OPERATIONS SUCCESS STORY

 

 

Pronto Connections, Inc. helps companies increase revenue and improve customer satisfaction by acting as their internal order center and customer service department. We have been working with retailers and catalogers for over 26 years.

A story you may relate to is when we worked with an Operations Manager of a gourmet popcorn company. Their retail and catalog business has been successful for years, however, with new ownership came new challenges. Their goal was to increase their marketing efforts in order to increase sales. Due to not yet having a website to handle online orders, the goal was to increase sales via phone orders. Another one of their challenges was their very limited staff of customer service agents and temporary order-taking agents. With as many customer service issues that may arise from order-taking, they needed issues addressed as quickly as possible. They came to us seeking a company that could staff up and train in time for an anticipated busy holiday season, allowing them to eliminate the need for internal temporary staff and the need for increased customer service agents.

Pronto Connections was able to provide them with this capability.

During their first year of service, we worked with our client to route calls for orders to Pronto resulting in increased orders and revenue. Our ability to handle the calls at our center enabled them to eliminate the need to hire temporary agents. Additionally, their internal staff was able to focus on handling high-level customer service issues such as shipping problems and irate customers. In addition to increased sales, they also improved the customer experience because calls/issues were responded to and resolved in a timely manner.

For the next year, the company decided that they wanted to increase their website presence and started working with a web development company that would allow their customers to place orders online. We explained to our client that in addition to developing a consumer based website, a backend page for the call center would help them manage their orders better and reduce/eliminate periodic ongoing charges for programming. We were involved in the process with the web developer early to advise what would be the most effective way for us to use the system. The tool our client approved, with our encouragement, allows us to enter orders through a backpage so that the client has immediate access to all orders. Furthermore, we had them build a customer service tool so that we could answer high level customer service questions by checking shipping status and other customer issues during the first call.

By handling calls for both orders and customer service, the internal staff could focus on marketing and fulfillment in a way that was not possible in years prior. Each year, we work closely with our client to improve and expand our services to make them as efficient as possible, allowing them to increase their revenue while keeping their expenses to a minimum.