In-house Customer Service for Thousands of Pet Owners via Vonage Contact Center

The Sure Petcare Microchip cat flap was developed by Cambridge physicist, Dr. Nick Hill. Nick had experienced first-hand the unpleasant consequences of unwanted neighborhood cats entering his home through the cat flap and decided to solve the problem. After three years of intensive research and development, Sure Petcare was launched in early 2008. The benefits for owners and their pets are all about safety and security. A microchip is placed in the neck of the pet by a vet, providing a permanent ID that activates the Sure Petcare. It also helps track lost animals: one cat from London was recently (and safely) located in Scotland!

The winner of many pet industry awards, Sure Petcare has sold hundreds of thousands of pet doors across the world since its launch. It has been recommended by vets throughout the UK and has also launched into several new markets around the world, including Europe, North America and Australia. Pet owners buy online or through vets and pet stores.

Why bring Sure Petcare’s customer service in-house?

Sarah Metcalfe, Customer Service Manager at Sure Petcare, took the major decision in 2011 to bring customer service in-house. The goal was to improve the experience for pet owners who sought detailed advice about installing flaps and any problems they might have with their pets using them.

Sure Petcare wanted to set up its in-house operation using cloud technology to get the best features at the lowest costs. Sarah also wanted a solution which made the most of Sure Petcare’s Salesforce implementation, 

The transition to Vonage Contact Center for Salesforce was carefully planned and completely seamless. Sure Petcare’s customer service team now takes 2,500 calls a month from France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the UK. The six advisors, based in Cambridge, are multilingual, and service is provided from 8am to 6pm Monday to Thursday, and 8am to 5pm on Friday.

Easy Set-up Without Programming

A real strength of the Vonage Contact Center system is that it is based on cloud technology, which means it was simple for Sure Petcare to manage their solution, without the need for expensive IT resource. This means configuration of the call center was a breeze – number set-up, routing calls, and ongoing management.

Multilingual call routing saves customers’ time

Serving 4 different languages, Sure Petcare’s customer service advisors enjoy the accurate routing of callers: it means they’re always able to communicate in the right language with customers from around Europe.

Salesforce integration drives efficiency

Valuable time and effort is saved for advisors with the Salesforce integration. CLID means that customers who have previously called are routed to the same advisor, ‘a real wow factor for both customers and advisors’, says Sarah. ‘Whispers’ tell an advisor who is calling, improving customer satisfaction. In addition, Sure Petcare’s advisors make outbound calls to ensure that customers’ problems are solved. The Vonage ‘click-to-dial’ feature makes this incredibly easy for the 30, 000 calls in the year.

Skills development through fantastic call recording

The simple and fast-to-locate call recording system, which comes as standard on Vonage Contact Center, has enabled skills and capability development for Sarah’s advisors. Providing the best advice for owners and their pets means being empathetic, knowledgeable and able to solve complex problems.

• With call management, nothing ‘falls between the gaps’ With Vonage Contact Center, Sarah can keep a detailed record of exactly how many customers have called and what the peak times are, as well as which advisors have dealt with which customers.
• Vonage Contact Center provides full insight into customer queries, allowing better management and cost control.
• Mobility means work anytime, anywhere and disaster recovery.
• As Vonage Contact Center is a cloud service, advisors can log in from wherever they have internet access, so they do not have to actually be in the office. With bad weather or other unexpected problems, this is in-built disaster recovery.
• Lowest cost creates business success. Vonage offers the lowest cost for the nearly 30,000 calls received each year. The pay-per-month model gives Sure Petcare better management of costs, and the absence of a Capex requirement was essential for Sure Petcare when setting up its operation.