Cloud contact centre delivers scalability for MAS

Founded by doctors in 1921, MAS now insures more than 80% of the medical profession in New Zealand. Today, with over 100 years’ experience in outstanding customer service, it’s no wonder the business has kept expanding. MAS now offers personal, business and asset insurance for all New Zealanders, as well as savings schemes to help its members save for retirement.

MAS prides itself on its customer service and has won Consumer NZ People’s Choice awards in three insurance categories for the past seven years running – a vital part of that service is the MAS contact centre. It allows customers to call in and quickly get personalised information and support, as well as making claims on their insurance. Call volumes can vary significantly too, for example – a major weather event, like Cyclone Gabrielle and other storms like the ones we’ve experienced in 2023, creates a rapid surge in callers, then at other times the demand might be much lower. Being able to meet variable demand means that having the right contact centre platform is essential to maintaining MAS’ stellar reputation.

In 2022, the MAS contact centre was running a legacy on-premise Genesys solution, which had worked very well for many years. But it was time for an upgrade with many of the new capabilities available in the market, so the IT team decided to move to a cloud- based solution using the Genesys Cloud CX platform. They went to market to bid for a partner to support this change, and ultimately decided to work with Datacom.

“We chose Datacom based on reputation, capability and a sound commercial proposition,” says Andrew Hubbard, Senior Project Manager at MAS. “We’ve worked with Datacom before, and our two organisations are quite simpatico in terms of a focus on customer service – and we’re both down to earth. We work well together.”

The project began in November 2022 and the call centre switched to Genesys Cloud CX at the start of March 2023, a relatively quick turnaround despite delays caused by extreme weather events.

“Luckily Datacom were very flexible in recognising and adapting to that because when a cyclone comes through you just have to roll with it.”

The MAS team has seen some immediate advantages from deploying the new cloud-based system. Scalability has been a major benefit, especially as call volumes fluctuate depending on events.

“If you scale up physical infrastructure to meet the times when calls surge, you can’t then dial it back later,” Hubbard explains. “Now, if we flex the team out to handle big call volumes, with the cloud- based system we can flex that down again the following month, because costs are based on usage.”

The extra features of the new platform are another bonus: “It’s given us more resilience from an IT point of view, and from the contact centre perspective the new functionality is great, especially the metrics it spits out.”

Genesys Cloud CX has also given the business extra flexibility for its distributed workforce. Previously, MAS was forwarding calls to people working from home. Now, it not only provides a superior connection and visibility over worker productivity, but it has also eliminated the call forwarding expenses. And without having to spend money on an infrastructure refresh, ongoing costs will be lower, too.

MAS is expanding its client base and growing its customer service team alongside. As the business develops, the team plans to investigate more of Genesys Cloud CX’s features to see which ones will work best for the contact centre.

Overall, the project has been a great success, says Hubbard.

“We did a post-implementation review and both MAS and Datacom found it was a great result. The practicality of both organisations, and the expertise in both, meant we rapidly got a core team in there and delivered. It was a great project; we worked well together and delivered a good outcome.”