Superior IP-Based system delivers a seamless experience for students and families while maximizing service levels.

In their September/October 2005 issue, Contact Professional, a leading contact center management publication, featured Tuition Management Systems for its movement toward a more effective contact center operation. For Tuition Management Systems, their Contact Center is the primary contact point for students, families, and school administrators and the organization's success is closely tied to the strength of customer relationships devel-oped and nurtured by highly skilled agents, or Education Payment Partners (EPPs).

Recognizing the need to improve performance and increase customer satisfaction, Tuition Management System's Chief Operating Officer, Dave Pelkey, and his Technology Services team determined that the companyís greatest need was a call distribution product that would accommodate their desire for custom applications. They also needed a solution that could seamlessly route queries from multiple communications channels. While voice was the primary means of contacting the contact center, the use of email was growing, and the company anticipated a trend toward callers using multiple channels to reach the Contact Center.

For Tuition Management Systems, improving Con-tact Center performance to increase customer satisfaction and ultimately improving the overall customer experience while re-ducing operating costs could not be achieved with its original circuit-switched PBX system.

Because most of the calls handled by their Contact Center are students or their parents calling to inquire about pay-ment status or other basic questions, the company recognized the need to efficiently route calls to the first available EPP qualified to take the call, based on the caller and call type. The company needed screen pops that presented the profile in-formation specific to that par-ticular caller. It also needed a solution that was highly scalable to accommodate demand peaks in August and September and again in January and February when parents and students are rushing to finalize tuition financing and select pay-ment options. During these peak periods, the company more than doubles their number of agents.

Tuition Management System's goal was recognized in May 2004, with the decision to implement Nuasis NuContact Center, the soft-ware-only, IP-based system that delivers a multi-media solution, enabling true contact management by blending voice, web, and email queues. It also enables customized workflows and prioritization of queues based on incoming phone numbers or pre-determined prefix codes, database lookups and customer provided information. In addition, it allows a variety of managerial coaching and contact monitoring techniques, real-time collaboration, staffing and personnel adjustments.

Later that year, in an effort to drive more calls through self-service, Tuition Management Systems replaced its touch-tone IVR with a voice-activated IVR from a Nuasis partner, Toronto-based VoiceGenie Technologies, Inc. Routine queries such as making payments, re-questing a billing address and checking on payment status could easily be handled through the IVR. VoiceGenie's NexusPoint open frame-work easily integrates with the Nuasis Nu-Contact Center, providing a seamless exchange of the customer between the two systems. Integration of the NuCon-tact Center with VoiceGenie's IVR automated pay-ment processes and by allowing callers to change demographic information and adjust budget contracts through the system further streamlining the company's operations.

Tuition Management Systems achieved an easier and faster way to build applications while reducing operating costs. “One real and immediate benefit was the ability to quickly make changes to meet our needs,” Pelkey said. “We spent four years in a proprietary PBX environment trying to make changes. Now we can develop applications, such as screen pop and data directed routing, in less than 30 days. If there is one dramatic benefit of Voice Over IP (VoIP), it was this ability to build our own applications.”

Today, the company's top-rated call center has evolved into a Multi-Channel Contact Center, providing a single, unified point of contact regardless of the method of communication. The multi-media, multi-site system allows customers to decide how they want to work with the company (phone, voice, email, web and fax) thus producing greater customer satisfaction. It also allows the company's Education Payment Partners to op-erate more efficiently, shortening call durations and lengthening the num-ber of total contacts handled.