Customer support is critical for 8×8, which handles some 20,000 support cases every month. The company offers global, 24/7 access to 8×8 experts via live chat support, along with a robust knowledge base and other resources. Missing from their tech stack, until recently, was the ability to proactively address customer issues before they escalate.
To fill this gap, 8×8 turned to SupportLogic to implement a more proactive, predictive support experience. The partnership led to fewer escalations among 8×8’s most high-value customers, and it gave the company a roadmap to provide a high-quality support experience at scale.
Headquartered in Silicon Valley, 8×8 is a leading integrated cloud communications platform provider with over two million business users worldwide. 8×8’s technology integrates multiple communication channels—including contact center, voice, video, and chat—into one secure cloud-based platform, keeping teams informed and empowered.
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8×8 has grown exponentially over the years, and so too has the company’s support case volume. By the start of 2021, its eight global customer service offices were handling some 20,000 support cases per month and struggling with associated challenges. Put simply by Nir Galpaz, Vice President, Technical Services and Support at 8×8, “We just had too many escalations.” Not only do escalations cause churn and create unhappy customers, says Galpaz, “they also drag you away from what your real goals are” as a business.
Like many support organizations, 8×8 relied on lagging indicators like CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score) and Net Promoter Score (NPS) to measure customer satisfaction. But these metrics, notes Galpaz, “take into the equation only cases that have already closed. This is after the interaction happened. Your ability to go and influence the course of this case is over.”
To reduce escalations, 8×8 needed to transition from “just reactive” to proactive and predictive. “We were looking for some leading indicator to help us understand customer sentiment and… direct our resources accordingly to get better results,” says Galpaz.
Ultimately, they partnered with SupportLogic to solve this challenge.
The partnership kicked off with a 30-day pilot program in which 8×8 used SupportLogic’s customer sentiment analysis to focus on a group of high-touch/high-value customers.
SupportLogic’s SX platform uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) to extract customer signals in real-time and predict costly escalations. It provides an aggregate view of all case sentiment and real-time Voice of the Customer intent to augment CSAT and other metrics.
Essentially, SupportLogic acted as an early warning system for 8×8. Support managers could proactively address potential escalations, prioritize and assign cases, loop in subject matter experts to resolve issues quickly, and more, all from SupportLogic’s dashboard.
Instead of reacting to issues, notes Galpaz, “the manager can take actions at the moment. And they have the ability to course-correct the case” before it escalates.
Though 8×8 is still “at the beginning of this journey,” says Galpaz, the metrics are already tracking positively, with an escalation prediction accuracy rate of around 90% so far. “Meaning that SupportLogics’ tools give us true early indication of cases that are about to escalate.”
Now that 8×8 has the right tools in place, “the second part of this equation” is to transform the mindset of team members as well, which entails a “shift from being completely reactive into proactive mode and acting according to those predictions.” With both elements combined, Galpaz believes they can eventually improve their escalation ratio by multiple percentages.
The company has since expanded its “proactive support initiative” to the next level of customers, including its SMB clients. SupportLogic currently analyzes and provides leading indicators on roughly 20,000 cases every month for 8×8.
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90% increase in predicted escalations and more proactive support
%
increase in predicted escalations
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monthly cases analyzed
%
of Cases read by nlp
Moving forward, 8×8 will continue its transition to a proactive and predictive support experience. The company plans to integrate SupportLogic with its CRM and contact center software to analyze voice and chat interactions, social media, and more. “The more we analyze, the more we learn,” says Galpaz, “and the more predictive we will be over time.”
“SupportLogics’ tools give us true early indication of cases that are about to escalate.”
Vice President, Technical Services and Support, 8×8
Check out our webinar with 8×8 and see how the company is predicting customer escalations in advance using AI.