Success Stories

Sears

Sears Carpet and Upholstery, a nationwide home services company specializing in carpet, fabric, and tile maintenance and cleaning, employs TeleSage's SmartQ to ensure that independent franchise owners provide top quality customer service throughout the country. TeleSage is the leading developer of load-and-go automated telephone survey software. With SmartQ technology, customer service managers can gather real-time feedback on customer satisfaction to evaluate the quality of franchise operations, provide faster responses to consumer complaints, and increase the percentage of repeat customers.

Sears' challenge: to find a cost-effective means for managing franchise operations and ensuring customer satisfaction.

Results using SmartQ: better supervision of franchise owners and higher quality service at substantial cost savings.

Sears Carpet and Upholstery includes 120 owner-operated franchise locations and six corporately owned branch locations. With its two-step UltraCare™ cleaning system and a commitment to quality customer care, Sears Carpet and Upholstery provides services for over two million homes per year. Its guarantee of "complete satisfaction or your money back" has garnered Sears a 60-70% repeat customer rate, thereby boosting profits with a dependable revenue stream and lower advertising costs.

Josie Thal, the division's National Customer Service Manager, constantly strives to achieve the highest standards in customer satisfaction at all the company's branches. By introducing SmartQ interactive voice response (IVR) telephone software for satisfaction surveys, Sears has gained a better understanding of its franchisees. In addition, SmartQ provides an easier-to-use interface and faster turnaround times at a lower cost than the mail-in surveys the company had been using.

SmartQ allows Sears to manage customer service and franchise relations more effectively. As Thal explained, "SmartQ customer satisfaction surveys have allowed Sears Carpet and Upholstery to monitor and maintain excellent franchise service throughout the country." Sears service representatives leave customers with a toll-free number that administers a telephone survey giving customers an opportunity to evaluate their experiences and voice any complaints.

The resulting satisfaction data assists both national management and franchise owners in analyzing and improving the quality of customer service. For example, the poor ratings reported by the customers at one franchise prompted the central office to intervene by supplying specific examples of deficient service and recommending corrective action. Customer response data also helps franchise owners to track the performance of individual employees and their interactaction with clients.

This performance comes at an affordable price. By comparison, the mail-in surveys that Sears had been using cost $80,000 per year. SmartQ, in contrast, is an affordable, one-time software expenditure that allows companies to plan and implement surveys, with prices starting at $3,950.

SmartQ surveys are also simple for companies to administer. Josie Thal explains: "It's easy to use and adaptable to my evolving needs. I can easily alter survey questions or develop new surveys for my changing customer service monitoring requirements." With mail-in surveys, revisions are time-consuming and the costs of reprinting are expensive. With SmartQ telephone surveys, Sears can update questions to reflect new services quickly and at no added cost.

SmartQ captures consumer satisfaction information in an accessible format with rapid turnaround capability. Sears' former mail-in surveys contained two pages of written questions and often languished at customers' homes or in transit for six months before arriving at Sears. SmartQ IVR surveys, on the other hand, simply require a customer to call a toll-free number and respond to recorded questions using a standard telephone. Sears receives immediate results, allowing the company to address consumer concerns quickly and effectively.

One customer, for example, left a message using SmartQ at 2:30 a.m, expressing her dissatisfaction with a carpet cleaning. The central Sears customer service office received the message, contacted the local franchise, and resolved the issue that same business day. As Thal says: "I like the fact that with SmartQ I can get real-time results and respond to customer needs promptly and efficiently. A timely response is the most cost-effective way to satisfy our customers. A happy customer is a repeat customer."

Thal projects that SmartQ will enable Sears to achieve a 25% increase in customer satisfaction, reaching an 80-85% satisfaction rate. This attention to quality service will mean more repeat customers, a more dependable client base, and lower costs for advertising. The end result is increased profits.

As a leader in automated telephone technology, TeleSage's SmartQ software presents real-world solutions for everyday business problems. As the Sears example clearly illustrates, SmartQ is an excellent choice for managing customer satisfaction within a franchise structure.

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Travel Adventures

Travel Adventures, a company specializing in travel arrangements for educational groups, uses TeleSage's SmartQ survey software to enable its clients to access account balances in real-time and make payments on those accounts. TeleSage is the leading developer of load-and-use automated telephone survey software. With SmartQ technology, users can easily and affordably gather information from customers, and supply current data back to clients--24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Travel Adventures' Challenge: to provide clients with current information on account balances and gather payment information in a secure, automated process.

Results using SmartQ: a fully automated telephone information system that reduced labor costs, streamlined the billing process, and increased profitability.

Based in Lapeer, MI, Travel Adventures (www.traveladventures.com) specializes in packaging educational travel for school groups ranging from elementary school through college. The business was founded by former English teacher, Dave Snyder, who reported that he "enjoyed traveling with his students and thought it was an experience more students and teachers should share." With the motto "Expanding Young Minds. Exploring New Worlds," the company has been providing full itineraries, handling hotel and restaurant reservations, and supplying event admission tickets for the past 14 years.

As a company that handles 30,000 participants per year, Travel Adventures was overwhelmed by clients calling the company's toll-free number to inquire about their account balances. The company asked Larry Grupido, Travel Adventures' Director of Information Systems, to find a way to automate the process and free employees for other important tasks. He chose SmartQ because of its price, flexibility, and robustness.

SmartQ is the market leader in affordability. Larry Grupido explained, "We chose SmartQ because of the price. It was much less expensive than other IVR systems." Compared to most interactive voice response systems that cost tens of thousands of dollars, the SmartQ software package is very cost-competitive.

Another beneficial feature for Travel Adventures was SmartQ's flexibility. Because users can compose their own surveys and alter them as needed, SmartQ clients have much more control over the cost and function of their surveys. As Grupido remarked, "I liked the do-it-yourself design that allowed me to create and modify surveys as I wished."

SmartQ's robust nature and user-friendly features led to efficient implementation and high consumer satisfaction. Grupido recounted: "I had the IVR system up and running in a very short time. I had a prototype fully functional in 6 hours. Honestly, SmartQ works so well I haven't had to touch it in months." Travel Adventures believes its customers are highly satisfied with the IVR system. Grupido explained: "If a customer successfully uses the IVR system, we never hear from them. That is the best feedback we can get."

SmartQ's practical and technical features resulted in a substantial improvement in the company's bottom line. Snyder and Grupido reported: "SmartQ has increased employee productivity and streamlined the billing process. Through those actions alone it has increased profitability because we can now handle more volume with less staff." SmartQ enables companies to harness the many benefits of automation for an affordable one-time price.

As a leader in IVR, SmartQ presents real-world solutions for everyday business problems. Its affordability, ease-of-use, and reliability provide companies with an innovative solution for maximizing the collection and distribution of information while reducing labor costs and increase profitability. Travel Adventures' successful experience with SmartQ can be repeated with any company seeking to automate account information and payment over the telephone.

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PPR, Inc

PRR is an integrated communications firm with offices in Seattle and Washington, D.C. The company works with municipalities and public agencies, as well as a small number of private companies. Their projects focus on environmental and social responsibility issues. PRR's motto, "Inform, Engage, Empower," defines the fundamental goal of every project the company undertakes.

PRR (www.prrbiz.com) decided to use TeleSage SmartQ software to expand the array of research techniques they offer their clients. SmartQ is a fully automated telephone survey system and the leader in load-and-go survey software. With SmartQ, users can create, record, and administer their own surveys easily and affordably.

PRR's challenge: to conduct effective telephone surveys within budget and with high levels of client satisfaction.

Results using SmartQ: a fully automated, telephone survey system that provides PRR and its clients with low-cost, reliable, and innovative research capabilities and more customer contracts.

Over 70% of PRR contracts include a research component. That is where Bruce Brown and Katherine Schomer, research associates at PRR, became involved. From designing surveys to creating reports and giving presentations, Brown and Schomer manage every step of the research process. Their goal is to help PRR's clients implement projects based on solid, comprehensive research, at a reasonable price.

PRR's research methods often determine whether or not the company wins a contract. PRR has a variety of research techniques to gather information, including focus groups, online surveys, intercept interviews, and, now, automated telephone surveys. About choosing SmartQ, Brown said: "We recognized the value of adding interactive voice response (IVR) technology to our research toolbox. SmartQ offered our clients two major advantages: cheaper and faster survey administration over other methods."

SmartQ provides PRR clients with a more cost-efficient research option. "Our customers are always looking for low-cost, time-saving services," continued Brown. He added: "We have won some contracts specifically because we offer SmartQ."

SmartQ's reliability also benefits PRR staff and clients. A project for the Washington State Child Care Resource and Referral Network (Network) required PRR to create a customer satisfaction measurement system for 250 child care providers. PRR decided SmartQ was the best method to collect provider feedback.

The real concern for PRR was how people would respond to an automated survey. Schomer recounted: "We were afraid that people would be more inclined to hang up during the middle of an automated call versus a live interviewer, but that was not the case. All but two of the respondents who started the survey completed it." Child care providers called a toll-free number to complete survey, which took 7-9 minutes on average. SmartQ enabled PRR to collect, score, and store that data automatically.

SmartQ also made it simple for PRR to report the results of the Network project. TeleSage's IVR system automatically stored the data in a standard Access database. Schomer explained: "We used SPSS reporting software to relay the results of the survey to the Network. It was very easy to transfer the data to a SPSS format."

Because of their success in the initial project, the Network wanted PRR to replicate the survey annually. With SmartQ, PRR can re-administer the same survey to providers year after year, while storing the data from each survey in a single Access database for fast, easy retrieval.

Using innovative technology, like SmartQ, is important to PRR's customers. TeleSage SmartQ runs up to 99 IVR surveys at one time, delivers surveys in any language, and has the ability to branch to different questions, surveys, or telephone numbers, based on a caller's response. The software also provides users with real-time results, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. For Brown, "Being able to offer SmartQ to our clients tells them that we use the latest technology out there. We can provide them with the right technological resource to get the job done the smart way and at a low cost to them."

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KOFM and KGWA Radio

Kyle Williams, owner and general manager of Williams Broadcasting, L.L.C. and KOFM and KGWA radio, said of the business: "It is very important to find out how a radio station is doing. We have an ongoing need to gather data on what stations people are listening to and why. So many things go into deciding what kind of programming to provide."

In order to meet these needs for cost-effective research, Williams purchased and implemented TeleSage's DialQ software. DialQ is an add-on feature for SmartQ interactive voice response (IVR) survey software. With this add-on, the user can complete large outbound calling projects that are either fully automated or connected to a live operator.

The challenge: gather listener opinions on issues within radio journalism, quickly and on a small budget.

The result: a reliable, low-cost, and time-efficient survey system that benefits the stations and the listeners.

KOFM and KGWA radio air out of Enid, Oklahoma and cater to a rural population. They are unusual among other radio stations of their size, because they are the only live stations in the area and the only stations that conduct automated polling. "A number of our customers have said that our survey, completed with TeleSage software, was the best they had ever taken. There were no negative comments," Williams said.

KOFM, established in 1982, airs country music, short form news, and agricultural reports. KOFM has been rated the #1 FM radio station in the area for the past two years. KGWA has been on the air for fifty years and provides the community with live talk and news shows hosting radio celebrities such as Dr. Laura and Rush Limbaugh.

Prior to using DialQ, Williams hired four temporary staff to call 2,500 people in the area. They worked a total their efforts only produced an 8-10% response rate and spent about $600.

With DialQ, the company made a full return on its initial investment after only one survey administration. But are people more likely to respond to automated calls? Absolutely. In addition to saving money after its initial purchase of DialQ, the company gathered about 545 survey responses from the same 2,500 phone numbers, raising the response rate to 22%. More than twice as many people responded to the automated surveys over the live callers.

SmartQ IVR survey software makes outbound calls with DialQ possible. SmartQ allows Williams to design as many surveys as he needs, and each survey can be created in about 10 minutes. Moreover, SmartQ enables KOFM and KGWA to conduct weekly inbound surveys on preferred programming or community-related issues. Listeners can call in to the automated surveys and record their opinions at any time of the day.

SmartQ also provides Williams with day-to-day efficiency at a low cost. "I'm not a computer guru, but the system is simple to operate. For example, on Friday morning, I go to my PC and pull off the old surveys (we run weekly surveys on the air), and then, I put on the new ones. The process is quick," explained Williams.

To administer one survey without SmartQ, station employees would need to cover two telephone lines for one week, 24 hours a day. If you include six hours of transcription time, the personnel hours accumulated over that week would come to a total of 342. At $10 per hour, the total cost for the survey would be about $3420. On the other hand, a SmartQ package with four lines has a retail value of $4950. In this situation, the user made a return on his initial investment after only a week and a half. "After buying SmartQ and DialQ," Williams said, "it really doesn't cost anything to conduct a survey."

Feasibility and cost-efficiency are vital to Williams, who also manages a "sister operation": a rural chain of 32 convenience stores. He wanted to conduct a public perception survey about the chain to help them better serve the community. "Yet," Williams said, "the stores were too spread out to hire a person to conduct the poll; it would have taken too many personnel hours."

Williams called on TeleSage's technology to solve his dilemma. Using SmartQ, Williams quickly set up an inbound survey. Then, employees handed customers a $1 off coupon with a toll-free number on it so that they could complete the survey from any touch-tone telephone. After customers called in and completed the survey, they wrote down a randomized number that validated the coupon. Once again, SmartQ made the survey process inexpensive and easy to implement.

Together, SmartQ and DialQ benefit companies, listeners, and customers alike. For Williams, it provides "cost-effective research." TeleSage software streamlines the polling and survey process, supplying the company with cost- and time-efficient resources. "When you automate any function of business, you save money and time," Williams commented.

Having an easy-to-use and flexible system that allows a company to interact with its customers or listeners is very important. Williams believes that "when you give someone the opportunity to respond, it makes them feel that they've made a connection to the business. They feel they've made a difference, and that draws them back time and again."

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ASDE Survey Sampler

To accommodate requests from existing customers, ASDE chose to add interactive voice response (IVR) capabilities to its product offerings, both in Canada and the U.S. After researching other options, ASDE chose TeleSage as its supplier of IVR software.

The result: a reliable and flexible automated telephone system that provides ASDE with the ability to run multiple research projects at the same time.

Michel Rochon, President of ASDE Survey Sampler, headquartered in Canada (www.surveysampler.com), describes how he implemented a 48-line TeleSage IVR solution for his business: "We first met TeleSage at the MRA Technology Forum in Florida and began discussing how we might use IVR to better serve our existing clients. Our business decision was to implement IVR in a service bureau mode and reserve it exclusively for survey research professionals."

ASDE provides sampling and related services to survey research professionals. Areas of ASDE expertise include: methodologically sound and statistically accurate phone samples; state-of-the-art IVR services; and automated list-matching and processing services. Rochon reported: "With SmartQ we are able to record surveys designed by our clients and incorporate such things as branching, skips, rotations, and open-ended responses. This IVR software is inexpensive and flexible and, more importantly, it works well."

TeleSage SmartQ software is ideally suited for market research projects, particularly those that go beyond simple multiple-choice surveys in English. "ASDE Survey Sampler must have true multilingual capabilities - this was a top consideration," said Rochon. "TeleSage worked with us to ensure that all dates, numbers, and prompts on the system can be re-recorded in any language or voice."

Another feature that ASDE needed was a reliable system for capturing open-ended responses. "With SmartQ, we can retrieve open-ended responses from any touch-tone phone as well as through the on-screen interface. We can route to an open-ended response using almost any criteria that can be imagined."

TeleSage SmartQ combines flexibility with ease of use, making it an excellent surveying resource for researchers. Rochon commented: "Our clients have many different kinds of surveys - and SmartQ makes it easy to respond to all these needs. All we have to do is point and click! Reliability under pressure was another primary consideration for us. We are satisfied with the purchase in this regard as well. SmartQ allows multiple projects to operate at the same time, and they can be modified on-the-fly."

Working with TeleSage was a very positive experience said Rochon: "The TeleSage team is very professional and responsive... they reacted with great care to our criticism and with wonderful enthusiasm to our suggestions."

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KidsPeace

KidsPeace, located in Orefield, PA, purchased and implemented a TeleSage SmartQ custom system in June 1999 to aid in measuring the outcome of its work with children.

The result: a system that collects and scores the Youth Outcome Questionnaire, providing invaluable reports to KidsPeace staff in a matter of minutes.

KidsPeace, the National Center for Kids Overcoming Crisis, is a 119-year-old charity dedicated to helping America’s children. The organization runs dozens of programs per day for 2,000 to 2,500 children who are experiencing severe crisis, including national prevention services, intensive foster care, diagnostic, outpatient and inpatient care, after school programs, and much more.

One of the ways in which KidsPeace measures the effectiveness of its programs is the Youth Outcome Questionnaire or YOQ which assesses the client's symptom severity. Repeated administrations over time track the youth's progress during the course of treatment.

With SmartQ interactive voice response (IVR) software, a KidsPeace staff member can submit the questionnaire answers quickly over the telephone, using the phone's touch-tone keypad. Within moments, TeleSage's SendQ feature returns a report via fax, providing the client's total score and ranking it against his or her previous report(s) and against normative samples.

"This type of immediate turnaround is very important," said Dr. Kevin Siddons, Supervisor of Outcome Studies. "Each staff member who submits a questionnaire gets a report faxed back to them, usually within two minutes, providing important information they can use in their jobs." He added that KidsPeace sends out 1,300-1,500 of these reports each month.

"We have found SmartQ's report faxing feature to be an invaluable and flexible tool," Siddons continued. "Many of our staff members use the SmartQ system to submit their questionnaires over the phone, but some prefer to complete a manual form and fax it, while others send in the information via a Palm Pilot or similar device. In those cases, a computer that reads and scores the YOQ and generates the report receives the information. Again, the SmartQ "SendQ" feature distributes the report within minutes to our staff. I haven’t seen another system that offers that kind of turnaround."

Siddons added that the reliability of the program is also important to KidsPeace. "The software is stable. It's a system that works," he said. "Because the data entry system relies on a stable platform - a telephone line - there is no interruption in the reporting process if, for example, there is a problem with our intranet."

Another key attribute is the flexibility of the SmartQ system. "I like the fact that it provides an authoring environment," he said. "We are not locked into one questionnaire. We can develop what we need, as we need it. In fact, we currently use the program to generate monthly process reports in addition to the YOQ reports and are looking ahead to developing a consumer survey as well."

Siddons noted that the TeleSage team has been actively involved in the project from the beginning. "The staff at TeleSage worked with us to modify and customize the system to fit our needs. We made a request, and it got done," he explained. "I'm very pleased with the customer support they provide; when I send an e-mail, I know I will get a response. Any issues we've encountered have been fixed within a day. With a live system like ours, that is very important."

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Gallia-Jackson-Meigs Board of Alcohol
Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services

To streamline its customer satisfaction assessment program, the Gallia-Jackson-Meigs Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (GJM) in Gallipolis, OH chose TeleSage's SmartQ interactive voice response (IVR) software.

The result: an accurate, reliable and flexible assessment program that provides the agency with the information it needs in a timely manner.

GJM is an administrative board which oversees agencies in three Ohio counties that assist people with alcohol, drug and mental health problems. The agencies provide counseling and other services through case managers, counselors and psychiatrists, utilizing both individual and group therapy programs.

The Board measures client satisfaction with the services provided in order to ensure that its programs meet high quality standards.

"Previously, we implemented a paper system in which clients completed a bubble form that was then scanned into our computer system," explained Mason Landrum, Information Systems Coordinator for the Board. "The scanner rejected 75 percent of the forms due to errors. Once we began using the TeleSage SmartQ IVR system in June 2000, those errors were completely eliminated, and the entire process was streamlined."

The SmartQ IVR process is simple for the clients and for the Board. Clients simply call the number provided and, using the telephone's touch-tone keypad, answer questions about their satisfaction with the service received. "This is not only an improvement in terms of accuracy," Landrum said, "but it is also better for the patients because the system provides an anonymity that makes them more comfortable relaying honest feedback. Even though the forms we previously used were anonymous, they had to be collected by a staff member."

Clients can take the questionaire from any telephone. Once the call is completed, the data is entered into a centralized database where it can be analyzed immediately. "Our use of the SmartQ technology has really streamlined the process," Landrum said.

"We are very pleased with our decision to use the TeleSage SmartQ system," he continued. "It was a good financial decision for us, and more importantly, we're happy with the product and with the level of personal customer service the company provides. Any time we call with a question, someone is available - and able - to assist us right away."

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