The Connection—a large-scale BPO and customer care provider—has been in the CX space for over 36 years and its client list includes everything from Fortune 500 companies to small businesses and everything in between. The company provides a wide range of CX services and primarily focuses on call center outsourcing. The Connection has deep-seeded roots along with a large footprint in the CX space, but it hasn’t lost its entrepreneurial spirit. Instead of providing a list of standardized services to clients, the company focuses on a tailored approach with customer-specific goals at the forefront. This nimble, pragmatic approach has been a success with customers. However, behind the scenes, The Connection was servicing clients with a 20-year-old CX platform that was far from flexible.
Since 1996, the backbone of The Connection’s platform was an on-premises-based infrastructure. The on-site system was customized and tweaked over the years until every ounce of functionality was squeezed out of it and met the expectations of clients. “We were extremely entrenched in the [old] technology," said Ken Unruh, CTO of The Connection. He added, “But we needed to get into something that was more flexible and scalable.” So, after 20 years, the search was on to find a new CX platform provider.
Using the same formula that works for its clients, The Connection took time to evaluate nearly every CX platform on the market. From large-scale, on-premises systems to small, cloud-based start-ups, the company searched high and low to find the best fit with the organization. Ultimately, it came down to the people behind the technology. “We were looking for an organization with the right culture, team, and employees…and we found both on the business side and operationally with Bright Pattern,” exclaimed Unruh.
With Bright Pattern on board, The Connection began a pilot of the new CX platform in May of 2017 with a full rollout to be completed within two months. By July of 2017, Bright Pattern’s CX platform was ready to go, but with so many third-party voice providers and data silos, full migration wasn’t complete until the end of 2017. However, Bright Pattern’s team worked with The Connection every step of the way until the migration was finished.
Even with a fully standardized CX platform through Bright Pattern, The Connection continues to allow clients the flexibility of adding their own voice providers or technology so they can meet their goals. Unlike The Connection’s legacy system, Bright Pattern’s flexible platform and ability to leverage open APIs allows The Connection to do what it does best—be a large-scale BPO provider, but continue to act as a boutique CX shop.
Now with the Bright Pattern platform in place, The Connection has even more flexibility to leverage tools like speech analysis and AI, plus “alternate channels” like SMS and web chat. The Connection has also implemented a self-service IVR (something that wasn’t possible with the old system) for one client, resulting in an 80% call deflection rate. Additionally, with Bright Pattern’s streamlined UI, The Connection has seen big improvements in key metrics like a 20- to 30-second reduction in Average Handle Time (AHT).
“We really feel like Bright Pattern is helping us be successful. After evaluating the CX landscape, the other competitors could not function like Bright Pattern,” declared Unruh.
