Cable company uses wireless app for more efficient sales force

Door-to-door sales have been a mainstay of the cable industry for years, but managing the team has been a hit-or-miss effort. However, wireless technology is changing that for one company. Suddenlink, a top 10 cable broadband provider in the United States, said it has implemented a wireless solution that has significantly increased its residential sales team’s productivity.
“In the communications industry, door-to-door has been a very effective but expensive residential sales channel. It only made sense to leverage emerging technologies to make the process more efficient, cost effective, and easier on our customers and agents,” said Suddenlink Chief Marketing and Sales Officer Jerry Dow. “Using the Realtime Results solution, our residential sales reps now spend more time selling and less time processing paper work. As a result, they have been able to knock on 37 percent more doors in a day, while back-office call times have been shortened by as much as 40 percent.
“For years managing door-to-door sales has been hit or miss. Our door-to-door sales reps can now log in from home for their assignments and hit the ground running, without the hassle of punching a clock or handling massive amounts of paper,” Dow said. “This platform records performance automatically and lets managers construct realistic goals from remote. The Realtime Results software makes our people much more goal-oriented and their efforts measurable.”
Realtime Results, based in St. Louis, Mo., operates a full-fledged contact Internet Protocol-based contact center to help cable and telephone companies manage their customer relationship management, including sales support, customer care and billing, said Tom Wheeler, VP of sales and business development at the company. As companies continue to merge, they end up with disparate back-office billing systems that can be difficult to integrate. Realtime Results aggregates the companies’ information to make it easier to interpret data in real-time.
The company’s Open Door solution, which Suddenlink recently deployed for its sales force, has two components, Wheeler said. The software, which works on most handsets and PDAs, creates a paperless trail so reps can capture information on the fly, and contains a GPS tracking element to monitor the reps’ activities. The mobile apps allows the sales rep to perform credit checks and place orders wirelessly, connecting to back-office support and integration with Suddenlink’s billing system.
“Door-to-door sales have been a part of cable operators’ strategy for 35 years. The challenge has been how to manage it,” Wheeler said. “Direct sales are all about big numbers.” The Open Door solution helps companies retain their best employees because they can operate more efficiently, he said.
Suddenlink counts 1.3 million residential customers with operations in Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Texas and West Virginia.