As engineers at Auto Trader UK, Tim Speakman and Adrian Bradshaw are at the coal face of implementing, understanding, and altering how the company’s customer service and experience systems operate.
Having phased out the company’s data centers in the last few years, the team decided that it was time to migrate to the cloud via a CCaaS platform.
Auto Trader is the largest digital automotive marketplace in the UK, with cross-platform visits totaling approximately 80 million per annum.
For years, customers experienced inconsistent service, where 300 agents were overwhelmed by more than 60,000 monthly calls.
Supervisors also struggled with incomplete customer insights and lacked effective real-time data and reporting tools.
In order to handle such a sizable and complex customer base, it was integral that the team found a CCaaS provider that ticked all the right boxes.
Bradshaw explains how they consulted Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for CCaaS, trialing and evaluating offerings from the likes of 8×8, RingCentral, and NICE before settling on the Genesys Cloud platform.
The engineer described Genesys as the “best fit” due, in part, to the company’s support in facilitating the transition and simplifying the administration process:
So that was the probably the biggest reason why we moved, because it [Genesys] helped with that transition.
“It also gave us the ability to switch services, whereas with our previous on-premises solution we had to buy kit, we had to buy licenses, we had to do upgrades, we had to manage all of that.”
Another key aspect of Genesys’ offering that appealed to Autotrader was the company’s flexibility, as well as the transparency of its pricing model. In particular, Bradshaw and Speakman highlighted the ability to choose between named and concurrent licenses and manage overage costs more effectively.
“Other vendors come in with a lower price but then they can’t honor it when it comes down to looking at the contracts,” explained Speakman.
“But Genesys was very flexible. They weren’t laying down the law to us, telling us that this is what you’re going to do, and this is what you’re going to get.”
But has Genesys delivered on its promise?
The Proof is in the Pudding
It is clear in speaking to Bradshaw and Speakman that they have been impressed with what Gensys’ CCaaS offering has managed to deliver, and the results seem to support this.
By transitioning its entire buying journey online, the company has streamlined customer service and reduced effort, allowing business analysts to leverage data for better sales and revenue decisions.
Additionally, retiring several systems has cut IT hardware and maintenance costs.
Previously, the company spent approximately £300,000 every three years on hardware and an equal amount on support and running costs.
With Genesys’s weekly feature updates, the team spends less time on software and security maintenance compared to the old system, resulting in annual savings of around £70,000.
Bradshaw also discussed how Auto Trader has been able to integrate PCI Pal – as one of Gartner’s trusted partners – to handle payments.
By automating this process, the company has reduced manual errors and improved visibility for agents, as well as improving accuracy in metrics and delivering smoother customer interactions.
In addition, Speakman detailed how since September, the company has been using a bot in the IVR to capture voice inputs and route calls more effectively.
“The average time is now 17 seconds to get through to speak to somebody,” he explained.
“Rather than before where you had to listen to the whole IVR and press your numbers, so it’s cut down time for the agents and the customers.”
And another interesting fact is the number of blind transfers and consultant transfers has dropped by somewhere between 8 and 15 percent.
Auto Trader’s Customer Service Future
While Bradshaw and Speakman’s roles at Auto Trader are not specific to the customer service and experience sector, they were still able to provide some insights on the innovations that the company is looking at moving forward.
Bradshaw explained that his team was focusing on streamlining processes and integrating systems to improve agent efficiency and customer satisfaction. This includes consolidating multiple systems into a unified solution, which he believes will help to enhance the overall customer experience.
When asked about how AI will impact Auto Trader’s future customer service strategy, Speakman mentioned some of the AI advancements that Genesys is currently implementing, such as real-time knowledge article suggestions for agents:
So basically, it’s a real-time thing. It listens to what the customer is asking for and then it comes back and suggests this to the agent. And that does look really, really good.
For Bradshaw, when it comes to AI and CX, the company is really trying to “push self-serve.”
He explains how the ability for AI to improve Auto Trader’s self-service capabilities and the need for direct agent interaction will be a big aspect of its customer service strategy:
“AI will be good to guide them [customers] in terms of what they want to do.
“Even you know, make recommendations, look at the past history of what they’ve done, what changes they’ve done, and where an agent maybe would have guided them and said, oh, you know, you’re better with this instead.”
With the explosion of AI in recent years and the plethora of customer service and experience solutions currently on the market, it can be a daunting proposal for companies looking to implement new tech.
Bradshaw and Speakman’s experience of introducing a new CCaaS platform provides important and informative insights into not settling for what the vendor believes is the right option, but instead outlining precisely what your specific company needs and being firm in securing a platform that can deliver it.
