Canadian pizza chain Pizza Pizza Ltd., which operates the Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73 brands, has been able to improve hiring and retention rates while lowering overhead costs with the use of the communications software suite Customer Interaction Center, the company has announced.
The CIC is produced by Indianapolis-based Interactive Intelligence. The software suite enabled Pizza Pizza to use work-at-home call center agents to handle many of its telephone orders.
"CIC has enabled us to process more than 30 million orders per year, with 85 percent of those
orders taken over the phone by more than 350 work-at-home agents," said Pizza Pizza's network telecommunications and security manager Amar Narain. "As a result, we`ve been able to attract and retain the highest quality agents for improved customer service, while decreasing overhead costs by more than 25 percent."
In addition to supporting its work-at-home agents, CIC also supports about 300 agents located at Pizza Pizza`s main call centers in Ottawa; Hamilton, Ontario; and Edmonton, Alberta.
CIC`s built-in Voice Over Internet Protocol and software-based architecture enables remote agents to use a session initiation protocol (SIP) headset or remote connectivity to a home phone or mobile phone without the need for ISDN lines or call routing limitations. It gives remote agents multichannel capabilities, and provides all the same functionality as in-office agents, including call processing and recording, back-end database access, and presence management. CIC also enables supervisors to remotely monitor and coach agents in real time.
Based on the success of its deployment, Pizza Pizza has already expanded its use of CIC to support all of its corporate head office users, as well as users at three new office locations throughout Western Canada as a result of a recent pizza chain acquisition. The expansion, completed Aug. 31, was in conjunction with Pizza Pizza`s headquarters move from downtown Toronto to a new state-of-the-art, energy-efficient building on the city`s west side.
"By replacing our existing multi-vendor systems with CIC to consolidate all of our locations, we can further reduce costs and improve operational efficiencies," Narain said. "In addition, we'll be able to run more accurate reports so we can more effectively share resources across time zones and plan ahead for call spikes."
By leveraging its agents across time zones to better manage peaks in call volume for all its 600 locations, Pizza Pizza also anticipates a reduction in on-hold times for improved customer service. Pizza Pizza will also deploy a CIC add-on application called Interaction Recorder to improve agent training and quality assurance.
"Our agents will be able to take orders for any store regardless of geography, while being able to access customized menus that feature specialty pizzas and discounts specific to a location or region," Narain said.
User Comments