Success Stories  

Time Warner Cable Road Runner Business Class Services Takes Superior Customer Service To The Next Level

Challenge 

Time Warner Cable, Road Runner Business Class Services offers high-speed online service to business customers throughout central Ohio. In response to the continued growth of the service and the department, the company needed an enhanced method of tracking and reporting its mission-critical business metrics to meet the needs of its fast-paced online business. 

"Because we were growing so fast, we couldn't tell how many sales we had in the pipeline or what stage they were in," says Jeff Moratt, the company's commercial sales manager. "There was no way to exchange customer information between our sales representatives and our customer service professionals. And to further complicate matters, if a customer called our service center more than once, they'd have to recount their history all over again." 

At first, they considered moving to a SQL Server or a more costly in-house automation solution. But members of the Road Runner Business Class team who were familiar with salesforce.com suggested using an online CRM solution. 

In November 2000, Road Runner Business Class Services transitioned its sales team to salesforce.com. At the same time, the department's customer service group had been looking for new software for handling customer service. The packages it looked into were expensive and offered features the department didn't need or want. They liked salesforce.com's features and its price, as well as the idea of integrating sales records with customer service records. The department's customer service group started using salesforce.com in December 2000. 

Solution 
"Salesforce.com has helped us document, track, and report on sales and customer service," says Tammy Slater, the company's operations manager. "Now that every sales stage is tracked and every customer service issue is documented, our productivity has significantly increased. Customer service reps now record every call that comes in, whether it's about email, connectivity, billing, or another question. After-hours calls also can be tracked." 

"Now when a customer calls, it doesn't matter who takes the call, we've got a history," says Slater. "And salesforce.com allows our customer service reps to answer questions more quickly because they can look at the customer's history." 

Time Warner Cable Road Runner Business Class Services is also using salesforce.com to automate its workflow. The department has added fields to indicate follow-up actions, such as creating a trouble ticket or referring the caller to a technician. A salesperson can create a contract and send it to an administrative person. When a sale is made, a salesforce.com account is generated, and the contract is automatically faxed to the customer for a signature. All returned contracts are directly received and posted to their salesforce.com account, with no need to hunt for contracts or customer information. 

Results 
Road Runner Business Class Services differentiates itself from other broadband Internet service providers by offering convenient, one-stop support. "Offering outstanding customer service is what makes our products different from other broadband competitors," explains Slater. "So it's especially important that we distinguish ourselves through excellent, well-organized customer service." 

"From a business standpoint, we are much more organized and much more responsive to the customer," Slater concludes. "Thanks to salesforce.com, it's all centralized. Everyone knows what's going on, and we get the big picture."