PATLive is a 24/7 live answering service whose award-winning virtual receptionists take over one million calls every year in support of thousands of U.S. businesses. The company uses Formstack to gather scripting information from new customers so its agents know how to answer calls for those customers. In one year, a single onboarding form helped PATLive bring in 240 new accounts for $480,000 in lifetime revenue, as well as increase its onboarding completion rate from 78% to 88%. We chatted with Channel Relations Manager Jamie Lowary to dig a little deeper into this streamlined customer onboarding process. Here’s what she had to say:
Company Profile
WEBSITE https://www.patlive.com/
INDUSTRY Telecommunications
LOCATION Tallahassee, Florida
FOUNDED 1990
EMPLOYEE COUNT 170
USE CASE Customer Onboarding
Q&A
What was the main business challenge that led you to Formstack, and why was it an important challenge to solve?
When someone signs up for our service, it doesn't end there. We pride ourselves on being an answering service that goes above and beyond to provide a personal and customized experience. So when a business trusts us to start taking their calls, we initiate an extensive onboarding process to ensure that our agents sound like they're answering calls from the business itself. If someone calls in to sign up, it's a pretty simple process. However, 40% of our new customers sign up online. We had a basic info capture on our site, but we were really struggling to get in touch with these businesses to gather script information following their online submission. This would either delay their start date, or even worse, we'd lose them altogether. Our abandon rate demanded some attention, so we began researching online form builders.
What changed after you deployed Formstack?
We tried out a few different providers but ultimately chose Formstack based on its ease of use while also hosting a robust set of form features. Scripting to answer calls for a business is not a one-size-fits-all process, but Formstack's Conditional Logic allowed us to create a template that could work for a majority of our customers to gather the basic information we need to start taking their calls. We found that some of our new customers preferred to use our form to build out their script over time, and they enjoyed the flexibility of being able to fill it out in their own time and really put thought into how they want their calls answered and what they want our agents to know about the business.
Do you have any specific results or success metrics you can share?
We signed up for Formstack in March of 2016. Prior to that, only 78% of our sign ups would complete the onboarding process and start their service. Within a few months of utilizing online forms for automation, the conversion rate increased to 88%! That 10% improvement led to 240 additional accounts in our first year as a Formstack customer, which amounts to about $480,000 in lifetime revenue.
"Prior to signing up for Formstack, only 78% of our sign ups would complete the onboarding process and start their service. Within a few months of utilizing online forms for automation, the conversion rate increased to 88%!" - Jamie Lowary, Channel Relations Manager
What would you say to someone on the fence about exploring or implementing Formstack?
Give it a try! It's free to try, and Formstack's Support team was there every step of the way to gain an understanding of what we were trying to accomplish and make recommendations. They also were very responsive when we needed help with some of the more advanced features.
Do you have a call center workflow or other process that could benefit from standardization and automation? Formstack’s online form solutions could be the answer. Click here to try it free for two weeks!
