For Immediate Release
April 23, 2007
Cars.com and Implementation Partner Model Metrics Earn National Praise with 2007 Service Elite Award
CHICAGO – Cars.com has been honored with a 2007 Service Elite Award from CRM Magazine, a leading publication that serves the customer relationship management industry. The award, announced in the April 2007 issue, went to five companies nationwide whose contact center technology and service deployments reeled in remarkably strong results.
Cars.com, working with implementation partner Model Metrics, made great strides in its service operations after rolling out Salesforce.com in 2005. As a result of the implementation, Cars.com has:
- Increased agent productivity 50 percent
- Reduced support response time 65 percent
- Decreased case handling time by 4.5 minutes, a 26 percent savings,
- And increased agent caseload by 33 percent.
Model Metrics conducted an information gathering process, interviewing Cars.com employees to document specific requirements. Based on the interviews, it was determined Salesforce.com would meet the business system needs. The team then began design sessions, working closely with Cars.com users and management.
Once the system was ready, tested, and integrated into back-end systems and Outlook, formal training followed, with Model Metrics showing how to resolve “day-in-the-life” scenarios that the support representatives would likely encounter.
“We knew the implementation of Salesforce.com would bring about considerable improvements to our sales and services processes, but we were pleasantly surprised by the success we’ve achieved in terms of productivity and effectiveness,” said David Corken, Operations Manager of Cars.com. “Model Metrics worked with us every step of the way to make the rollout swift, seamless and strategic. Now, information flows between our internal departments and the customers we serve quickly and effectively.”
Now, Cars.com proficiently handles about 25,000 cases every month. Support agents’ productivity has increased 50 percent, from six cases per hour to nine. Case handling time is down 26 percent, saving 4.5 minutes per case. Agent workload has gone up 33 percent, from 600 dealers per agent to 800. Support response time has decreased 65 percent.
“Model Metrics is proud to have partnered with Cars.com on this initiative. David Corken and the team at Cars.com were fantastic to work with and I could not be more pleased that David and his team have been honored.” said Adam Caplan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Model Metrics. “This initiative enabled Cars.com to optimize their business process, increase their quality of service, and make more strategic decisions as they now have access to real-time metrics and dashboards across their support organization. They have earned this national honor and we congratulate them.”
Today more than 50 people in customer support depend on salesforce.com every day along with more than 160 sales professionals that Model Metrics helped go live in a previous engagement. Use is spreading to other groups as well, including operations, account management, Marketing, and order entry.
About Model Metrics
Model Metrics powers the winning strategies of the leading mid-sized and Fortune 500 companies through the successful implementation of On-Demand Browser Delivered CRM. Its experienced CRM consultants have leveraged salesforce.com in over 250 companies to provide clients with leading edge CRM technology, allowing organizations to focus on the process of CRM without having to worry about the technical challenges. Model Metrics – Headquartered in Chicago with offices throughout the Midwest. To learn more, visit www.modelmetrics.com or email support@modelmetrics.com or call 312.587.3037.
About Cars.com
Partnered with more than 200 leading metro newspapers, television stations and their websites, Cars.com is the most comprehensive destination for those looking to buy or sell a new or used car. The site lists more than 2 million vehicles from 13,000 dealer customers, classified advertisers and private parties to offer consumers the best selection of new and used cars online, as well as the content, tools and advice to support their shopping experience. Recently selected by Forbes.com as a Best of the Web site for car shopping, Cars.com combines powerful inventory search tools and new-car configuration with pricing information, photo galleries, buying guides, side-by-side comparison tools, original editorial content and reviews to help millions of car shoppers connect with sellers each month.
Launched in June 1998, Cars.com is a division of Classified Ventures, LLC, which is owned by leading media companies, including Belo (NYSE: BLC), Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE: GCI), The McClatchy Company (NYSE: MNI), Tribune Company (NYSE: TRB) and The Washington Post Company (NYSE: WPO).