How Cradle helped Spidertracks stay connected 24/7

Spidertracks Story

Spidertracks provides real time aircraft tracking for commercial aircraft from tour operators, to carriers and recreational pilots. The New Zealand born company now has over 18 thousand users, with offices in New Zealand, South Africa and the UK. We spoke with the company’s Technical Support Manager, Carlos Rodríguez. Carlos and his team of six provide 24/7 customer care to thousands of Spidertracks users all over the world.

Customer Safety is a key pillar

The success of Spidertracks’ customer support team is determined by one thing - customer safety. If there is an incident, or if a pilot needs real-time help, we’ll know exactly where they are and what they need.

Out with the old…

Prior to Cradle, we literally only had two desk phones that facilitated our 24 hour customer service. I manned one phone in New Zealand during normal work hours and once I left the office in the evening, it would switch over to a third party service. If a customer called and needed urgent assistance, the third party provider would pass on the call to us. But this was our first road block in providing quality customer service; having to deal with a third party call system meant they had to relay all the information again. Our customers were frustrated and we could see this was a poor use of time.

Relying on a landline was also incredibly taxing. I felt glued to my desk; taking a proper lunch break was something I didn’t feel comfortable doing in case I missed any calls. Even if I popped out for five minutes, I had no clue how many calls I had missed.

In with the new

Using Cradle has transformed Spidertracks’ customer service experience and it is something that has both improved both customer satisfaction and staff performance.

Using Cradle has been a game changer for taking calls on so many levels. The old third party caller system meant only half of the information would be relayed to us by the time we got in touch with a customer; at which point they’d be tired of having their call transferred around and not all of their information documented down. We found this was impacting customer satisfaction in a big way, especially if their situation required a bit of urgency. Now, with Cradle, everything is recorded and transcribed so as soon as we take on a customer's call, we know exactly what they need and can pick up things exactly where they were left off.

In turn, this has developed our customer relationships into a service that has become a lot more personal. I’ve noticed customers are requesting to speak with specific members of my team; this is testament to the fact we’re using Cradle’s features to make our customer service function to the best of its ability. And if their request isn't urgent, they’re happy to wait for a callback, as Cradle HubSpot integration uses workflows to set a callback task which has proved reliable and the team have had a good experience with it in the past.

Untied from the desk

I no longer fear taking a work break, in fact now I feel confident that wherever I am, I can deal with a customer with no constraints. Cradle’s desktop to mobile setting means I can reroute my calls and take my work with me.

It also has a live presence feature, which is helpful if I’m on another call; it enables an incoming call to be passed onto another available team member, instead of waiting on hold.

This has made a huge impact on our customer call wait times - prior to Cradle they were waiting over 40 seconds to have someone take their call, now it’s around eight seconds.

Now I know I’m not missing any calls; in fact we’ve seen an increase in the number of customers we can service. Prior to installing Cradle when we relied on the old phone system, we were able service around 15 customers a day. Currently, we’re easily servicing upwards of 50.

Leveraging HubSpot

HubSpot has been crucial when it comes to storing information. When my team is taking a call with a potential new client, or a customer that’s presenting new information, all they need to do is hit a button and their contact details and everything is stored in the cloud. This means when they call in future, everything is laid out in front of them and there’s no need to ask cold questions.

Gliding through the transition

Naturally, with any new technology, there’s a bit of hesitation - especially when you’re going from a single desk phone to a brand new computer interface with all the bells and whistles. Cradle was really easy to set up and while we had a couple of minor issues, it was very quickly resolved.

Team & Customer satisfaction levels are up

Not only has our customer satisfaction gone up, but also satisfaction levels amongst staff.

Cradle’s features allow for easy communication between staff members, and A quarter of my team are overseas in South Africa and the UK, but with the way we’re able to pass around information you’d think we were sitting next to each other. Cradle’s shared call log means there’s one location for all our contacts and their information. I’m able to easily brief them on a customer and hand over an enquiry with ease knowing they’ve got all the relevant information in front of them.

The impact on customers’ lives

Spidertracks prides itself on a combination of reliable and thorough customer service; and there was one day at work I’m particularly proud of. We had a call come through from Canada, the daughter of a pilot had been alerted to an SOS signal from the helicopter.

Straight away we got her to call local search and rescue, and while that was unfolding we had about six phone calls back and forth over the course of five hours as I found new and updated information from the tracking device.

Cradle’s features enabled me to be the only customer service responder she had to deal with in a time that was incredibly stressful for her.

Being able to call her directly and her having access to me when she needed it made an incredibly stressful situation very cohesive. And for those who are now invested in the story - her dad had crashed into a tree and made it out unscathed! But that to me is one of those work days where not only are you working for an incredibly innovative technology company that is keeping people safe, but one that is sleek and rewarding when it comes to customer service.

Ready to scale for the future

It’s one thing to say a small team of six can handle 18,000 customers’ queries, but knowing that my team of six can provide top quality customer service is something to be proud of.

Before Cradle, some days at work didn’t sit well with me when I switched the phone over to the third party call taker because you only ever want to be providing the best service you can, especially for such an important piece of technology like Spidertracks. Now I have confidence, no matter where I am taking a call, or what time of day it is, that our customers are going to be receiving exactly what they need and what they’ve paid for.

I’m confident our team of six could handle double the number of customers we have today and we look forward to that challenge in the future.