FFL Customer Service Problems/Solutions

[Fizz]

(Mods: Getting a feel for some ideas I think may help the firearms community, not looking to sell anything at this stage but no hard feelings if this post is too commercial and needs to be removed).

I'm a Network Engineer/CTO of a tech startup with a background in Voice (VoIP) and IT. My wife's background is in CS/Call Center management. We got to talking about industries that suffer from CS problems and the firearms industry came up.

FFLs historically seem to have staffing issues when it comes to calls, letting inbound calls ring to voicemail or until the customer gives up. This seems to be due to a combination of saturated staff and calls not physically ringing where they can be answered. In other circumstances, calls allow to ring indefinitely even though a location is closed for holiday or normal business hours.

I've built a voice network that I feel would be well-suited to addressing the CS needs of FFLs, namely:

- Can have employees work from home/remotely with in-office presence
- External call staff could be added automatically when demand exceeds internal HR capacity.
- Can provide metrics/accountability for knowing what calls were missed, average talk time, etc.
- Reduced overall telecom service costs, especially for multiple locations
- Know your staff availability/activity, regardless of location, on-demand.
- Remote handling of customer service inquiries, so on-location staff can focus on priorities.
- FFLs could provide opportunities to disabled vets, subject matter experts, etc.

Combined with the proper IT infrastructure/solutions planning and agent training, could also enable:

- Remote inventory checking/order placement
- Secure, authenticated and controlled access to company collateral/assets
- Escalation policy so that on-site/remote management can address immediate concerns or be informed for a follow-up.

Have these concerns been an issue in the past?
What solutions have you attempted? What worked and what did not?

[SkyHawk]

Since (guessing) 90% of the calls are 'do you have xxx in stock', then yes - realtime inventory is a must. And once you have that, it is a quick and easy leap to put it online, negating the need for people to answer the phone to answer inventory questions, workers comp, etc etc.

Without realtime inventory, I'm not sure what good a remote worker with a VOIP phone would do. But I am not a FFL, just a prolific customer. I have heard many a phone call come in while I am in-store, and most are inventory check.

A lot of what a FFL employee does other than that, requires physical presence (clearing guns before and after customers handle them, making sure they don't walk out while customers handle them, and check IDs and handle related paperwork for DROS processing.

[Fizz]

Since (guessing) 90% of the calls are 'do you have xxx in stock', then yes - realtime inventory is a must. And once you have that, it is a quick and easy leap to put it online, negating the need for people to answer the phone to answer inventory questions, workers comp, etc etc.

Without realtime inventory, I'm not sure what good a remote worker with a VOIP phone would do. But I am not a FFL, just a prolific customer. I have heard many a phone call come in while I am in-store, and most are inventory check. A lot of what a FFL employee does other than that, requires physical presence (clearing guns before customers handle them, making sure they don't walk out while customers handle them, and check IDs and handle related paperwork for DROS processing.

With you here. However, much of the shooting demographic aren't tech power-users, even the younger generation frequently prefers to call and may not like being told to "check out the website" even if implemented.

VoIP would be complimentary, not in replacement of a live inventory system/remote workforce. Also, even if inventory is live internally, not all FFLs have eCommerce presence or desire to.

Correct on in-office staff needing to check/clear guns, ID, etc. that requires committed attention. Hence such staff engaged in those activities need to have the inbound call load handled so they can focus on their priorities. I've seen it where a staff-member demo'ed a display gun for a customer and while the customer was handling it, venture off to answer a phone to put the caller on hold and then returned to the counter. Not efficient, off putting to both the in-office and calling customer and a safety/theft concern.

FFL activity levels come and goes in waves (from my outside perspective). So solutions that fit both seasons are ideal.

[ugimports]

(Mods: Getting a feel for some ideas I think may help the firearms community, not looking to sell anything at this stage but no hard feelings if this post is too commercial and needs to be removed).

I'm a Network Engineer/CTO of a tech startup with a background in Voice (VoIP) and IT. My wife's background is in CS/Call Center management. We got to talking about industries that suffer from CS problems and the firearms industry came up.

FFLs historically seem to have staffing issues when it comes to calls, letting inbound calls ring to voicemail or until the customer gives up. This seems to be due to a combination of saturated staff and calls not physically ringing where they can be answered. In other circumstances, calls allow to ring indefinitely even though a location is closed for holiday or normal business hours.

I've built a voice network that I feel would be well-suited to addressing the CS needs of FFLs, namely:

- Can have employees work from home/remotely with in-office presence
- External call staff could be added automatically when demand exceeds internal HR capacity.
- Can provide metrics/accountability for knowing what calls were missed, average talk time, etc.
- Reduced overall telecom service costs, especially for multiple locations
- Know your staff availability/activity, regardless of location, on-demand.
- Remote handling of customer service inquiries, so on-location staff can focus on priorities.
- FFLs could provide opportunities to disabled vets, subject matter experts, etc.

Combined with the proper IT infrastructure/solutions planning and agent training, could also enable:

- Remote inventory checking/order placement
- Secure, authenticated and controlled access to company collateral/assets
- Escalation policy so that on-site/remote management can address immediate concerns or be informed for a follow-up.

Have these concerns been an issue in the past?
What solutions have you attempted? What worked and what did not?

The issue as I see it is that the folks that would navigate an IVR system will just as easily use a website (if it exists). If you're talking to a shop that doesn't have a website they might not be able to afford the system you're hoping to create. I can tell you that our 99% of customers don't even listen to the greeting on our IVR system. They call and leave a message even though we tell them we are not returning phone calls.

I also provide a mechanism for folks to check when their DROS is up using the receipt number as key. Not many people use it. They email or text us. You can give it a whirl if you want: 510-371-4867 - if you want to test a pickup availability check use 28829.

I developed everything on top of Twilio. In theory, if I were large enough, I might add the features you're talking about or at that point go to something like Ring Central or combination of custom + VoIP provider.

I think folks that could benefit from what you're proposing are shops like Buds Gun Shop that may actually get a crap ton of calls nationwide and have to field them quickly, etc..

It's also possible that in shops like that the people that answer the phones are not the same people on the floor. I don't know.

[Fizz]

The issue as I see it is that the folks that would navigate an IVR system will just as easily use a website (if it exists). If you're talking to a shop that doesn't have a website they might not be able to afford the system you're hoping to create. I can tell you that our 99% of customers don't even listen to the greeting on our IVR system. They call and leave a message even though we tell them we are not returning phone calls.

I also provide a mechanism for folks to check when their DROS is up using the receipt number as key. Not many people use it. They email or text us. You can give it a whirl if you want: 510-371-4867 - if you want to test a pickup availability check use 28829.

I developed everything on top of Twilio. In theory, if I were large enough, I might add the features you're talking about or at that point go to something like Ring Central or combination of custom + VoIP provider.

I think folks that could benefit from what you're proposing are shops like Buds Gun Shop that may actually get a crap ton of calls nationwide and have to field them quickly, etc..

It's also possible that in shops like that the people that answer the phones are not the same people on the floor. I don't know.

IVRs are an option for this, not a requirement. Some prefer to have business hours with a DID> live person answer with no IVR at all and IVR for after-hours behavior.

For example, 555-555-5555 ringing 5 extensions at the office during 8am-5pm business hours, with voicemail (voicemail to email or old school dial-in) after 30 seconds of no answer; after hours going to an IVR saying business hours and leaving the caller option to dial-by extension/name or leave message in general mailbox. An IVR during business hours saying "For customer service, press 1, sales 2...." is optional and depending on the size/type of shop, may not be helpful. Remote/external agents could be transparently part of this process or part of the 5, etc.

I have a love/hate with IVR. Callers were burned out decades ago on IVRs that were too many levels deep with prompts that were way too long. Then dealing with live-staff who would then transfer them somewhere else anyway. People are much more receptive to IVRs with <10-15 second prompts (and generally pay attention to them) and no more than 1-2 levels. Implemented correctly, callers are pretty responsive and supportive of them. However, if this isn't going to be done right you're better off with voicemail.

As a side-bonus, a lot of predictive dialers (the technology telemarketers use to see if the number they dialed was picked up by a live person or a machine and connect to agent) to this day still can't handle IVRs/navigate trees. So they function as a telemarketer filter.

I've actually already built the platform I'm just thinking of applying it to the FFL market. It's generally cheaper than POTS once you get pass ~3-4 lines and you get all the features of an enterprise class phone system, IVRs(Auto Attendants), Queues (optional), eFax, voicemail to email, Ring Groups, video conferencing, chat, unlimited remote/office extensions - all included. So, cost is not at all an object and frequently you get all this for less than what you're paying a current provider. Even where it costs more, you get more features and flexibility.

The model is fully managed as well. So ongoing programming changes to DID routing, extensions, IVRs, etc. are included as well with a 3 business hour SLA. More complex changes such as port ins/outs, new extension hardware provisioning etc. will be a given a FOC/Delivery date.

The Twilio API dev. you did sounds nifty. Are you having to manually input or sync populate a database with customer pickup dates based receipt no., or was the Twilio API able to natively make calls to an external platform you already used for this purpose?

[ugimports]

...

The Twilio API dev. you did sounds nifty. Are you having to manually input or sync populate a database with customer pickup dates based receipt no., or was the Twilio API able to natively make calls to an external platform you already used for this purpose?

The twilio API handles all the IVR responses, inputs, etc...When they input their receipt number the twilio API gives it to me as a string which I use to query a local mysql database I setup my DROS pickup reminders in. It could just as easily do a web service call to query something external if needed. All the code for the twilio integration sits on my side with web service calls made out to twilio. It's pretty cheap to run as well since my base fee is about $5 for 2 numbers that I'm using and the rest is billed at mins of usage.

[Fizz]

All the code for the twilio integration sits on my side with web service calls made out to twilio. It's pretty cheap to run as well since my base fee is about $5 for 2 numbers that I'm using and the rest is billed at mins of usage.

I dig it. What do you think the barrier is to customers using the automated platform vs calling/emailing? My guess is receipt numbers aren't immediately available on the customer side?

You might have to provide an ability to self-lookup receipt numbers via IVR by some other parameter(s).

Do you send company initiated outbound emails, texts or calls to remind customers of DROS earliest pickup dates? Maximum pickup dates?

[ugimports]

I dig it. What do you think the barrier is to customers using the automated platform vs calling/emailing?

all depends what the customer wants to do

My guess is receipt numbers aren't immediately available on the customer side?

Probably true if they don't hang on to the receipt we give them

You might have to provide an ability to self-lookup receipt numbers via IVR by some other parameter(s).

I could do this by phone number, but it doesn't get much usage as is.

Do you send company initiated outbound emails, texts or calls to remind customers of DROS earliest pickup dates?

All 3 from the same reminder system.

Maximum pickup dates?

This is in the reminder they get - they receive a link such as:

http://ugimports.com/r/1491413992

[acespawnshop]

Customer service problems? Maybe all FFL's should watch the Pop Copy Training video........Go youtube it, (not posting link because of the language in the video, but you can go find it yourself)

[Fizz]

Customer service problems? Maybe all FFL's should watch the Pop Copy Training video........Go youtube it, (not posting link because of the language in the video, but you can go find it yourself)

Classic skit!

Most FFL personnel are great people. The thread was in reference to customer service processes.

[PolishMike]

Is it going to cost more than $5 a month?

If yes, FFLs will not go for it


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