In early 2021, National Express adopted 8x8 Contact Center for its 100-strong customer service team, and 8x8 Work for its administrative staff. It rolled out the solution, including staff training via 8x8 University, over a two-month period. The company added 8x8 Secure Pay, to its contact center implementation, which offered customers a secure way to provide bank or credit card information to an agent over the phone.
8x8 Secure Pay enables an agent and customer to stay in contact on a call while ensuring that the sensitive card data stays secure. A customer can input payment card details using their phone keypad, and 8x8 routes the information to PCI Pal who masks the DTMF tones and processes the payment. The agent can see the payment processed in their in-house booking system without ever accessing the card number during the process.
After participating in a beta program, National Express was an early adopter of Agent Workspace, 8x8’s new, agent-friendly design-led interface for Contact Center that’s designed to streamline customer interactions, and automate workflows while helping agents stay engaged, efficient, and productive. Neal says: “The new UI is extremely clean and easy to read. Our agents have really appreciated the new streamlined design.”
National Express also took advantage of 8x8’s Salesforce integration to help them connect the best of both platforms. The company customized its implementation to track all incoming communications in Salesforce, helping them build better customer relationships.
Thanks to 8x8’s partnership with PCI Pal, National Express has been able to provide a convenient, worry-free payment option to customers who call into the contact center. As the vast majority of employees now work from home full time, this provides an important layer of security and compliance when accepting payments in a remote environment. “Agents just need a laptop and headset, and they can securely connect to 8x8 from anywhere,” says Neal.
The 8x8 Agent Workspace has given agents a simplified, intuitive interface that helps them work faster and improve their level of service. “By reducing the time it takes to handle calls,” says Neal, “we increase both customer satisfaction and our capacity to handle long call queues.” Syncing call data with Salesforce enables the company to leverage that platform’s CRM capabilities to build a rich history of customer interactions to further improve customer satisfaction.
Before the pandemic, 95% of employees worked in the office. Two years later, it’s nearly the opposite. Now, 80% of employees are full-time, remote workers. 8x8’s flexible, secure communications platform enables National Express to operate seamlessly from anywhere.
