INFRASPONSE COMES TO CROTHALL Crothall Services has always prided itself on their reputation of providing superior service to its customers. When the benefits administration service levels being provided to its own employees needed improvement, Crothall sprung into action  to correct the situation. Implementation of a Call Center into the Benefits Department was the answer. The Center would handle questions, ensure timely responses and create a more customer service oriented department. The solution was the brainchild of the recently appointed Vice President of Human Resources.  “I knew that we had the right people in place to do the job" says Diane. "What we lacked was the right process. We did not have the ability to track the large call loads and to ensure we were using our resources effectively and responding in a timely manner.” To meet the call tracking needs, Diane turned to technology and the Crothall IT Department. The outcome of their collaboration was a Call Center tracking solution similar to those used by many software help desks, but with an important twist. To develop the solution, Crothall turned to Persistech, their software Development Company and current help desk provider, to incorporate their InfraSponse Call Tracking Solution. InfraSponse had proven itself successful in providing the Crothall field sites software and hardware support. The outcome was a business class Instant Messaging program with IVR technology and a Web based call-tracking solution to create a Call Center program that not only tracked employee benefit calls, but also determined who was available to answer calls and then assigned the calls instantly. Under the new process, all Benefit phone calls are routed to a single Call Center representative who records basic information ( who is calling, their phone number and the general question or issue). If a benefit staff member with the correct skills is listed as available on their PC’s Instant Messenger, the InfraSponse software will pop up a call ticket message on their PC with the basic call ticket information and the phone call will be transferred to the staff member. If no one is currently available, InfraSponse will place the call ticket in the queue in priority order determined by the nature of the call. When a Benefits administrator becomes available with the correct skills to handle the call, they receive a call ticket pop up message on their PC with the basic call information required to diagnose the issue and make a return phone call. Upon successfully reaching the caller and resolving the issue, the call is closed. If the administrator is unable to reach the caller or resolve the issue, a log is made and the call is suspended for 24 hours or until the caller calls back into the Call Center to reactivate the call ticket. The result, according to the Benefits Manager, Angie Counts, is “We make more effective use of our time and provide better service to our employees. We have been able to reduce the phone tag and answer more calls immediately. This has improved our end users satisfaction level and reduced frustration, while at the same time giving our benefit administrators more time to work with our benefit carriers.”

Diane Perrymore joined Crothall Services from Sunrise Assisted Living in January 2002 as the Vice President of Human Resources. Back