Sharing a commitment to provide exceptional customer service, it might be fate that renowned electronics cataloger Crutchfield Inc. would implement Coordinated Systems, Inc.'s (CSI) Virtual Observer call center quality assurance solution.

Initially looking for a quality assurance product that would help develop consistency in phone staff interactions, increase phone sales and eliminate the need for manual recording, Crutchfield found that Virtual Observer (VO) delivered much more than that. VO provides a mechanism for not only improving agent performance, but also in training new agents.

"With a canned event, we can go over it with a new hire, pausing to identify each important statement or mistake. We can train them on what should be said," said A.J. Miller of Crutchfield's IT department.

In researching call recording vendors, Crutchfield investigated three or four competitors of CSI. CSI was more affordable than the other vendors, but Crutchfield wanted to make sure all of their main requirements would be included in the CSI base product, Virtual Observer. They went through their list: call recording, evaluation, extensive reporting, ease of use, compatibility with their phone systems. VO covered all of that. In terms of comfort level, "we were comfortable with them. They were the least expensive and offered all of the critical features. The agents who tested it and saw the demos liked VO" AJ added.

Upon installation, the CSI team trained Crutchfield's call center managers, who were then relied upon for training the rest of the team. The agents accepted VO favorably, as they had been used to manually being recorded, with the added benefit of recognizing the chance to improve their skills.

"As a Sales Team Leader, VO has helped the folks on my team see, hear, and feel their calls, and has allowed us to pinpoint things they could improve upon. Sometimes it's things they could say differently, sometimes its different things they could do on the PC to make them more efficient. Reviewing a recorded VO event is like reliving the call, a great coaching tool," says Adam Stoffel, of Crutchfield's Sales department.

Crutchfield has recently upgraded from Virtual Observer version 2.1 to version 3.0. AJ was assertive about the upgrade stating, "the upgrade has made a big performance improvement. In particular, the auto-purge feature saves us time and the new visual playback feature allows us to pinpoint call activity easier."

Crutchfield's main priority has always been providing exceptional customer service beyond expectations. They see CSI as a similar natured partner further stating, "when we call them with suggestions, they respond rapidly. Their support is proactive - they often have identified the few system hiccups that occur before we even notice."

As a catalog company that once featured primarily car audio equipment, Crutchfield has expanded into every type of consumer electronics device that exists. Their website offers secure online ordering, and of course, extensive customer service options.

CSI has installed other Virtual Observer at other catalog company call centers. "Virtual Observer has evolved into the perfect call center quality assurance solution for catalog companies. The time-to-improvement after implementing our VO solution, when agents are making more upsells, saves and new sales compared to pre-VO, is realized so much sooner with each new functional enhancement - making it a compelling solution and a logical choice," stated Rich Marcia, Director of Marketing at CSI.

Coordinated Systems, Inc. (CSI) is a leading software development company. Established in 1972, they have consistently evolved their products over time and grown their business by building high quality long term partnerships. The CSI flagship product, Virtual Observer (VO), is a call recording and quality assurance solution for call centers. VO is making inroads against major competition by offering robust, user friendly feature sets that exceeds client requirements and enhances client satisfaction.

Crutchfield sells consumer electronics and has grown from humble beginnings to the ecommerce giant they are today. Founder Bill Crutchfield states that "My customers told me they didn't know much about car stereos and were intimidated by the thought of installing one by themselves. Listening to my customers, I decided to fill the Crutchfield catalog with information so readers would be comfortable with car stereo. And I decided to take good services and make them even better. That seemed to work well."

"Emphasizing complete information and exceptional customer service were what it took to get this company off and running, and these values continue to define our company culture today. Now we're a thriving organization located in Charlottesville, Virginia, with a satellite facility in Norton, Virginia as well."