Amit Singh, left, and Jason Botts share their
experience in the “Launching the Venture” class

The portable storage company had seen a surge in business and needed to improve its customer service. The intersection of two companies and UNC Kenan-Flagler provided the solution.

Jason Botts (EMBA ’07), the director of information technology with 1-800-PACK-RAT, turned to Amit Singh (EMBA ’03), the CEO of Spectraforce Technologies Inc., which provides IT consulting and outsourcing services to businesses, before he realized they were both Kenan-Flagler alums. Botts and Singh recently told MBA students in Ted Zoller’s "Launching the Venture" class about their collaboration and described the business model, marketing strategy, and management, financial and implementation plans that benefited both companies. Zoller, executive director of Kenan-Flagler’s Center for Entrepreneurial Studies and adjunct assistant professor of entrepreneurship, considers Singh’s international business model the most sophisticated he’s seen in an entrepreneurial venture.

To help 1-800-PACK-RAT function more efficiently, Spectraforce had to solve what was in essence a marketing problem. Call-handling was the culprit.

"We needed solutions to help us manage the call-flow process," Botts said. "We described the challenges and what we needed to achieve. Spectraforce came back with a mock-up of a call-flow model that addressed our needs to a tee."

Spectraforce helped 1-800-PACK-RAT develop a state-of-the-art software system to improve customer service and the work flow for call center agents.

"The customer is like a visitor. You welcome them in to see what the company can offer," Singh said. "The software helps the agent go from one question to the next and increase customer satisfaction.

"Each agent asked questions in a haphazard way. The new system allows agents to capture the information and meet the needs of the customer. We reduced the amount of time used on each call and increased the number of calls that can be handled."

Singh said this company’s software gives small companies a chance to provide the same level of service as bigger companies that have more resources.

"It raises small companies to the same level of strategy as bigger companies," Singh said.

Botts and Singh were eager to share their successes with the Kenan-Flagler students.

"Kenan-Flager is a strong group of people who are ready to help each other," Singh said. "That’s what the whole value of this system is. Core values and a trust factor are developed at Kenan-Flagler."