Liberty Sport Shoots for the Moon with Avaya IP Office

Performance Eyewear Provider Fuels Growth and Customer Service with Avaya

Becoming the dominant force in sport protective and sun performance eyewear is no small task. But with NASA choosing Liberty Sport’s technology for its next moon mission, the Fairfield, NJ-based protective eyewear provider is poised for powerful growth.

However, Liberty Sport’s legacy contact center was reaching the end of its time in the company’s technology stack orbit. While it had been suitable for years when the business was in its unmanned satellite phase, as the company grew, the contact center solution needed to support a heftier payload. The legacy solution did not integrate with new or existing systems, limiting the reporting that Liberty Sport could access. It also would not be able to handle more data that Liberty Sport wanted to use to improve its contact center performance, as well as the overall customer experience. Liberty Sport needed a solution with more lift to handle its increasingly powerful launches.

Preparing to Lift Off with a New System

Because the existing contact center solution could not integrate with new or existing systems or provide the reports Liberty Sport needed, the company was faced with two hard choices: upgrade to the next version from its existing vendor, or start from scratch. The company had given serious consideration to the next version of its existing contact center solution, as it provided some of the things needed to accommodate Liberty Sport’s growth. However, once Liberty Sport VP Robin Young saw a demo of what Avaya IP Office™ and Avaya IP Office™ Contact Center could do, she changed course.

“When I saw how much reporting functionality Avaya would give us, that’s what made me go this route,” Young says. “What Avaya offered was still more than what the upgraded system would give us.”

Additionally, Young was impressed by the accessibility of the system through Avaya one-X^® Mobile. As she travels frequently, this had the potential to save the company thousands on roaming charges when she was overseas.

A Rapid Launch for Quality and Flexibility

The Avaya implementation partner that worked with Liberty Sport knew the company wanted to be online with Avaya IP Office as quickly as possible. Because Young frequently is out of the country, the partner worked with her over email to prepare the templates for necessary reports. Six weeks later, the system was ready for launch.

“The installation and cutover was perfect,” recalls Young. “It was so good that we’ve invested in training an approved agent to be Avaya certified, which wasn’t originally in the budget.”

The new system immediately required quality control. Since most of Liberty Sport’s agents work remotely, the company was able to align the employees’ internet services and required technology with the new system, giving them a standard to uphold. But that was just one small benefit.

During a major snowstorm, some of Liberty Sport’s contact center employees lost power in their homes. Because Avaya IP Office ContactCenter allows them to work from anywhere with an Internet connection,the agents were able to answer calls and assist customers from cafes with Wi-Fi access.

That might seem like a recipe for disaster due to background noise, but the voice quality with Avaya IP Office has been much clearer. “You can have many people around you, and it helps block the noise,” Young says. “That is excellent, especially in a room with a lot of cubicles. Even when you listen in on a call, the background noise is reduced.”

Becoming a More Efficient Organization

The reporting provided by Avaya IP Office Contact Center proved to be invaluable to Liberty Sport, to the tune of $100,000 to start. The company is able to identify its high performing agents by noting how long it takes to resolve a customer query via phone – as well as low-performing agents to create performance improvement plans or determine that the agent isn’t going to work out well before the probationary period ends.

Liberty Sport also has utilized the reports to create a more efficient, better-staffed contact center. The reports have enabled management to view peak call times and adjust staffing as needed, which has already resulted in different shift hours. This will also lead to more revenue as agents are placed in roles where they can generate sales.

Additionally, with the installation of Avaya IP Office, Liberty Sport opted for Avaya IP 9600 Series Deskphones with sidecars. The sidecars, add-on modules that allow one-touch extension-to-extension dialing, also display whether the recipient is already on a call. This has saved executives from needless interruptions, simplified the connection process, and made it easier to listen in on calls.

The next step for Liberty Sport is an interactive voice response (IVR) system to route calls. The company wants to route calls to specific agents who have been trained in certain areas so that a customer is connected directly to someone who can help.

For Liberty Sport, Avaya IP Office is just the beginning: a solid launch pad for what’s to come as the company continues to grow exponentially.