Caliber Public Safety provides computer-aided dispatch, records management, and mobile solutions to more than 1,000 public safety agencies across North America. With customers including federal and state police agencies, county governments, large metropolitan and mid-small cities, Caliber provides mission-critical software applications. It prides itself in providing solutions with data sharing and interoperability at the core of its products.
Approximately 40 percent of the team at Caliber Public Safety comes from the public safety sector, so they share the same passion for and commitment to service as their customers do. With TeamSupport, Caliber experienced:
- New opportunities for product improvement
- Access to data insights
- Improved customer service
The Business Challenge
“At Caliber we knew we needed a true B2B customer support software solution,” said Derek Smith, Vice-president, Client Services. Prior to searching for a new solution, the company was using Salesforce and struggled to make it work for each team in the company. Not only did it take three dedicated staff due to the complexity of the software, it did not provide everything needed to enable team collaboration, manage tickets, or serve the critical needs of its client base.
There were more pain points the company was aiming to solve as well.
- Improving communications and data-sharing between teams
- Empowering customers to solve issues on their own with a Knowledge Base of self-service tools and resources
- Improving training resources, programs, and Knowledge Base so customers enjoyed the greatest benefits from the Caliber Public Safety solutions
- The ability to measure the impact of support operations with a forward-looking view
“Prior to TeamSupport, we had no real-time way to measure the impact of our support operations,” said Smith. “It felt like everything was performed through our rearview mirror. Now, the TeamSupport dashboard gives us a windshield view, so we are able to look ahead and be more proactive in our approach to the customer relationship and product development.”
The Solution
Implementation and Onboarding: Caliber’s experience with TeamSupport’s implementation and onboarding exceeded expectations. The self-help tools from TeamSupport and guided sessions with the onboarding team helped speed the implementation process. TeamSupport’s intuitive customer facing import tools accommodated Caliber’s 24/7 operation, enabling Caliber to manage the data migration on days, nights, and weekends.
Post-sale Support and Resources: TeamSupport continues to provide ongoing value-added support with its monthly TeamSupport University—accessible to all staff—and a robust Knowledge Base of articles that helps them keep current and actively using the solution. The team at Caliber Public Safety feels like they have had excellent relationships with and access to everyone at TeamSupport, from the onboarding team, to their Customer Success Manager, to product, and even TeamSupport executives, all who sincerely ask for input to drive product enhancements and new product innovations.
Most Positive Impact: “One of the biggest unexpected benefits has been the impact of TeamSupport on Caliber’s customers who actively use the TeamSupport Customer Hub (as evidenced by the high login rates to the portal). “It has become the customer hub for all customer communication,” acknowledges Derek Smith. “TeamSupport has allowed us to communicate with our customers in ways we never had before. Our customers know the TeamSupport tool. They create and update tickets, collaborate with other users, and access self-help and training resources through the Knowledge Base articles.”
There have been many benefits since implementing the feature-rich TeamSupport solution:
1. Customer Distress Index™: The CDI is an indicator of Caliber’s customers’ temperatures rising and falling. The CDI was configured based on parameters defined by Caliber and according to the nature of their customers.
2. Holistic approach to the customer: TeamSupport is used across all customer-facing teams at Caliber Public Safety, allowing the company to have a 360o view on all customer touchpoints, such as analyzing trends from ticket history.
3. Collaboration among internal teams: Caliber has a customer support team of 70. They regularly hold best-practice meetings on using the TeamSupport solution, access the robust Knowledge Base, and attend the TeamSupport University. “In fact,”comments Smith, “We are using the TeamSupport Knowledge Base as a model for developing our own Knowledge Base to better serve our customers. It’s a key initiative for us moving forward.”
Words Of Advice From Caliber Public Safety
“Ask solution providers to demonstrate how user-friendly their solution is. Ask, ‘Can I expand on my own?’ ‘How customizable is the solution and can we make our own customizations?’ ‘How responsive is your staff?’ ‘How accessible?’ Because we were moving from a very complicated system, these were critical things for us to find out.”
“Make sure the provider’s product roadmap is transparent and frequently communicated to their customers. You want to know that the product will scale as you grow and keep up with your ever-changing needs.”
“The provider’s Knowledge Base will be the most valued tool to you. And it will be the most valuable tool to your customers. I recommend allowing for staff dedicated to making it robust and keeping it current.”
“TeamSupport maintains the second ‘S’—service—in SaaS (software-as-a-service). Make sure whoever you choose as your B2B customer support software provider does the same.”