Bringing cloud innovation to advertising

Essential reading for advertisers

JPIMedia offers essential reading through hundreds of newspapers, magazines and websites to help people in the UK make informed lifestyle decisions using trusted media. Multimedia campaigns remain a vital source of income in an era of declining circulation amid the rise of digital platforms.

The business used to have teams dotted around the country selling advertising space on the phone. Anticipating market shifts, JPIMedia introduced contact centre functionality and, after a failed pilot with another provider, chose the Genesys PureConnect Cloud application to consolidate its operations into three media sales centers in Edinburgh, Sheffield and Leeds. Subsequently, when the company wanted to evolve its sales centres and take advantage of the public cloud, it moved to the Genesys Cloud platform.

“Our previous Genesys solution provided what we needed in terms of optimising our outbound calls and campaigns,” said Rebekah Avill, Head of Commercial Systems for JPIMedia. “However, our long-term strategy was to move to a true public cloud platform with a single interface and open APIs for tight CRM integration and PCI compliance, which we couldn’t accommodate with our old system.”

Due diligence protects investment

Scouting the market, JPIMedia benchmarked the latest and greatest cloud contact centre technologies. Along with greater efficiency, flexibility and scalability, it wanted to offer customers more choice and add channels such as email, SMS and webchat. “We needed a simple intuitive architecture so the team could configure queues, roles and users without involving IT,” added Avill. “After seeing and comparing Genesys Cloud, our conclusion was there was nothing to touch it. The implementation was fast and superbly project managed.”

Installed and managed by proven specialist Kerv, the solution is embedded in the company’s CRM system, enabling 420 agents to handle all incoming inquiries with maximum efficiency. Credit card payments are easily and securely processed using Speik integrated technology. Calls are routed to the right experts with the best knowledge and skills. Data automatically pops on the agents’ screens, so they’re instantly aware of the customer’s name and location, along with their purchasing and contact history. Also, because they don’t have to constantly re-enter data, they can answer more calls and always see how they’re performing against targets.

Smart campaigns reach the right people

Outbound communications are better controlled and more effective. The preview dialing feature means agents can see the next contact on the list and tell the system to make or skip the call, at which point it’s removed from the queue.

“Running successful campaigns isn’t only about increasing dials and connections, it’s vital to make sure you’re targeting the right people,” said David Brewster, System Specialist. “That’s how you convert new leads to build a happy, loyal customer base. Genesys Cloud is very user friendly and excellent for compiling call lists and scripts.”

The opportunity to leverage the Genesys Cloud platform and integrate outbound with SMS is particularly attractive. “Many customers are busy tradespeople, such as plumbers and builders who have their hands full and cannot always get to the phone,” added Avill. “So, instead of placing a call it would be better to send a text to remind them their advert is due to expire, along with a quick link so they can renew when they get home from work.”

Additional business and resilience advantages

Switching to the Genesys Cloud platform has provided other benefits. Disaster recovery is certain. And, the IT team is no longer swamped with requests and can quickly adapt to changing business requirements. For example, during a temporary closure, JPIMedia simply diverted calls between its Edinburgh and Sheffield centres.

“Shortly after going live, we needed to add our customer service teams to Genesys Cloud and move them away from the PBX environment they’d used for many years,” said Brewster. “We created, tested and executed the changes for 60 users and five new IVRs within a couple of weeks.”

Having greater autonomy and time back means the IT team can work more with other departments that need support. Onboarding lead times have been reduced. Training only lasts an hour or so now that user experience is more intuitive. Small changes, such as single sign-on, mean agents no longer need to remember multiple passwords.

“We’re really pleased we made the move,” concluded Avill. “We used to struggle to measure productivity and customer behavior. And, although email was one of our most popular channels, we could only guess volumes and spot-check for quality. Now we’ve got much better reporting and transparency of agent performance, channel management and coaching requirements.”