Last year, in an effort to save you time and provide more efficient service, Sage 100 Contractor implemented a “chat first” support model. The change was made out of respect for your time and a desire to get you connected with the most appropriate resource more quickly than is possible with all volume going into our phones.

The idea was that by fielding the majority of contacts in a one-to-many chat interaction, phone queues would be freed up for more complex issues resulting in faster service for everyone. Another anticipated improvement was specific to the year-end experience; our chat analysts’ ability to address more questions at once enabled them to absorb the spike in our volume as January often triples a normal month.

Now it’s time to ask, did it work?

It did! Below are just a few data points showing how you were able to get your questions addressed more quickly, either because it was solved in Chat or your Chat agent was quickly able to assess that a phone call would be more efficient – and there were fewer callers holding ahead of you. Most importantly, it enabled us to optimize our resources during the busy year-end season by getting you the help you needed significantly faster at this critical time.

Speed of Answer: Reaching a chat analyst was 84% faster and, since many contacts were resolved in Chat, the hold times for phones dropped by 13%

Resolution: 60% of you experienced that faster time to connect to Chat and had no other hold time as the chat contact resolved your query

No Blocked Calls: In years past, on our busiest days of year-end season the phone queues would get full and a busy message was returned. This year, every one of you who reached out to us received the assistance you needed, and nothing was blocked.

You are happier: Our most important data point is your feedback – and customer surveys this January reflected the highest satisfaction scores we’ve seen during year-end in many years, with 91% of you rating your experience an 8, 9, or 10 (on a 0 – 10 scale).

While these are definitely great results, we know we can continue to improve. We are constantly assessing and evolving this model to deliver the best possible service throughout the year and will continue to incorporate your feedback and experiences as we do.