Second To None Expands VoC Portfolio on a Reliable Cloud Platform

Summary

Second To None, a customer experience research and analytics agency, added telephone surveys to its Voice of the Customer (VoC) product offerings before expanding its services to include voice recording and SMS notifications. The reliability and scalability of Plum Voice’s platform and tools made it easy to migrate their solutions from an on-premise system to a cloud platform. These additions have helped Second To None procure and retain clients while strengthening its position as an industry leader.

Company Story

Second To None offers mystery shopping solutions, customer experience (CX) consulting, compliance audits, customer feedback & employee engagement surveys and other tools that help clients build a strong brand presence and more rewarding customer connections. Second To None is based in Ann Arbor, MI, and employs about 180 employees. For over 30 years, Second To None has been helping its clients deliver human-centered customer experiences for optimal business success with an estimated $38.5M in revenue.

Challenge

Second To None helps Fortune 500 clients to acquire and analyze customer experience data. The company offers a range of services that include web-based and telephone surveys. Second To None uses the Plum Voice platform and tools to conduct telephone surveys, send SMS notifications for online surveys and record mystery shopper phone interactions.

One of Second To None’s clients requested the addition of phone surveys to their CX mix. Second To None didn’t offer such technology at the time of this request. So, they began researching providers who could add that offering to their tech stack. They had to find the right vendor and tools to fit their business model and provide a reliable and scalable solution.

Solution

According to Chris Krosnowski, Second To None’s CTO, they narrowed down their choices to Plum Voice and one other company. They selected Plum Voice based on its competitive pricing and fast development to deployment cycle. Many of Second To None’s clients operate in the retail and healthcare industries, so Plum Voice’s PCI and HIPAA-compliant platform also proved critical in decision-making.

On-Premise Solution

The relationship between Plum Voice and Second To None began In 2011. At that time, Second To None opted for an on-premise Solution, the Plum iOn system. (Plum iOn is no longer available as the Plum Voice cloud platform has replaced it.) Krosnowski said that getting Plum iOn up and running was relatively easy. 

Second To None built its voice application and noted that the most significant challenges were learning VoiceXML (VXML) code and ensuring their telephony service interfaced correctly with the Plum system. Second To None already had a template/ workflow for its web-based customer experience survey, so the team built its voice application to mirror what existed. The process was easier to implement than they had expected.

The Plum iOn system delivered the reliability that Second To None needed. However, as time passed, they identified scaling to meet customer demand as a significant challenge with on-site systems. In their experience, adding channels to expand or contract system capacity could take several weeks when working with telecommunication providers. They needed to respond faster when their customers, especially those in the retail industry, experienced predictable (holidays, promotional periods, etc.) and unpredictable (crisis events, product recalls, etc.) call spikes. The ability to automatically scale to need became increasingly acute for Second To None. 

Migration to a Cloud Solution

After nearly two years of using the Plum iOn on-site system, Second To None migrated to Plum Voice’s cloud platform using the Plum DEV tool. This move enabled the scalability that they desired to meet customer demands. It also saved them considerable money on operational costs. 

The changeover was manageable because Second To None migrated from one Plum Voice system to another. It was a two-step process:

1. Changes to the voice application code took about 5-10 minutes, and 
2. Transferring control of the company’s phone lines to Plum Voice. 

Krosnowski noted the process, responsible organization (RESPORG), “was extremely easy for us.” Second To None simply had to fill out the appropriate forms and Plum Voice handled all the backend tasks. When the phone lines switched over, they merely redirected the application’s phone number to a new one owned by Plum Voice. The development team tested the application, ensuring everything was patched together correctly. Then, they deployed the new system. The process took 30-60 minutes total once the RESPORG transfer started.

Access to Plum Voice’s cloud environment meant that Second To None could dynamically scale its usage to quickly and efficiently meet client needs. “Being nimble like that puts you at a competitive edge,” said Krosnowski. 

Plum DEV offered them flexibility in coding options. As a VoiceXML (VXML) tool, developers can build IVR systems, virtual agents and conversational AI solutions by generating their code. Plum DEV also supports dynamic multi-channel messaging applications such as SMS messaging (text messaging) for notifications and reminders.

Building on the success of the phone survey deployment, Second To None expanded its product offerings even further:

• They started providing call recording services that download the audio files generated from mystery shopper transactions and send them directly to their clients. Clients now heard the whole conversation, including the intonation and reaction of the customer service agent.
• They also rolled out an SMS messaging (text) tool that notifies customers of applicable web surveys. Embedded in the text message is a URL link that takes the customer directly to the survey. This improves the survey participation rate, gets faster responses and is easier for customers to use.