8x8 Delivers Outstanding Return on Investment for Commercial Lender

Transcription

1 CASE STUDY 8x8 Delivers Outstanding Return on Investment for Commercial Lender, commercial finance and leasing

2 8x8 Delivers Outstanding Return on Investment for Commercial Lender Customer: Industry: Commercial finance and leasing Location: San Diego and Irvine, California; Cincinnati, Ohio; Tijuana, Mexico Website: is a commercial lender that helps businesses finance and lease the equipment they need. So when the bank itself needed a new phone system, management performed the same kind of rigorous cost-benefit analysis it does for customers. Which VoIP provider offers cost-effective unified communications, crystal clear voice quality and state-of-the-art phone features businesses like Bank of Cardiff require? 8x8, of course. 2 8x8 Products: Virtual Office Number of Extensions: 37 Favorite 8x8 Features: Mobile app Unique phone numbers for direct mail campaigns DIY system administration Time to Deploy: 1 year Connectivity Type: T1 Product Replaced: Panasonic Primary reason chose 8x8: One license covers all devices. Before founding in 2004, Managing Director William Stern worked for TD Waterhouse, Balboa Capital and Fisher Investments. His exposure to commercial finance and investment management at these firms led him to focus on B2B lending when the bank s doors first opened in San Diego, California. Initially, s niche was equipment financing and leasing for small business customers. But over the years, the bank has become a full-service lender, providing working capital for small and large businesses, credit cards, lines of credit, merchant processing, and business loans. As the bank s service portfolio expanded, so did its geographic locations. Along with its original corporate office in San Diego, the bank has a vendor relations office in Irvine, California, and call centers in Tijuana, Mexico and Cincinnati, Ohio. Since 2009, these locations have been unified by 8x8 communications, saving the bank hundreds of thousands of dollars. As Stern puts it, We may be bean counters, but with 8x8 we re saving a hill of beans! Previous Poor Call Quality Drives Cardiff to 8x8 Before implemented 8x8, its phone service was much more expensive and less reliable. For example in 2007, the bank established a VoIP-based call center in Manila, Philippines, to make handling customer service calls less expensive. But while auditing those calls, the bank found that voice quality in the overseas call center was poor. There was static on the line and a noticeable latency in voice delivery. That didn t sit well with Stern. We want our customers to have a consistent, high-quality experience when they call us, whether we re a block away or a world away, explains Stern. We expected the voice quality in our call center to be crisp and clear. Believing that had adopted VoIP technology too early, Stern and his business partner pulled the plug on the Manila call center in Affordability and Ease of Implementation Differentiate 8x8 from Competitors The bank continued using disparate landline phone systems at its various offices until the worldwide recession hit a few months later. The economic fallout spurred Stern and his partner to take another look at VoIP.

3 8x8 works with any business in any industry, so we constantly refer our customers to 8x8. William Stern Managing Director 3 My business partner saw an ad for 8x8 in Southwest Airlines Spirit magazine, recalls Stern. The ad said 8x8 provides reliable VoIP for small businesses like ours. We contacted the company and got some phones sent out to us. Stern decided to trial the 8x8 system at the bank s Irvine, California office. The employees there are responsible for vendor relations and are highly mobile because they frequently travel to vendor sites. Within days the verdict was in. Our employees loved it! says Stern. Many of the 8x8 features were revolutionary for them, and the mobile app in particular was a huge hit. 8x8 was a huge hit with management as well. Stern and his partner had already looked at competitive phone systems from Cisco and Shoretel, which made 8x8 s affordability and ease of implementation stand out. The competitive systems we considered required $100K in capital equipment, along with service plans and multiple licenses, says Stern. With 8x8 there are no upfront costs, no service plans and one license that covers multiple devices. It s what I call fractional ownership you own your phone system, but instead of paying for equipment and maintenance, you only pay for the customized service you need. 8x8 Trial Sparks Envy at Other Offices Employees at the Irvine office soon began bragging about their 8x8 phone service to coworkers at other bank locations. During companywide calls, Irvine employees had no problem joining conferences; employees in other locations were often late because they had trouble dialing in. Before long, everybody in the organization wanted 8x8 phone service. Our rollout of 8x8 was largely driven by jealousy, admits Stern, laughing. It s like when you give a toy to one of your kids, and then your other kids want a toy, too. To keep the peace we had to deploy 8x8 at all our locations. All Aboard: 8x8 Unifies Communications Across the Bank Migrating everyone over to 8x8 service meant that had to pay early termination fees for some of its offices. Nevertheless, Stern considers 8x8 s cloudbased solution an excellent investment. Because we help businesses lease and purchase equipment, we know how quickly that equipment becomes antiquated. We ve watched customers fight a losing battle trying to stretch technology beyond its useful life. With 8x8 hosted VoIP, our phone system is updated regularly and automatically, so we get full value from our technology investment. Moving all employees to 8x8 has also unified communications across the organization, giving everyone access to four-digit extension dialing for internal calls and simplifying system administration for the IT department. One License for Multiple Devices A key selling point for Stern and his partner was 8x8 s licensing structure. Many phone service providers offer what appear to be low prices, but then hike up the cost by charging multiple license fees for office phones, cell phones and softphones. 8x8 was the only VoIP provider Stern found that offers one all-inclusive license for all devices. By requiring a separate license for each device you want to use, other vendors trick you into spending more money, explains Stern. It s like my grandfather used to say: cheap is expensive. 8x8 s pricing is totally

4 We want our customers to have a consistent, high-quality experience when they call us, whether we re a block away or a world away. 8x8 delivers. William Stern Managing Director straightforward: you buy one license, and can run the service on your desk phone, smartphone, tablet or laptop. There s no trick. 8x8 is truly a low-cost alternative to landlines. Soup-to-Nuts Support for Direct Mail Campaigns conducts monthly direct mail campaigns targeted at different industries; for example, restaurants, contractors and plumbers. Stern estimates the bank spends half a million dollars on each campaign, so it s essential that the phone system be able to capture the leads that come in. 8x8 does this and much more with flying colors. With 8x8, can purchase unique toll-free or local numbers for each direct mail campaign, or import vanity numbers purchased from an outside provider. Using 8x8 s intuitive web-based user interface, the IT department can create ring groups and assign specific employee extensions to these toll-free numbers. When the month is over, the setup can be disabled with a simple mouse click. No outside technical assistance is required at any stage. 8x8 covers our direct mail campaigns from soup to nuts, says Stern. We can do everything ourselves purchase numbers, change user profiles, set up ring groups and there are no negative costs or consequences. Our campaigns are like a carnival ride: we put them up and tear them down quickly. And we sleep well at night knowing that everything is configured correctly. Mobile App Protects Employees Privacy For individual bank employees, 8x8 s standout phone feature is the mobile app. According to Stern, employees trying to give vendors and customers outstanding service sometimes feel pressured to give out their personal cell phone numbers. That can result in late night or early morning calls to the employee s home, which may become intrusive. The 8x8 mobile app solves this problem by acting as an extension of the employee s work phone. Although employees can take or place business calls on their smartphones, their private cell phone numbers are not revealed instead, the caller ID for their business phone is displayed. 8x8 fills the gap between work and home beautifully, says Stern. It gives employees the ability to be responsive to vendors and customers while protecting their privacy and personal time. Local Numbers Provide a Consistent User Experience While is a geographically distributed organization with a presence in two countries, Stern and his partner prefer to present the friendly, familiar face of a neighborhood bank when customers call. By purchasing local San Diego phone numbers for its remote offices, the bank ensures a consistent experience for customers, who don t even realize they re speaking to someone in Mexico or Ohio! We want to create a connection with our customers, explains Stern. No matter which office they reach, we want them to feel like they are speaking to someone locally, and we want them to have a U.S. callback number. 4

5 CASE STUDY Spreading the Word to the Bank s Own Customers Stern believes business owners need to reexamine how they purchase phone systems. You need to give your phone system the attention it deserves, he says. It s not a commodity; it s about communicating wherever you are. 8x8 does what a $100K system from Cisco does. Why pay for equipment and maintenance when you can pay for customized service instead? s experience with 8x8 has been so positive that 8x8 is one of a handful of vendors the bank recommends to its own customers. Many of our customers are small businesses that need modern phone features but can t afford the expensive hardware, says Stern. 8x8 works with any business in any industry, so we constantly refer our customers. Based on our experience, we know they ll get outstanding service and save a lot of money. To learn more, call or visit NASDAQ: EGHT The 8x8, Inc. logo is a registered trademark of 8x8, Inc. 8x8, Inc. is a publicly traded company. SALES524/0914