Friendly Reminder Call Delivered at 90% Savings

Business challenge

Long before the now legendary format battle between Sony’s Betamax and JVC’s VHS, from when the vertically integrated studios, distributors and screen owners first clamoured for the lucrative entertainment dollar, competition in the  blockbuster world of music and movies could come without warning from any quarter and level former giants. Today, our Client is a major player in the distribution of rental videos and games is facing increased competition from many new places. Pay-Per- View, Video-on-Demand, mail order videos and illegal piracy threaten its business model of a nationwide chain of storefront rental stores. To protect its customer base from being poached, a series of new initiatives were implemented that, from a promotional perspective, helped keep the chain competitive. One such initiative was the abolishment of late-fees. While customers loved the freedom associated with the new return policy, it is a program that still requires close management to protect the company’s profits.

NuVoxx voice notification solution

Initially, the promotion of a no late fee policy saw local employees spending countless hours calling customers to encourage the return of the errant rentals. Not only was this a costly use of a clerk’s time, there were virtually no controls over what was communicated during the call, how long it took, or if it was placed at all. The NuVoxx solution was to create a customized Interactive Voice Response program that automatically alerted customers that their rental was late and asked that they be so kind as to return it please.

With the ability to place over 10,000 contacts per hour every hour, our Client is able to easily alert customers at 3, 5, 7 and 9 days (if necessary) with their short message and a number to call for customer assistance.

Results

Simple calculations allow for month over month budgeting of this service where their portion of customer base called is the only variable factor. Because the service only charges for connected calls, our client does not get charged for busy signals, ringthroughs, incorrect numbers or disconnects. In the eight years since the inception of this program our Client has experienced healthy commercial growth with no increase in the number of calls being made proving that its use is as effective as using a live operator at a savings of over 90%.