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Cayuga Mutual takes the local approach even further with its highly personalized customer service model. Unlike with many nationwide insurers, members are not routed to a pool of agents in a large contact center for customer service. Instead, each member has their own personal account manager who can help address any concerns or needs.
The Challenge: Finding the right cloud solution
In 2021, Cayuga Mutual installed a traditional, on-premises PBX for its business communications. However, the system didn’t provide the flexibility and features that the company needed. Some employees worked mostly from home, others worked mostly from the office, and many would go back and forth between the two. A cloud communications solution was far better suited to a hybrid workforce than an on-site phone server as it would allow employees to stay connected from anywhere.
Soon after installing the PBX, a new IT leader came onboard who was strongly in favor of moving to the cloud. “A cloud solution allows you to take your laptop or your phone with you wherever you go and still be able to take calls,” says Myles Tonnies, CIO of Cayuga Mutual.
Tonnies’ previous employer had moved to the cloud with RingCentral, a solution that Tonnies felt didn’t provide a great customer experience. So, he worked with the company’s IT solution provider, IT Weapons, to help find another solution.
IT Weapons recommended 8x8, and after careful evaluation, Cayuga Mutual decided to adopt the platform. Tonnies says, “We chose 8x8 because it was a more polished cloud communications product than the other solutions we looked at, with better features and user experience.”
The Solution: 8x8 and MS Teams working together
Cayuga slowly rolled out 8x8 Work to its workforce, starting with sales agents and then onboarding underwriting, claims, and other teams. Tonnies found the implementation experience easy and smooth. “IT Weapons really helped a lot with setting up 8x8,” says Tonnies, “which made me appreciate our partnership with them even more.”
Tonnies was also happy with the responsiveness and proactive communication from 8x8 along the way. “I was impressed with the support we received from 8x8 during implementation,” he says, “as well as the robust documentation that helped me better understand the platform.”
Because Cayuga Mutual is a Microsoft shop, the company already had Microsoft Teams in place for the bulk of its communications. However, the solution didn’t allow them to take outside calls through Teams, so the company chose to implement 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams. 8x8’s intuitive, Azure-based Direct Routing as a Service solution enables native PSTN calling in MS Teams, giving users a seamless calling and collaboration experience. “All our calls now go through Teams via 8x8,” says Tonnies, “which gives us one, comprehensive solution for all our communications.”
The Results: Greater flexibility with a rich feature set
Cayuga Mutual employees have found 8x8 to be easy to use, and they love the platform’s flexibility and rich features that fit their work style. For example, call masking enables employees to take business calls on their personal phone without revealing their personal phone number to callers. This protects their identity and gives them the convenience of using a single phone for their personal and work needs. They can also set up call forwarding to direct all calls to voicemail after business hours.
Getting to know 8x8 has inspired Tonnies and his team to consider expanding their use of the platform. He says, “I’m looking forward to exploring more of 8x8’s capabilities and features, such as 8x8 Frontdesk, that can optimize our call flows.”
