Newstel is a multilingual contact centre that provides 24/7 sales and customer support for businesses around the globe.
With teams of agents based in Hamburg, Manila, Sarajevo and Istanbul, the company relies on a sophisticated routing system to ensure every customer enquiry is directed to the correct country, team, and skilled advisor.
It also prides itself on using the very latest technology and tools to deliver high-quality customer experiences for its diverse clients, including boutique hotels, software-as-a-service providers, global fashion brands and direct-to-consumer retailers.
“Customer experience is the key to success for us. Our main selling point is the quality because there are a lot of providers in the market and the way you can really stand out is by delivering a higher standard of quality,” says founder and CEO, Jonas Fandrey.
So when the company began noticing flaws in its contact centre solution that were impacting its service quality, it decided to look for a new provider. We caught up with Jordan Patel, Newstel’s Customer Service and Sales Manager, to hear why Puzzel was the best fit.
The silo challenge
Newstel delivers round-the-clock customer support for its clients via voice, email, live chat, social media and WhatsApp. But with separate systems for each channel, its agents were siloed and spending precious response time switching back and forth between applications.
Several user experience flaws also added to their frustrations. “For example, if an email came in and was accidentally marked as closed, there was no way to open that email back up again. There was no confirmation process on that one click – it was a permanent action,” Jordan said.
If the wrong button was clicked, agents had no way to get back in touch with the customer or answer their enquiry, potentially leaving the customer hanging. “Because the button was right next to the send button, agents always had to be super careful,” Jordan said.
But it was a flaw in the solution’s back-up system that confirmed Newstel would need a more modern provider.
“There wasn’t any back-up or fail-safe if the system went down,” Jordan explained. “All of our phone systems and every single agent had to connect into one device installed in our Hamburg office. That meant if we had a problem in Hamburg, all of our phone systems would have been impacted. As a call centre, that is no good.”
Finding the right fit
Newstel met Puzzel at the Call and Contact Centre Expo in London.
With its sophisticated skills-based routing and ticketing capabilities, Puzzel’s cloud-based Contact Centre could meet Newstel’s complex routing needs. Being able to manage multiple customer service channels in a single platform also removed the need for agents to switch between applications.
“Everything is smoother now… Bringing voice and email into one system has helped. It means there are shorter wait times and more happy people and solutions provided,” Jordan said.
As a fast-growing start-up, Newstel also appreciated having a dedicated account manager who could provide support and assist with future growth plans.
“With our previous supplier, we were sold the services initially directly by them, but were then passed onto one of their third-party sales representatives. That kind of relationship didn’t make us feel great because we didn’t feel like we could talk to them when we had an issue,” Jordan explained.
“Now I speak with Ram, who’s our current account manager, probably every month or every other month. He checks in just to just to see how everything is going to see if there’s anything else that Puzzel can do for us.”
Delivering happiness
Today, Newstel continues to grow and enhance its contact centre operation. Working with the Puzzel team, they have created a detailed reporting system that enables them to provide their clients with comprehensive insight into their customer service.
“We can show clients that every enquiry is tracked and logged and we can see where it’s gone, who it’s been passed to and where it’s been escalated,” Jordan said.
This has helped Newstel forge closer relationships with its clients, in some cases being asked to advise on service strategies.
“Ultimately it’s about listening to the voice of your customers and finding actionable insights,” Jordan said. “With some of our clients, we are now involved in their daily operations. They involve us in their daily meet and our insights are going as far up as discussions with their directors.”
Newstel also use Puzzel Quality Assurance to monitor customer interactions and deliver personalised coaching programmes for their agents.
The company previously used Scorebuddy, but found agents were reluctant to log in to the system and acknowledge feedback.
“The biggest problem we had with quality assurance was engaging our team,” Jordan said. “As an agent myself previously, I know it can feel like a manager pointing a finger at you and saying this is where you’re going wrong, this is a problem, you’re doing it wrong, it’s not good enough. That doesn’t help the agents improve,” Jordan explained.
Since switching to Puzzel Quality Assurance, Newstel has noticed agents are more engaged and feedback isn’t just being shared but properly followed up and acted on too.
“We saw very quickly that this would be the best option to help our team improve, to help our team grow,” Jordan said.
