Northwest Respiratory Services
Overview
Northwest Respiratory Services has provided respiratory and wound care products and services since 1980. NRS serves the senior care industry with technology including CPAP, BiPAP, oxygen therapies, ventilators and suction and wound pumps. The company, with about 250 employees, operates 29 locations in nine states; Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Wisconsin, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
Challenge
The Northwest Respiratory Services in-house call center is a busy place. The five-person Customer Service Representative team handles about 375 incoming calls on an average day, operating from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. from Monday to Friday. NRS calls on Arvig Answering Solutions to fill the gaps: over-nights, weekends and holidays. Delivering respiratory services is particularly challenging because oxygen is a critical service for customers, requiring representatives who take every call seriously and can facilitate connections with service technicians with respiratory therapists without delay.
Opportunity
Arvig Answering Solutions ensures a seamless transition in customer service—not only filling in for the NRS in-house team, but making sure there’s always a live voice for their customers when they call.
NRS has required not only a dedicated answering team for call coverage, but a reliable and involved account manager to handle training, call scripting, a process for call escalations, issue resolution and a call management plan for the company’s multiple locations across two time zones: Central and Mountain.
“Arvig Answering Solutions has been great over the years,” says Kim Miller, Northwest Respiratory Services Customer Service Manager. “Our account manager is top notch. He is always available to help when needed. He even helps me figure out the best approach when needed on a new process.”
Solution
Arvig Answering Solutions serves as an extension of the NRS customer service staff. With the company’s calls covered after-hours, the staff has greater scheduling flexibility—including time off.
“We are able to let our call center staff have two holidays off because the Arvig Answering Solutions staff is willing to work,” Miller says.
Arvig Answering Solutions consistently delivers a high level of service for Northwest Respiratory Services. The company is serving an industry that requires professionalism, a sense of urgency and a high regard for the care and critical needs of customers.
“The call staff, they are very helpful and kind to our customers,” Miller says. “We are asking them to bridge a gap for us and sometimes that is not an easy task. We are in a critical business. Oxygen is a basic need, and when our customers are needing service, it can be life or death. I believe the Arvig Answering Solutions staff takes it as seriously as it is, and is relentless in getting a service tech or respiratory therapist on the phone helping the caller.”