Primus Telecom - a case study

Prime solution for leading telecommunications company

With more than 650,000 corporate, small to medium sized businesses, residential and telecommunications carrier customers, Primus Telecom is one of the largest data, internet and telecommunications companies in Australia.

Rapidly acquiring a reputation of excellence, Primus' reputation has been founded on a continuing drive to exceed customer expectations by using leading world class technology to support a superior infrastructure network.

A key to Primus' success is its commitment to guaranteeing a high level of service to its customers and the priority it places on effective customer relationship management.

In December 1999 Primus invested significant time and resources to implement an effective address management solution for its Melbourne CBD-based call centre. Recognising that the effectiveness of the system relied on the integrity and accuracy of the data contained within it, Primus selected a solution from Australia's leading supplier of address management software, Experian QAS.

Seamless integration, timely rollout and a scalable solution that could match the pace of change and growth of a busy call centre were key selection criteria for Primus. Furthermore, Primus required a solution that could handle significant volumes of calls in one of Australia's busiest call centres. "We handle in excess of 11,000 calls per day from people with an array of accents," Primus Telecom's Joe Ho said. "Speed and accuracy are crucial when dealing with such high call volumes."

Ho immediately identified a need to implement a system that could reduce call-handling times and also improve on the data integrity and accuracy of the address information being captured. By utilising Australia Post's Postal Address File (PAF) Experian QAS' QAS software generates the full postal address in as few as eight keystrokes, dramatically reducing the time taken to capture an address while also improving the integrity of the data by diminishing the risk of input errors.

Seamless roll-out and integration

"We worked closely with Primus Telecom's technical team to ensure a smooth deployment of the QAS Pro and seamless integration with Primus' Direct Sales Unit and help desk systems," said Glenn Parker, IT Director, Experian QAS.

"Primus wanted to roll-out over an eleven month period to facilitate the rate of growth within the call centre. With QAS a gradual roll-out can be easily managed to meet a company's particular requirements, the software is flexible enough to be adopted over a specified period of time and scalable enough to cope with substantial changes in the number of users."

Superior technology and rapid addressing solution

With implementation now complete the call centre is already recording increased efficiencies. "We have vastly improved on data quality and accuracy," said Joe Ho. "Subsequently when prospective customers contact the Primus call centre to ask about our services or progress an application, QAS instantly calls up the customer's correct details in just a few keystrokes." This has delivered enormous improvements in call handling time, reduction in returned mail and has dramatically reduced the time required for customer checks by Primus operators.

"With QAS we can enhance our relationship with our customers, cut call handling times, improve the accuracy of our address data, reduce costs and continue to set new standards in customer service."

Continued growth

Experian QAS Systems will work with Primus Telecom to meet their address management requirements now and into the future as the company continues to set new standards in delivering telecommunications and Internet services to Australian businesses and consumers.

According to Joe Ho the company has an aggressive growth strategy ahead with a plan to further increase its Australian workforce. "As we continue to expand our services here and grow our customer base we will rely on our technology infrastructure to meet new demands and support that growth."

For further information about Experian QAS, please contact QAS.