STANNAH

Now renowned as expert creators of stairlifts, Stannah’s first creation was by Joseph Stannah in 1867 in London, making cranes and hoists to move goods around the bustling docks of the industrial revolution. They are now the UK’s leading independent supplier of lift products, supplying goods as diverse as loading systems, Microlifts, platform lifts, home lifts and stairlifts.

They now have over 90,000 products on their service portfolio, providing solutions that meet the requirements of their diverse customer base.

As Stannah went through an extended period of business growth, they noticed an influx of calls coming through to their credit control team, who were having to process a large amount of card payments through their virtual terminal. This required their customers to read out their sensitive information, including their credit/debit card details, over the phone to an agent.

As the amount of card payments coming into the contact centre continued to rise, Stannah needed an alternative to employing more call agents and a solution that would help them reduce the number of ‘payment only’ calls. They were also wary of the security risks involved with agents being exposed to customer’s card details and wanted to improve their payment compliance.

Most recently, they also required a method of processing secure payments whilst agents were on the phone with the customer that didn’t disrupt the call.

Key IVR focused on taking the pressure away from Stannah’s credit control team, introducing a 24/7 payment IVR. This allowed their customers to call up and pay for their goods or services over the phone, entering their card details on their telephone keypad without the need for human interaction.

This immediately saved their contact centre agents valuable time day-to-day. If a customer needed to talk to a member of staff before making a payment, they could easily be transferred to the secure payment line to complete the payment.

Sophie Chan, Head of Account Management at Key IVR said:

“It was a pleasure to work with Stannah, who came to us with clear business objectives and expectations from a payment solution. We worked closely with them to deliver a service that was not only cost saving but also highly secure. All calls made on the Stannah’s Payment IVR are fully secure to PCI-DSS Level 1, a highly regarded industry standard issued by leading card providers. We use DTMF masking to supress keypad tones and ensure that no sensitive card data ever enters their organisation.”

The solution not only benefitted one-off product payments, but longer-term instalments and customers that were paying from different timezones overseas and on late night on-site call-outs.

The most recent addition was also an Agent Assisted solution; this allows call agents within Stannah to process payments in a safe and secure manner over the telephone, complying with PCI-DSS Level 1.

The agent can stay on the call with the customer, discuss the order details, and then secure the conversation in seconds. This is done by speed dialling the Key IVR platform, which transfers the customer to Key IVR, and a new, pre-secured call is made to the agent. Customers then enter their card details through the telephone keypad, removing the need to read the details to the contact centre agent.

The Agent Assisted solution has also streamlined the payment process for the call agents, allowing them to efficiently take payments over the phone if necessary, minimising the need to transfer the call or divert the customer to another means of payment.

For more information about Stannah, please visit their website www.stannah.co.uk