Businesses are caught in a tight spot in the current economic climate. On one hand, every penny is a prisoner but on the other hand, they need to keep investing in tools for delivering positive employee and customer experiences. Though 81% of small and medium businesses (SMBs) are worried about the state of things, the wise move is to invest still–but make sure it’s the right investment because the cost of doing nothing could leave you in a worse position.

8x8 has worked with many organizations, and we thought we’d share some of their comments and insights on how improving a comms system can bring value. Who better to hear from than other companies that have successfully migrated despite the worries and concerns that many businesses share?

1. Transition to an intuitive, user-friendly system

Legacy systems, often a massive lumbering franken-technology, can be challenging to use in today’s UI and UX-driven landscape. Your team is spending more time on battling the technology and less time on doing the type of work you need them to do. The work that is strategically important to your business. If time really is money, then, getting a comms system that enables your team to be more efficient and effective, sounds like a good use of both time and money, right?

Oldham Council in the UK implemented 8x8 Intelligent Customer Assistant Support for Voice as part of its contact center solution and the results have been nothing short of transformational.

The implementation of 8x8 Intelligent Customer Assistant Support for Voice allowed them to save £40,000 annually and improved their call handling success rate to over 80% with agents now managing calls seamlessly alongside their other tasks, reducing idle time and improving overall operational efficiency.

“The 8x8 platform is easy enough for these different individuals to learn to use, and learn to work together… This helps us provide a consistent level of service to our students, regardless of the reason for their call.”

2. Putting the workforce at the heart of your business as you scale up

The Altoona Curve, a U.S. minor league baseball team, must support a hybrid workforce that increases from 26 to 250 employees around gameday without disrupting operations. Nate Bowen, General Manager at The Altoona Curve, had this to say about how 8x8 solutions scaled up as they moved to the platform:

“All people had to do was download the app. The rollout took us maybe two or three days, and we had no issues… From the business side, we didn’t miss a beat. We were able to keep the staff connected and we conducted all our normal staff meetings across departments."

What’s the lesson learned? Migration is a short-term factor. It shouldn’t get in the way of your judgments about long-term benefits. However, having an effortless migration ensures business continuity and minimal disruption, which can help to mitigate any significant but short-term risks and costs.

3. Consolidate what you’ve got

KMD Holdings operates over 320 stores and needed a way to save money while getting ahead of New Zealand’s PSTN switch-off. Aidan O’Connor, IT Infrastructure Manager, said about consolidating its many systems:

“Previously, we had a multitude of different plans in place, which made budgeting very difficult… We now have consistent costs across all locations, and we’ve reduced our total telecommunications costs by 60%.”

Consolidating saves you from spending on several systems and managing multiple licenses across different billing cycles. You also get transparency into your spending, which helps you forecast and budget for your small business.

The moral of KMH Holding’s story is clear: when you streamline your tech into a single communications platform, you get a cost-effective system.

4. Take advantage of advanced calling features

Using advanced call features helps save calling time by being more efficient and effective. This reduces the total cost of ownership—which you can read more about here—and makes improving your systems more affordable over the long term.

Turning Point operated four 24/7 call centers and was looking for a simple-to-use system that could handle tens of thousands of inbound and outbound phone calls. Aaron Wyant, Director of Customer Service, highlighted the benefits of feature-rich systems for dealing with this issue:

“There are a lot of really great features that we’re really excited about using, and also exploring for the future… We expect to save about 30% of our time on outbound calls.”

5. Enhance your core business functions

A business communications system upgrade can enhance your core business function so you can improve your products and services in a way that boosts your bottom line. This is especially true for organizations where customer experience (CX) and relationships are central.

Together Staffing Group needed to retire its outdated system and found a cloud-based platform that addresses their business needs much better. Taryn Schmidenberg, Group Managing Director, commented on how its comms system comprising several channels helped its services:

“Client communications are core to our business, and 8x8 allows us to easily communicate via our clients’ preferred channels—all at a really good price point.”

CX is both a differentiator and an enhancement of your services. You can read more about the future of CX differentiation in our report, Future of Work: 2030 Vision.

6. Look for the personal and technical touch

EV Connect has worked with 8x8 for over a decade, upgrading its systems and features many times over. Scott Jarus, Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors, highlighted vendor support as consistently paying dividends, commenting:

“Our 8x8 account manager… has taken very good care of us when we need new services. And on the technical side, I’ve had opportunities to work with tech support to help me understand things or solve problems. They’ve been very helpful.”

The takeaway? Moving to a new system is a big task with a lot to manage both before and after the change. This is especially true over many years of upgrades. This is where a technical services team and a dedicated account manager can make a real difference, providing the support and guidance necessary to prevent hurdles before they come up.

7. Get data-rich insights into your performance

Collecting and processing data about your performance can help uncover areas for improvement. New insights can help you find new efficiencies and even enhance the quality of your services.

ABC Home and Commercial Services migrated to a cloud-based call center, and Erin Warren, Customer Service Manager, highlighted data as important to their transition:

“As a supervisor, I use reports to gain insight into my team’s performance and service quality. I’m a numbers nerd, so access to this type of data is one of my favorite features of the 8x8 platform.”

8. Adopt out-of-the-box persona specific user-interfaces

Persona-specific interfaces can dramatically transform workflows for different employees, increasing job satisfaction, improving productivity, and eliminating the well-known ‘toggle tax’ – which can cost a business vast sums. A platform with persona- specific UIs provides good value for money because custom-built interfaces are expensive, and it can help agents, supervisors, front desk, and even sales teams maximize productivity and satisfaction.

UK coach operator National Express upgraded its calling system to be PCI compliant. It got the added benefit of persona-specific user interfaces, which Lawrie Neal, Salesforce System Administrator at National Express, commented on, saying:

“The new UI is extremely clean and easy to read. Our agents have really appreciated the new streamlined design.”

Learn more from those leading the way

No matter where your business is in the world or the size, making a lasting business impact is our goal. 8x8's platform for CX enables businesses to elevate their customer experience while maximizing operational efficiency.. Explore our case studies for more stories of transformation.