The Situation
If you have ever relaxed in a comfortable seat in a doctor’s office, ridden in a limousine, or enjoyed a warm afternoon onboard a houseboat, then – chances are -- you have probably seen or sat on a Miami Corporation product. Miami Corp is a wholesale distributor of automotive and marine interior and exterior trim products for original equipment manufacturers and aftermarket companies. Their product line also includes awning and outdoor furniture fabrics, cloth upholstery, and even leather.
A family-owned company founded in 1923, Miami Corporation has a main office in Cincinnati, Ohio and distribution centers in Rochester, New York and Jacksonville, Florida. Despite’s the company’s outstanding Web site, up to 93 percent of the company’s orders still come over the phone, according to Dan Niehaus, Vice-President of Administration for The Miami Corporation. All of those calls are fielded by only 18 customer service agents, who each handle about 100 calls a day.
“The number one requirement of ours,” Niehaus said, “is a robust Automated Call Distribution [ACD] system that is both very fast and highly reliable. We’ve had hosted phone systems in the past and they had little ACD systems built into them. But, they were slow to distribute calls. There was a lag from when you called in to when the phone rang at somebody’s desk. So, we decided to replace our previous hosted phone system.”
Their choice? An affordable, enterprise-class hosted voice solution from PBfleX.
The Solution
While Miami Corp did consider systems from other vendors, the hosted voice solution from PBfleX had one key advantage.
“It was very, very fast,” Niehaus said. “Now, when you dial our call center, all you’ll hear is a quick message thanking you for calling Miami Corp and then, boom, one of agent’s phones ringing. Our average call answering time is now down to six to seven seconds, at the most.”
There were other factors, too. The flexCenter Manager-ACD product from PBfleX provides Miami Corp robust call center functionality with full reporting and visibility built in. It allows supervisors to manage their staffs and live calls by enabling them to “listen in” to calls (where neither party can hear them), “coach” (where only the customer service person can hear them), and “join the call” where both parties can hear them) – or pick up the call themselves. Plus, it hosts e-mail and allows agents to work from home, just as if they were in the office. Calls coming into the office can also be forwarded to other landlines or even cell phones.
The transition between their old system and the new solution from PBfleX was smooth. “We didn’t just unplug one, plug in the other, and hope everything worked.” PBfleX managed the implementation of Miami’s new hosted voice solution every step of the way.
There were significant cost savings, too. “I like the flat-fee billing,” Niehaus said. “And, PBfleX’s billing by the minute for long distance, so we only pay for what we use.”
What’s more, the team at PBfleX acts quickly whenever The Miami Corp needs to add users to the solution, which keeps the operation efficient. They simply call in or email a request and PBfleX handles everything from there.
The Results
“It’s a good experience,” Niehaus said about working with PBfleX. “It gives us a lot of flexibility. Plus, because it is a hosted system, it takes a piece of hardware (an onsite PBX) out of our building.”
And, when your business is all about covering surfaces, like Miami Corp, it’s always good to know that your ACD system from PBfleX can cover your ability to provide fast customer service. Now, at Miami Corp, the phones are answered faster and more orders are filled.