Automated self-service appointment-setting is eliminating waiting time for customers and improving workflow for employees at Sprint Nextel stores. In fact, Sprint's online appointment platform from TimeTrade Systems is helping to transform the company's stores from product-oriented to customer-oriented.

For Sprint, the system can work in a number of ways. In one scenario, a shopper visits Sprint.com and searches for the closest store using the store locator. After choosing a location, the customer has the option of clicking on "Make an Appointment." That choice triggers a pop-up window where the user enters a name, e-mail address and phone number.

The customer then chooses one of seven reasons for an appointment, and selects a date and a time. The system confirms the appointment by sending an e-mail message to the consumer.

In another scenario, a customer calls Sprint's Customer Care Group with a problem. If the call center representative can't diagnose the defect over the phone, he can use the system to make a store appointment for the customer or recommend the customer go to the website and make an appointment himself.

Customers making self-service appointments see windows that look like part of the Sprint site, but actually are pages hosted on TimeTrade servers.

The system bases appointments on the availability of store employees and on the consumer's reason for visiting, which can include making a purchase, having a device repaired or receiving instruction in using a phone or service. The customer's needs determine which employee to assign — a salesperson or technician — and how much time to allot for the appointment.

Sprint chose to start with a generic version of the appointment system rather than demanding a good deal of customization out of the box, says senior vice president of consumer sales Kim Dixon.

As a result, "it was one of our most rapid deployments," says Ed Mallen, CEO of Bedford, Mass.-based TimeTrade.

Dixon concurs. "We got it implemented faster [six weeks] than any system I've ever seen implemented at Sprint. We were able to get it up and running pretty flawlessly right out of the gate."

And, as it turns out, Sprint may not need much customization: Through the first five months, the company hadn't come up with a need that the standard package failed to address. The only change Sprint is contemplating is the lifting of a prohibition on same-day scheduling, which does not require system customization. (Sprint had barred same-day appointments because management feared that stores wouldn't have enough notice. After some experience working with the system, that concern no longer seems warranted, Dixon says.)

Customer tutorials
Sprint agreed to forsake customization to ensure the appointment system came online at about the same time that the company began offering ReadyNow tutorials for new users of increasingly complex telecommunications products. ReadyNow got under way September 2, and automated appointments began a week later at all 1,200 of Sprint's company-owned stores.

The story is much the same in stores operated by preferred Sprint dealers. All 700 locations launched ReadyNow in early November, and 325 of them began offering automated appointments at about the same time.

In the past, Sprint employees concentrated on selling headsets and plans, sending customers on their way following a transaction that lasted an average of 20 minutes, Dixon says. Virtually no one ever made an appointment.

Using ReadyNow, an employee may spend an extra three minutes helping a customer transfer contacts from an old phone to a new one, or up to half an hour with customers who want help setting up e-mail or using Sprint TV, manipulating navigation services and mastering text-messaging.

The goal of bringing as many locations online as quickly as possible is part of the drive for a more consumer-friendly atmosphere that Daniel R. Hesse mandated after becoming CEO of Sprint in 2007. The changes began early last year when the company introduced Red Carpet Service, a cultural shift toward service instead of sales. As part of the initiative, Sprint gave store employees more authority and access to call-center tools to handle customer relations.

Image boost
Customer surveys show that all of these measures have boosted the company's image, Dixon says. The number of customers categorizing themselves as being "extremely satisfied" rose from 80 percent in early 2008 to 90 percent this year. "We are really moving the needle in the stores, which is what we hoped," Dixon says.

These and other improvements have also helped Sprint raise its results 50 percent between August and February in a J.D. Power customer satisfaction study. (Sprint remains in last place among the five wireless companies, but Dixon characterizes the improvements as "major strides" and says she is "thrilled" with the progress.)

Most appointment makers are returning customers coming in for some manner of service or instruction, and the system helps "smooth" the workday by spreading store traffic more evenly than if it were left solely to chance, Dixon says. It also provides a point of differentiation in this category, she says, because none of Sprint's competitors is using anything similar.