Pizza Pizza Improves Customer Service and Decreases Costs Using Interactive Intelligence IP Communications Software
September 17 2009 - 9:00AM
Business Wire
When Pizza Pizza Limited (TSX: PZA.UN), a prominent restaurant
chain in Canada, began working with Interactive Intelligence
(Nasdaq: ININ) nearly 10 years ago, the company needed a strategy
for using work-at-home call center agents. By deploying
communications technology that supported these at-home agents, the
pizza chain believed it could improve hiring and retention rates,
while lowering overhead costs.
Since its deployment of the Interactive Intelligence all-in-one
IP communications software suite, Customer Interaction Center®
(CIC), Pizza Pizza has done just that.
“CIC has enabled us to process more than 30 million orders per
year, with 85 percent of those orders taken over the phone by more
than 350 work-at-home agents,” said Pizza Pizza’s network
telecommunications and security manager, Amar Narain. “As a result,
we’ve been able to attract and retain the highest quality agents
for improved customer service, while decreasing overhead costs by
more than 25 percent.”
In addition to supporting its work-at-home agents, CIC also
supports about 300 agents located at Pizza Pizza’s main call
centers in Ottawa; Hamilton, Ontario; and Edmonton, Alberta.
CIC’s built-in voice over IP (VoIP) and software-based,
all-in-one architecture, enable remote agents to use a session
initiation protocol (SIP) headset or remote connectivity to a home
phone or mobile phone without the need for ISDN lines or call
routing limitations. It gives remote agents multichannel
capabilities, and provides all the same functionality as in-office
agents, including call processing and recording, back-end database
access, and presence management. CIC also enables supervisors to
remotely monitor and coach agents in real-time.
Based on the success of its deployment, Pizza Pizza has already
expanded its use of CIC to support all of its corporate head office
users, as well as users at three new office locations throughout
Western Canada as a result of a recent pizza chain acquisition. The
expansion, completed Aug. 31, 2009, was in conjunction with Pizza
Pizza’s headquarters move from downtown Toronto to a new
state-of-the-art, energy-efficient building on the city’s west
side.
“By replacing our existing multi-vendor systems with CIC to
consolidate all of our locations, we can further reduce costs and
improve operational efficiencies,” Narain said. “In addition, we’ll
be able to run more accurate reports so we can more effectively
share resources across time zones and plan ahead for call
spikes.”
By leveraging its agents across time zones to better manage
peaks in call volume for all its 600 locations, Pizza Pizza also
anticipates a reduction in on-hold times for improved customer
service. Pizza Pizza will also deploy a CIC add-on application
called Interaction Recorder® to improve agent training and quality
assurance.
“Our agents will be able to take orders for any store regardless
of geography, while being able to access customized menus that
feature specialty pizzas and discounts specific to a location or
region,” Narain said.
“Throughout our 10-year relationship with Interactive
Intelligence we’ve been extremely impressed with its product
innovation and customer-oriented attitude,” said Paul Goddard, vice
president of enterprise development for Pizza Pizza. “Interactive
Intelligence has been so easy to work with and has responded to our
input by adding new features that continue to help us provide the
best service in the industry.”
About Pizza Pizza and Pizza 73
Founded in 1967, Pizza Pizza is an industry pioneer and Canada’s
number one pizza chain. With the 2007 acquisition of Pizza 73, a
leader in Western Canada since 1985, Pizza Pizza operates more than
600 traditional and non-traditional restaurants coast to coast.
Pizza Pizza has introduced numerous innovations such as whole-wheat
multi-grain dough, a gluten-free crust, and the elimination of
industrially-added trans-fats from all menu items. Through the
years the company has been a loyal supporter of community groups,
helping to organize fundraisers, sponsoring events, and supporting
local projects at the corporate and franchise level. Visit Pizza
Pizza at www.pizzapizza.ca and Pizza 73 at www.pizza73.com (TSX:
PZA.UN).
About Interactive Intelligence
Interactive Intelligence Inc. (Nasdaq: ININ) is a global
provider of unified business communications solutions for contact
center automation, enterprise IP telephony, and business process
automation. The company was founded in 1994 and has approximately
3,000 customers worldwide. Interactive Intelligence is among
Software Magazine’s top 500 global software and services suppliers,
is ranked among Network World’s top 200 North American networking
vendors, is a BusinessWeek “hot growth 50” company, and is among
Fortune Small Business magazine’s top 100 fastest growing
companies. The company is also positioned in the leaders’ quadrant
of the Gartner 2008 Contact Center Infrastructure, Worldwide Magic
Quadrant report. Interactive Intelligence employs more than 600
people and is headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana. It has six
global corporate offices with additional sales offices throughout
North America, Latin America, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia
Pacific. Interactive Intelligence can be reached at +1 317.872.3000
or info@inin.com; on the Net: www.inin.com.
This release may contain certain forward-looking statements that
involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially are described in the
company's SEC filings.
Interactive Intelligence Inc. is the owner of the marks
INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE, its associated LOGO and numerous other
marks. All other trademarks mentioned in this document are the
property of their respective owners.
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