The Columbus Blue Jackets are a team in the National Hockey League, which means their revenue stream thrives — or dies — on how well they can sell tickets.
The team has an extensive and sophisticated sales operation that fields nearly 300 calls per day.
However, the team wanted tech support for its operations — specifically a new call-recording technology that was flexible and customizable enough to back up its own sales methodology and ongoing training requirement.
It happened upon CallCopy through a Google search, CallCopy CMO Patrick Hall told CRM Buyer. A face-to-face meeting was quickly arranged when the team realized CallCopy’s office was just blocks away from its own.
The Blue Jackets’ sales executives soon realized the call center recording applications offered by CallCopy were exactly what they were looking for, said Hall.
Strong Integration
Because it was using a Cisco call center product, the team was looking for something that could offer strong integration, Hall said.
“They were also looking for someone to offer a more robust partner-based solution, rather than just a product,” he added.
One of CallCopy’s differentiators is its strong implementation and training support, said Hall.
Upscale High-Dollar Transaction
Most importantly, Hall explained, the team wanted a tech solution that would augment its ongoing training operations.
“What they are selling are upscale, high-dollar items, such as suite packages or season tickets,” he noted. “This requires high-touch, very personalized customer care.”
A sales call could go in many different directions, Hall said, and the team had long ago found that training someone in a classroom via role-playing or script-reading was not effective.
“They think it is better to listen to how a peer handles a live conversation,” he said. “Their vice president of sales refers to this as ‘game zone’ for them — they want to be able break down a sales call and replay the processes that worked and didn’t for the rest of the staff.”
Identifying, Saving, Marking Up
However, with 300 outgoing calls a day, the task of identifying, marking, saving and then replaying a certain call or even segment was often difficult.
“For example, there are very few examples of successful cold calls in any one day — for any industry,” Hall said. “Being able to tag those calls that did work is important.”
The team uses the application to identify calls that have gone well — or didn’t go well — to be used in training rooms, he explained. The latter might be flagged so the manager can then suggest other ways the sale might have been closed.
The CallCopy application lets users update the recording with notes or a scorecard, Hall pointed out, which supports this training process as well.
“They are able to gain insights from hearing themselves talk to or rebut what a customer might say,” he said. “When you are in the moment, you don’t always pick up on the subtleties that are going on in a call. You can with a replay.”