At Cincinnati Bell, productivity climbs with Oracle Field Service
The telecommunication company uses Oracle Field Service to increase efficiency of its service technicians and improve customer satisfaction.
“Oracle Field Service has enabled us to service more customers with the same amount of resources. Our favorability rating with customers has gone up. We’re able to give them a very dialed-in timeframe for when we’re going to show up for the appointment.”
Business challenges
Cincinnati Bell provides integrated communications solutions—including local and long-distance voice, data, high-speed Internet, and video entertainment services—that keep residential and business customers in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, covering more than 2,400 square miles, connected. In addition, Cincinnati Bell Business offers a portfolio of cloud communications, internet connectivity, mobile marketing and Wi-Fi solutions specifically designed to fit the needs and budget of small businesses.
The telecommunications provider had outgrown its old dispatch tool and needed a flexible application that would help deliver improved productivity, responsiveness, and customer communication as the business continued to grow and evolve.
Cincinnati Bell saw an increase in both complexity and duration of its field service visits because technicians had to connect and then explain multiple pieces of equipment, from set-top boxes to wireless routers and gateways.
With consumer expectations skyrocketing and customer conversations—including complaints—sometimes playing out in public on social media, Cincinnati Bell wanted to provide the best service experience possible when responding to emerging network problems in real time.
By being advanced users of Oracle Field Service, really streamlining operations, we’ve gained a lot of credibility just in our own company. So when I meet with sales and other operations leaders, and we say that we need a certain amount of resources, without question they trust what we do. They trust the way we manage.
Why Cincinnati Bell Chose Oracle
Cincinnati Bell chose Oracle Field Service to increase efficiency for its field service operations, quickly push out changes, and improve customer satisfaction. Oracle’s unique approach to dispatch, schedule, and route optimization using time-based, predictive, and self-learning technology clinched the decision.
Results
With Oracle Field Service, Cincinnati Bell reduced unplanned overtime by 45% and reduced all overtime by 30%. The company also reduced miles driven per technician by 21%. Reducing those costs frees up resources to expand Cincinnati Bell’s fiber optic network footprint.
Oracle Field Service helps Cincinnati Bell service more customers with the same number of technicians, and provides a more precise timeframe for when a technician will arrive.
Cincinnati Bell accurately informs customers when a technician will arrive, how long a job should take, and anything else they should expect as a part of their improved service experience.
In addition to dispatching technicians and communicating with customers, Cincinnati Bell taps Oracle Field Service to harness data from the field and visually understand daily operations. Capturing detailed, accurate data from the field allows Cincinnati Bell to prepare and plan for additional demand by understanding the length of time needed for tasks and spikes in service.
Optimized and automated scheduling means Cincinnati Bell is adequately staffed, and technicians can take the time they need to properly educate customers, without feeling rushed. Field service teams can take on more work while consistently meeting time commitments and exceeding customer expectations.
Cincinnati Bell also uses Oracle Knowledge Management within Oracle CX Service to empower its service agents working in its contact center.