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Client: Buddy’s Home Furnishings
Industry: Rent-To-Own
Goal: Reduce accounts receivables
Like any successful retail business, customer service is a top priority for Buddy’s Home Furnishings, the largest independent rent to own company in the United States. Buddy’s Home Furnishings is a fast growing home furniture retailer with over 65 stores located throughout Florida, Arkansas and Kansas.
Salvatore Moccia, director of training and new development at Buddy’s, was in search of a new way to reach out to their tens of thousands of current customers regarding payment collection. Spending hours every week personally calling customers and mailing out past due letters was becoming an inefficient and time consuming means of collecting unpaid accounts receivable.
Moccia discovered Indianapolis-based Vontoo and immediately identified voice messaging as a communication tool from which the Buddy’s stores could benefit. As the world’s first on-demand, permission-based voice messaging provider, Vontoo allows users to quickly and easily send personalized voice messages to any landline or mobile phone in the United States or Canada.
Vontoo immediately impressed Moccia with its flexibility and willingness to work with Buddy’s specific needs. “Vontoo genuinely wanted to help and not just sell me the product,” said Moccia.
On the first day with Vontoo’s voice messaging system, Buddy’s sent collection calls for 20 of their 65 stores, with astounding results. Phones rang non-stop for an entire day, requiring Moccia to distribute responses to the local stores to handle the volume. Each week, Buddy’s experiences a 60% reduction in collections customers, in large part due to the voice messaging campaign.
While it’s premature for Moccia to calculate the exact amount of money Vontoo’s voice messaging system has helped Buddy’s save and collect, he notices voice messaging enables Buddy’s to save money on payroll. Before turning to Vontoo, each of the staff members responsible for collection calls was spending 24 hours a month calling customers directly.
“Instead of having two or three members of my staff spending six or more hours each week personally making calls to customers, I can send out the recordings electronically within minutes,” said Moccia. “This allows our staff to spend their time focusing on the customers who are typically harder to reach and require more attention and assistance.”
In addition to the time- and money-saving advantages, Vontoo’s tracking capabilities make it simple for companies to monitor the reach of each call.
“I am a huge fan of Vontoo’s tracking mechanisms,” said Moccia. “I love being able to see immediate results on my computer screen. The tracking capabilities allow me to see how many people are reached live, how many voicemails pick up and how long people listen to my calls.”
“Vontoo is incredibly easy to use and it all falls back on their great customer service,” says Moccia.
