How changing to a cloud-based phone payment system saved Deaf Connect 87% of lost selling hours

Discover how Deaf Connect Australia engaged SequenceShift to replace their legacy phone payment system powered by Eway’s effortless payment processing, and never looked back!

Deaf Connect is the largest whole-of-life service provider in Australia, providing services for people in the deaf, blind, and hard-of-hearing communities.

Deaf Connect provides a number of different services, ranging from in-home and in community support, 1:1 consultations, Auslan education, training and accreditation, information services, support coordination for NDIS recipients, interpreting, therapy and family services and fundraising through their charity lottery. 

The Challenge

Deaf Connect were using a lottery ticketing system from an in-house product built for them many years ago, and were looking to move to software as a service (Saas) for both ticketing and customer management. 

They raised funds through lottery ticket sales seven times a year, and payments needed to be taken swiftly, safely and securely. Unfortunately, their legacy hardware phone payment solution encountered monthly outages, leaving Deaf Connect to mediate between their service providers to find a solution. The complexity of their set up made this an onerous task, and the regularity of the outages affected staff morale across the board.

“We needed another option; it made sense for us to change our system,” says Paul Stockwell, Deaf Connect’s Head of Operations, Marketing and Sales. 

“Before SequenceShift, powered by Eway, reliability was a major issue. In addition, we weren’t able to integrate the ticketing sales with our preferred bank.” 

The negative effects were profound and the organisation’s time, money and reputation were at stake. During what Mr. Stockwell refers to as “very rough times”, many valuable sales calls could not get through and many callers were unable to have their payments processed when they finally spoke with an agent. 

The Solution

Mr. Stockwell sought recommendations for an alternative solution and came across SequenceShift. He contacted the team to understand if their Agent Assisted Phone Payment Solution could be customised to suit their business. It was critical that the new solution was compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) to keep customers’ information safe and secure, both when ticket buyers make their first purchase or when VIP subscribers need to update their credit card details.

A cost-free proof-of-concept was undertaken over a number of months while the various teams and service providers worked together, with SequenceShift and Eway readily available every step of the way to assist with a successful implementation. 

The Result

Thankfully, the well-established and sophisticated SequenceShift system means those days are over. What was once a major, recurring issue for the Deaf Connect team is now a long forgotten memory, with dramatically improved uptime since the solution was implemented.

SequenceShift teams with Eway to provide an exceptional phone payment solution that outsources the job of capturing the credit card information to the Eway online payments gateway. This provides convenience and level one PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance for both self-service and agent-assisted phone payments.

Mr. Stockwell says, “Essentially, SequenceShift provides a reliable and safe service for over-the-phone payments, with payments securely processed by Eway that are PCI DSS compliant. 

“There was some time we had to invest up front to see if it would be compatible with our system. SequenceShift gave us three or four different options for implementation and we spent time with our other service providers to see which option would work best. 

“Because of the time they spent on developing the system architecture, if there is ever an issue it only affects one part of the system and is almost immediately resolved. There’s not even enough time for the contact centre manager to tell me there was a problem in the first place!” 

“It’s been a good experience for us.”

After dealing with an outdated system that was costing two to three hours of selling time every month, the risk-free 24/7 support on offer made it easy for Deaf Connect to sign on with SequenceShift at the completion of the trial integration. 

“Reliability was a massive focus for us, the fact that we’re not even talking about it now speaks volumes about how well it’s going.”

“SequenceShift set up multiple accounts for us to trial, and there was no payment required until we went live. They put in a fair bit of time upfront but they never made us feel like there was a rush to get locked in. It really felt like they were just keen to get it set up and working, and had confidence that if they did that, we weren’t going to walk away.

“The model we ended up with was payment based on activity. In the end SequenceShift didn’t charge us for testing or setup.”

For their thousands of supporters purchasing tickets via their contact centre, this integration includes certainty that customer payments are PCI compliant and interactions are safe, seamless and, most importantly, successful. 

Offering pay-as-you-go pricing, zero set up fees, immediate activation and maximum customer satisfaction, SequenceShift supports Deaf Connect call centers to process crucial fundraising ticket sales without exposing agents or customers to the risk of fraud. 

About SequenceShift 

SequenceShift is a rebel in the PCI compliance space, delivering a suite of phone payment service solutions exclusively for Amazon Connect that tick all the regulatory boxes for credit card payments processed over the phone. Responsible for the new era of PCI Compliance for Amazon Connect customers, SequenceShift provides a secure, pay as you go, cloud based service solution that allows businesses to outsource their phone payment compliance without the cost, commitment and complexity of previous generation systems.

In a market traditionally weighed down by long term contracts, huge set up & ongoing costs and complex physical hardware, SequenceShift provides a young, fresh and innovative suite of online tools that support Amazon Connect users undergoing digital transformation.

SequenceShift is a proud Advanced Technology Partner of AWS.     

About Eway

Eway started in 1998 with a vision of making online payments effortless – and that promise rings true today.

From humble home-office beginnings, Eway now employs more than 310 payments experts, who’ve delivered payment solutions for over 97,000 merchants across five countries. By equipping you with the right payment solution for your needs, Eway takes the pain out of payments; enabling you to put more energy into what matters most: growing your business.

Eway is part of the Global Payments network – a leading payments technology company delivering innovative software and services globally.