SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY (SFU) - PDF Free Download

powered by Telax Established: 1965 Alumni: 120,000 Concurrent Seats: 15 Students: 30,000 Faculty: 6,500 Monthly Call Volume: 6,500 Calls Agents: 95 ABOUT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY SFU is Canada s top-ranked comprehensive university in Maclean s magazine s annual student survey, and one of the top 50 universities in the world that are less than 50 years old. With campuses in Vancouver, Burnaby and Surrey, B.C., SFU engages actively with the community in its research and teaching, delivers almost 150 programs to more than 30,000 students, and has more than 120,000 alumni in 130 countries. The SFU doors opened to 2,500 students on September 9, 1965, after a 1963 government report, Higher Education in British Columbia and a Plan for the Future, recommended expanded higher education and building a new university in the Vancouver area to provide educational diversification. ABOUT SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY As a top university with a great reputation, SFU sets itself a high bar for the quality of its Student Services Center. Like many, SFU was trying to maximize the capability of their legacy phone system technology to provide the best possible service to its callers under the circumstances. However, the staggering growth of the University quickly outpaced the capabilities of the existing phone system. As a result, SFU s technology could no longer deliver a student experience in line with SFU values and its rank as a top university. This increasingly clear disconnect between SFU values and its contact center performance motivated SFU to seek the right contact center solution to enable the following key improvements: 2

A BETTER STUDENT EXPERIENCE SFU has many contact center teams spread across multiple locations with independent call systems. One of the problems SFU found was the need to advertise 10-12 different phone numbers to students: one for each department with no centralization. This was proven to be highly inefficient and resulted in inconsistent service delivery. A BETTER AGENT EXPERIENCE SFU agents were finding the existing hard-wired system inconvenient. It required them to repeatedly log in and out even for bathroom breaks. As such, it became vital for agents to memorize a complex login code. The agents agreed that having the ability to change their availability status without logging out would save valuable time and reduce obstruction. The contact center managers also wanted to leverage the ability to track agent availability status and performance. A BETTER UNIVERSITY CONTACT CENTER MANAGER EXPERIENCE SFU contact center managers struggled with the lack of control and flexibility with their current solution. All changes to the system such as phone tree changes or updating recorded caller announcements required IT Support. This added lead-up time and emergency updates were a struggle. SFU s old system also didn t include any type of visibility into call volumes or agent activity. This restricted SFU from being proactive in staff planning and support responses. There were few options to measure, learn and improve. Initial efforts were directed towards creating a communications infrastructure that could flexibly support the dynamic needs of the utility company. Once this foundation was in place, a strategy was executed to optimize operational processes and practices across the call center. SFU WAS LOOKING FOR A SOLUTION THAT WOULD: Help ensure a better student experience. Allow visibility into agent performance and the customer experience. Provide metrics for KPI measurement. Add flexibility and options for callers: voicemail, automated priority callback. Give contact center managers control to make timely changes with ease - without IT support Help contact center managers effectively plan staff schedules. Integrate with its CRM, student information system and social media. Consolidate multiple locations and departments through one contact center solution. Simplify and standardize processes for students to get help or information. Be quick to implement. Add unique features to provide flexibility and a platform that could evolve to meet future needs. 3

The time had come to make a change. SFU decided it needed a way to centralize communications for its students to provide a better student experience, but it wasn t even sure where to begin, what it was looking for, or what was available. SFU connected with other institutes which had overcome similar problems to gather some insight. FROM SKEPTIC TO BELIEVER The next step was to write and post a RFP. SFU took its time to evaluate each RFP and felt that the Telax RFP seemed too good to be true making SFU slightly skeptical. Once the shortlist of vendors was decided, SFU asked the vendors, including Telax, to come for an on-site presentation and live technology demonstration and present a demo. It became clear very quickly that a cloud solution would be the way to go. The benefits of the cloud versus. a hardware solution were staggering enormous. The simplicity, reduced cost, available features, and flexibility were eye opening. The savings SFU would experience realize just by from minimizing internal IT management, training, and certification conferences alone were substantial. SFU liked that Telax offered a flat rate that included everything: seats, long distance, training, support, and more. There wouldn t ever be a worry of hidden fees and unexpected spikes. EASY AND PAINLESS INTEGRATION During the presentation, the Telax Hosted Call Center solution was easily integrated with SFU s SIS Peoplesoft, a software used in their Student Services Center. With this integration, students were now able to enter their student ID which automatically pops up on the agent s screen together with the student s other information on record. SFU liked that the students no longer would have to repeat their student ID numerous times and that agents would know who they are speaking with instantly. Following the Telax demonstration, SFU continued with its due diligence and quickly became more and more comfortable with the solution itself as well as the Telax company culture. The Telax references were incredibly strong, and helped prove that Telax had great past performance, technology and support. Our referees couldn t stop raving about how remarkable TeamTelax was to work with. RESULTS The implementation process surpassed expectations. It was the simplest Go Live our IT had ever had, said Patrick Lougheed, Director, Business and Policy Analysis at SFU. The solution has been virtually flawless ever since day one, and any odd issues have been resolved within an hour or two. The new functionality and clear communication options for students resulted in a dramatic reputation gain for SFU. The caller experience at SFU has gone from 10 behind the curve to out in the front, said Patrick Lougheed. The metric tracking and reporting has enabled SFU to quantify best cases, averages, as well as determine call volume trends and First Call Resolution (FCR) statistics. SFU experienced a number of instances where call volume spiked one being the Monday following a holiday. Prior to using these types of metrics, SFU was unable to foresee these trends and was unable to properly prepare. 3

Now SFU knows when and how to plan for call volume spikes. And with the flexibility of a cloud contact center solution, SFU is able to keep its costs low as now the University now only pays for what it needs. With better planning and preparation, agents are happier and less stressed, which results in happier callers. SFU also gained visibility into the busiest departments and learned that one area received 80% of all calls. This again allowed SFU to plan and prepare more efficiently. Visibility into why callers were reaching out combined with call recordings helped SFU provide more effective training and professional development. Agents could better prepare for common inquiries as well as listen to themselves interacting with callers to learn and improve. Since using the Telax contact center solution, SFU has seen significant cost savings. The IT department alone saved close to $10,000/ person funds normally required to keep each IT professional up-to-date on software or to learn the software as a new hire. The added flexibility in management enabling work-from-home options helped further decrease the cost of over time. If SFU had decided to go with an on-premise solution, new handsets would have had to be acquired. Telax was able to integrate with SFU s existing phone system, leading to additional savings of around $10,000. All SFU staff and agents have attested that the Telax solution is by far the simplest piece of software they have used on a daily basis: It just works! PLANS FOR THE FUTURE There is still so much more SFU can do with its new cloud contact center. SFU has plans to look deeper into additional available IVR functionality as well as incorporating additional channels such as web chat, social, and email. SFU further plans to begin post-call surveys to gather additional insight from students about their experience. It also wants to expand all functionality into other business departments throughout the institute. All of these plans are bold steps in the direction of continued customer experience enhancements that will increase efficiency and the overall student experience even further. With Telax at its side, SFU certainly has the right partner and technology to get there. 3

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