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Panaband
Panaband Uses the VoiceShot v4.x API to Improve Customer Service and Reduce Costs
CASE STUDY  


Panaband is a wireless broadband Internet service provider, bringing high-speed wireless service to communities throughout Texas.  Panaband's Broadband System uses radio signals transmitted from their various tower locations.  These signals allow for broadband access to be delivered to their customers via small antennas mounted on customer rooftops.

Background - The Problem
Panaband strives to provide the highest level of customer support, typically going beyond those services offered by the larger telecommunications companies.

Panaband operates their technical support utilizing a callback model:  callers leave a message with a description of their problem, a support representative thoroughly researches the issue and calls the customer back with the solution.  Customers do not sit on hold pending a solution, tying up their time.  Rather, the user reports their issue and quickly receives not only a response, but more importantly, a resolution of their problem.

Panaband's current solution, however, was based on a legacy and costly live answering service.  As they grew, they looked for a more cost effective solution that at the same time would provide their customers with an even higher level of customer service.

The Solution
Panaband's executives envisioned an automated support system where users could call, open trouble tickets, listen to frequently asked questions and solutions as well as hear live, up-to-the-minute network status messages that reported on any outages or issues as well as an estimated resolution time.

Integrated tightly into this solution, Panaband wanted its own technical support representatives to be able to call into this same system and perform administrative tasks such as lookup ticket numbers, listen to the associated messages, close tickets, as well as record and remove network status messages.

 
Case Study Subject:
Panaband
Customer Service Department
 
Subject Profile:
Panaband is a wireless broadband Internet service provider, bringing high-speed wireless service to communities throughout Texas.
 
Problem:
Offer a reliable, easy-to-use, automated and cost effective call back customer support service for customer subscribing to their wireless broadband service.
 
Solution:
Panaband used the VoiceShot v4.0 API to build an automated callback based customer support line.  Their solution allowed users to call and listen to frequently asked questions as well as open trouble tickets and leave messages.  Support representatives in the field are automatically paged and and can call in to review trouble tickets and messages, close tickets and record network status messages for all callers to hear.
 
Advantages:
  •  Easy-to-use
  •  Flexible and Reliable
  •  Completely automated
  •  Cost effective
  •  Call logging
 
     

None of these options were currently available with their current and costly live answering service.  Overall, their design requirements did seem extensive and, more importantly, expensive to implement.  Panaband investigated purchasing the equipment for an in-house solution as well as some outsourcing options, neither of which offered any sort of attractive return on investment.  It is at this point that they discovered VoiceShot and its version 4.x API.  After a free trial and testing, Panaband was soon convinced that VoiceShot could provide all of the functionality that they wanted, and at a fraction of the cost of even their current solution.

Details
In addition to providing high-speed wireless broadband service, Panaband has on staff professional Web developers.  They saw that they could leverage familiar technologies such as Microsoft IIS, ASP and SQL Server, combine them with the VoiceShot v4.x API, and quickly implement the required solution.
 
     

VoiceShot and its v4.x API provided a solution that was easy to setup and gave us all of the additional functionality that we wanted and at a fraction of the cost of our existing solution.

  
     
  Greg Martin
Panaband 		 
     
 

Overview
The overall design of the solution was straightforward: callers call and listen to a voice menu that was designed at the VoiceShot Web site. During each call, caller and key press information is formatted in XML and delivered in real-time to Panaband's Web servers via the VoiceShot v4.x API.  Once received, the XML is parsed using ASP example code provided with the API and an XML formatted response is sent back in real-time to the VoiceShot servers to control the flow of the call and the messages that the caller hears.

Front End Caller Menu
When a caller first calls, they can hear different messages.  They may hear information on a service affecting issue or the default main menu.  The default main menu directs the caller to sales, frequently asked questions and solutions, as well as to a menu where callers can open trouble tickets and leave a messages to request support on a specific issue.
     
The VoiceShot API delivers all of this information to Panaband in XML in real-time.  Immediately upon receiving this message, a trouble ticket is automatically generated and sent to a Panaband support staff member in the field through SMS messaging.  The message contains, among other things, the date and time of the call, the caller id and the trouble ticket number.

Back End Administrative Menu
As soon as a support representative receives the SMS message, they dial into the same support line that the end users call, however this time, they enter an administrative menu.  Once in the administrative menu, the support representative can input trouble ticket numbers and listen to messages recorded by the end user. Another option includes marking trouble tickets as closed.  One unique administrative task allows support representatives to record a network status message and mark them as active or inactive.  Once active, when end users call into the support line, they will hear this network status message informing them of any system wide issues or events.  This feature not only informs users that the issue is already in the process of being resolved, but reduces the number of support inquires that Panaband receives, as multiple users no longer call to report the same problem.

Another benefit of this model is complete support call logging to Panaband's database.  Managers can quickly see and quantify peak call volumes by month, week, day or even intra-day  At a glance, they can see the average time for the end user to receive a callback, the length of time a trouble tickets remain open and which support representatives handled which ticket.

This entire entire solution took approximately two weeks for one of Panaband's ASP developers to develop, working on the project only part-time.  The key was Panaband could leverage their existing knowledge of ASP and SQL.  The VoiceShot 4.x API and online tools at the VoiceShot Web site provided all of the telephony tools, and provided them in a manner that is straight forward for any developer with Internet experience to implement.

 

For more information on the VoiceShot 4.x API, please visit:
http://www.voiceshot.com/public/developer.asp

or contact VoiceShot at (800) 962-0126 / (734) 513-0872

 
 
 
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