Transforming Customer Service

MISS DIG System, Inc. is a Michigan nonprofit corporation that provides a free service to homeowners, excavators, municipalities, and utility companies throughout the state. When one of these entities is planning a project that requires digging that might affect underground utility lines, it submits a notification via the MISS DIG 811 website or toll-free phone number, which is then handled by notification centers in Auburn Hills and Gladstone. MISS DIG 811 notification system representatives (NSRs) then transmit the notification to more than 1700 MISS DIG 811 members, requesting that they locate their underground facilities at the excavation site. Once members receive a transmission, they send out a crew to place flags and paint indicating the location(s) of their facilities.

MISS DIG System, Inc. was using an outdated call center telephone system for 10 years, which prevented them from achieving their vision of being a more agile organization. The old system supported taking notifications only through telephone calls. MISS DIG 811 had two 800 numbers, each with its own team of NSRs with different scripts and processes. This meant that callers were getting an inconsistent experience based on the number they dialed. With the old system, every caller was randomly sent to whomever was available to take the call at the time, regardless of the caller’s or NSR’s experience, role, or personality. Often callers dialed the wrong number or made the wrong interactive voice response (IVR) selections, and ended up in the wrong department. When these calls were transferred, there was no way to know whether the recipient was available to answer the call or whether the caller would end up in another queue or voicemail. Another challenge was the inability to integrate the old call recording system with the MISS Dig 811 CRM, Newtin, which made it extremely difficult to associate inbound notifications with call recordings. This integration was an important requirement, as a new law requires MISS DIG 811 to maintain all inbound notifications for six years. MISS DIG 811 personnel spent hours trying to match recordings with notification tickets, wasting valuable time and energy that could have been spent serving customers. The old system tracked all callers in the same way, without making a distinction between first-time residential callers needing education and repeat callers. As a result, MISS DIG 811 did not have the data to back up its intuition that first-time callers were inflating its time-on-call metrics.

MISS DIG 811 implemented the Cisco Customer Journey Platform, which has transformed them into an agile and modern organization. When someone submits a notification, by either phone or the web, the NSRs follow up with the notifiers via email, chat, and phone. These new communications channels make the NSRs significantly more productive. Now, MISS DIG 811 can route calls to the NSRs that can best meet the needs of the callers, based on the request and profile of the caller. For example, experienced contractors can be connected with NSRs that are able to get down to business quickly. Tentative or first-time callers can be routed to NSRs that can provide education. With the Customer Journey Platform, MISS DIG 811 has a centralized queue for all callers. Callers of the same type with the same need get routed to NSRs trained to meet that need, helping ensure consistent user experiences and information. Because the Customer Journey Platform has an open architecture, MISS DIG 811 will integrate it with its Newtin ticket-entry software—an industry-specific CRM—to display all data about the caller within the Customer Journey Platform agent desktop. NSRs will see previous tickets placed by the caller, which will expedite retransmits and allow the NSRs to provide the caller with their ticket number if they have lost it. This information will also allow the NSR to determine whether the caller is a repeat or first-time caller, so they can interact with the person appropriately. With this integration, the NSRs can provide customer service, in context. And with the Customer Journey Platform’s collaboration features, if a caller’s issue requires escalation, the NSRs can see which manager is available and chat with them before they transfer the call. This has eliminated blind transfers, which makes the callers happier and saves the NSRs time and inconvenience trying to guess who might be available to take the call.

• Increased agility with omnichannel communications
• Improved productivity through intelligent routing and collaboration
• Improved customer service and experience through intelligent routing and collaboration
• More granular insights with cloud-based analytics
• Automated call recording logging

• 83% annual savings on phone rental
• 9% increase in notifications handled compared to the same time period the previous year