InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
June 21, 1999
Call Centers Shape US West's ServiceBy Justin Hibbard
s a phone company, US West Inc. knows all about the need for good phone support. The company is investing in its call-center operations in an effort to improve service.US West rolled out a custom-built call-handling system two years ago. A central-office switch in Denver accepts calls from 14 states and routes them to the most available agent in one of 13 call centers nationwide. "The system allows us to hit our target, which is 80% of the time the phone gets answered in three rings," says David Laube, US West's VP and CIO.
Last year, US West opened a $6 million center in Pocatello, Idaho, and a $4 million center in Helena, Mont. Another will open in Idaho Falls, Idaho, later this year. The Pocatello center is typical: Andersen Consulting integrated customer-service software from Scopus (since acquired by Siebel Systems Inc.), a predictive dialer from Mosaix Inc., an Oracle database, and US West's legacy systems.
The call centers are showing results. The Helena center has improved its average speed of answer by 30%, while call volume has more than doubled. The Pocatello center, which makes outbound calls focused on customer satisfaction, reports that 95% of the customers it contacts are satisfied with their phone service.
US West's IT department has built capacity-planning apps that show engineers where the network is reaching its limits. It's also created a CAD/ CAM system that speeds the network-design process and a system that flags held orders for special attention. To handle requests for repairs and installations, US West last year rolled out a scheduling system that maximizes the number of calls its 15,000 technicians make a day. Technicians receive updated schedules throughout the day via cell phones, notebooks, and pagers.
Return to main story, "Customer Disservice."
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