U.S. Oil Co Deploys CallRex Call Recording to Enhance Dispute Resolution for its Customer Service Center

The U.S. Tire & Exhaust division of U.S. Oil Co., Inc., wanted to bring better control to dispute resolution at its Customer Service Center, which handles some 4,000 customer calls a day. The problem was how to reduce the cost of resolving ordering errors. Since deploying CallRex™ software, an IP-based call recording and monitoring solution developed by Telrex, Customer Service Center associates have been able to resolve disputed calls by retrieving a recording of the conversation that they can send to the customer as a simple e-mail attachment. CallRex has helped the company reduce the cost of error recovery, and has boosted morale at the Customer Service Center, as associates are able to verify the accuracy of their work.

View a printable version of the U.S. Oil case study.

Company Overview

U.S. Oil Co. is a family-owned business which began in the 1920's and is primarily a marketer of petroleum products and a wholesale distributor of automotive parts and tires, and HVAC equipment and supplies.

The company's U.S. Tire & Exhaust division, established in 1958, serves the automotive aftermarket from its corporate headquarters and main distribution center located in Combined Locks, Wisconsin. This facility houses over 150,000 square feet of warehouse space, administrative offices, and the Customer Service Center where some 30 highly-skilled customer service associates serve more than 6,000 customers, and field more than 4,000 calls a day.

Business Challenge

The U.S. Tire & Exhaust Customer Service Center had long used a legacy analog recording system for performing spot monitoring to assist in training its associates. Trainers find it effective to review real-world calls with associates to praise what is done well and to identify areas that can be improved. But the old system was awkward to use, and because it was used only on a spot basis, it didn't provide a complete record of calls handled, and recorded calls had to be downloaded onto a CD for sharing with trainees.

While continual recording wasn't required for training, the company recognized that a system that automatically recorded all calls could prove to be an effective tool in its dispute resolution, or the error recovery process. The company's error recovery process had been based upon the presumption that the Customer Service Center associate (or the shipping department) had made the error, which wasn't fair to the company's dedicated associates, and which led to higher costs as customers asked for overnight shipment or other special handling to make up for ordering errors. The company wanted a call recording system that would enable it to review the actual conversations between the customer and the Customer Service Center associate to see where the error had actually occurred. But the company needed a solution that was easier to access than its old system.

Solution

The company asked Wisconsin Wireless Communications, which supplied the Customer Service Center with a Mitel 3300 IP phone system and Mitel 5200 Series IP Phones, to recommend an IP-based call recording solution. Wisconsin Wireless researched the field and recommended CallRex™, the leading IP-based call recording and monitoring application for companies with IP phones of U.S. Oil's 44-seat Customer Service Center. The U.S. Oil deployment included:

• CallRex Server on a single IBM xSeries 235 server running the Microsoft Windows operating system. CallRex Server utilizes 'on-the-wire' packet-sniffing technology to record and monitor calls, and includes server and database software.
• CallRex Client on selected desktop computers. The CallRex Client provides administrators with the capabilities to configure how telephone activity will be recorded. The client can be installed on any computer in the network but is typically installed on computers of designated administrators and managers.

Benefits

U.S. Oil has enjoyed a number of benefits since deploying CallRex, including: bringing accountability to dispute resolution, reducing the cost of error recovery, enhancing Customer Service Center morale, detecting theft, granular security, saving 25 percent over competing solutions.

Bringing Accountability to Error Recovery

When handling more than 4,000 customer telephone calls a day, there are bound to be times when a Customer Service Center associate makes a mistake in taking an order, or when another U.S. Oil associate makes a mistake in shipping an order. But there are also times when the customer makes the mistake.

"It's as simple as a garage mechanic calling up and asking us to send the muffler for a 1988 Ford Thunderbird, and then calling us after it arrives and complaining that he ordered a 1998 muffler and that we need to overnight the shipment so he can get the car out on time," says Tom Kriplean, Technology Director at U.S. Oil Co., Inc. "We used to assume that the mistake was ours. Now our sales associates can say, 'As you know we record all of our calls. Let me check that conversation and I'll call you right back.'"

The company has found that about 85 percent of the time it was the customer who made the mistake. The Customer Service Center associate can play the conversation back to the customer or send them the call as an e-mail attachment.

"We still want our customers to be happy, but it changes the dynamic of the call, and can save us money on special shipping the customer might otherwise demand," says Kriplean. "CallRex has been priceless in helping us to bring accountability to the dispute resolution process."

Similarly, customers sometimes call to say they called the day before with an order and it isn't on the delivery truck. "We can ask the customer what time they called, and tell them we will check our recordings," Kriplean says. "CallRex makes it easy to search call recordings by time, customer name, or customer telephone number. If the call wasn't made, our associates can call back and give the customer exacting information, at which point the customer will usually admit that, 'Oops, maybe I didn't make that call. . . here's what I need. Can you help me?' CallRex helps us deepen our customer relationships and loyalty."

Reducing the Cost of Error Recovery

Though the company hasn't documented the savings, Kriplean says that dispute resolution costs have gone down since deploying CallRex. "Some customers used to blame us for mistakes they had made in ordering and want the part shipped to them as quickly as possible, which for something like a tire can be expensive," Kriplean says. "Now that we can demonstrate that the mistake wasn't ours, we can impress our customers by providing accurate and verifiable information, and let them decide how much they want to spend on the shipping."

Enhancing Customer Service Center Morale

Customer Service Center associates who once viewed call recording with some concern, have learned to embrace it as a great validation tool. "It isn't any fun having someone call up to say you've made a mistake—especially when you know in your gut that you didn't make that mistake," says Kriplean. "With CallRex we can document exactly what transpired in the call, and 85 per cent of the time it shows that the mistake was made by the customer—not by our associates."

Providing great customer service is still the goal, but now associates can do this without having to take the blame for something that wasn't their fault.

"CallRex is enhancing morale in our Customer Service Center by verifying when it wasn't an associate's mistake," says Kriplean. "And you can use this information to deepen the customer relationship, because we can show that while it wasn't our mistake, we are dedicated to helping the customer get what they need, and when they need it."

Detecting Theft

U.S. Oil has found that CallRex call recording can help prevent theft and fraud. The company has experienced situations in which automotive parts were surreptitiously ordered by a customer's employee, intercepted at the workplace, and taken home. When invoiced, the company would say the parts had been neither ordered nor received.

"We could show them the cell phone number that was used to order the parts and play back the conversation," says Kriplean. "The customer said, 'I know who that is.' They asked for copies of the conversations and other information to document their case against the person. We've had a few variations on this type of theft, and the customers are always impressed with our documentation and relieved to have detected someone who was abusing a trust, before they could create more losses."

Granular Security

U.S. Oil uses the Security Rights feature of CallRex to create security profiles by job function. Everyone experiences the same user interface, but according to their assigned security profile, they have access to different call recording functions.

"Setting up security rights is easy with CallRex," says Kriplean. "We created one security profile for our associates, which allows them to access just their own recorded calls; we set up a security profile for supervisors that gives them access to calls made by their direct reports; and another profile for our trainers. It is very intuitive. You just click on Security Profiles and you can create however many profiles you want—and then just drag and drop your team member's phone numbers into the proper security profile."

Saving 25 Percent Over Competing Solutions

Jeff Weber, Vice President of Operations at Wisconsin Wireless Communications, says when U.S. Oil asked for his recommendation for a call recording solution, he carefully studied the options for IP-based solutions and then chose CallRex because of its reputation for ease of deployment, ease of use, and system stability. On top of all of that, he was impressed with the pricing model. "We did a per-line analysis for IP-based call recording and found that CallRex would be from 30 percent to 40 percent less expensive than other IP-based solutions we priced. The savings, coupled with the company's solid reputation, made CallRex an easy product to recommend."

Learn more about Telrex's call recording solutions for Mitel IP-based telephone systems.

View a printable version of the U.S. Oil case study.