal positive feedback. This is a testament to the great service offered by Cox Communications and their Field Technicians. The project was so successful that it was soon picked up by Cox Corporate and this automated solution is in practically every Cox Location across the US running 7 days a week collection up to 5,000 survey answers per day.
Getting the Newest and Greatest
Issue: Cox is known for their loyal customers. As time passes, customers might not have the newest modems or digital converter boxes. To ensure their most devoted customers get the best experience, Cox offers equipment exchange.
Resolution: All customers with obsolete and outdated equipment were loaded into the Singo Platform. Customers were informed of their closest store locations and information on how exchange the outdate equipment using the Call Automation provided by Singo.
Never Assume!
Issue: Monsoon wind storm whips through a neighborhood. Call Center gets inundated with calls. A resolution is quickly found. Do you now assume all those calls are now resolved or do you waste time sending out a truck?
Resolution: All previously pending issues for that neighborhood is called. They are given the option to confirm their issue is resolved, request that their service order not be cancelled or be given more time to confirm issue is indeed fixed. Now, there is no need to ever assume – and customers are updated on the status of their issue at the same time.
Commitments Anyone?
Any company with a large customer base like Cox needs a strong Collection team with the proper tools. Thousands of calls are launched hourly by Singo on behalf of Cox - requesting payments, updating outdated credit card information, providing account status for accounts in jeopardy and many other credit service related function.
Singo has developed a number of solutions which differ from a lot of other hosted platforms in he market place. That included our ability to automatically scrub out PTP’s (Promise-To-Pay) from the dialing list, sorting methods so that unreachable customers are not dialed around the same time each day and the ability to send customers to automatic payment system that can immediately identify the customer.
Service with a Smile
Cox has a number of outlet stores around the country. Every evening, a customer list is generated based on the day’s sales along with the employee who completed the transaction. Within the same day, results are given to see how well each employee performed.
Cox Communications, in Fall 2010, rolled out wireless services in Hampton Roads, Va.; Omaha; and Orange County, Calif. It is anticipated that this product will roll out to additional sites. As part of the deployment, sites are also using Singo to ensure customers are aware of this new product line.
Support without Asking
Singo was selected to do follow-up calls on customers who opted for self installations. Ten days after they received their equipment, our system would launch a call asking if they received every thing they needed, if their services was working as expected and be given the option to be sent to a support desk if there are issues. The launch of this project help ensure customers get the help they needed as opposed to canceling services which might be due to something simple.
Close that Deal!
Singo has been helping Cox with various Marketing and Sales related efforts since 2008. These include automated and agent based campaigns which include:
- Completing Internet sales which haven’t closed due to inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Up-selling additional services for existing customers and WinBack programs for previous customers.
- Informing customers about Special Holiday Offers and Back-to-School Incentives.
