CROSSNET replaces offshore support team with Siena AI and saves $40K per year

Learn how Siena AI’s conversational chat platform empowered CROSSNET’s lean team to simplify customer support.

1. ^$2.5K saved in the first month
2. ^$40K saved per year
3. ^62% automation rate

Talking to your customers is important, but at a certain point it’s not the best use of a founder’s time – you need to focus on growing. If you’re a leader stuck answering emails, you're doing your company a disservice. ­- Chris Meade, Co-Founder at CROSSNET

About CROSSNET

CROSSNET is a unique blend of volleyball and foursquare. The brand was founded by brothers Chris and Greg Meade, and their childhood friend, Mike Delpapa, who began selling online using Shopify before expanding to Amazon and in-store retail. As the world's first four-way volleyball game, CROSSNET has become one of the most popular backyard games globally, boasting over 1 million players across 49 countries. 

Challenge

CROSSNET faced massive overhead with managing an offshore support team

After experiencing rapid growth, CROSSNET needed to provide quality customer support to players around the world. At first, the team hired virtual assistants, but that required substantial resources to manage and led to a few hurdles:

• Challenges with language barriers: As a small US-based company, handling the onboarding and training for non-English speakers was difficult to navigate.
• Contractor accountability: With offshore support 12 hours apart, CROSSNET took on extra capacity to ensure these assistants were showing up and resolving tickets.
• Subpar customer quality: Inconsistent support meant customers couldn’t get answers to important questions, leading to low satisfaction.

So the CROSSNET leadership team sought innovative solutions for their customer support challenges that would also keep costs low. Then they found Siena. Chris was familiar with our empathetic AI agent, but had questions about her ability to fit their brand voice. His worries were quickly eased. 

Customer service was a nightmare for us. We were paying folks overseas to support our team — anything to cover our bases while staying profitable. ­- Chris Meade, Co-Founder at CROSSNET

Solution

Siena helped CROSSNET create a high quality customer support experience 

The partnership with Siena marked a transformative moment for CROSSNET. By transitioning from multiple offshore customer support agents to Siena, the company consolidated their customer support operations and simplified the process in-house. When it came to implementation, the Siena team ensured a smooth experience for the CROSSNET team and kept it collaborative.

In fact, since implementing Siena, CROSSNET needs a single team member to oversee responses to customer questions, ensuring consistent quality and accountability. And Siena continues to learn from recurring questions and can respond to Facebook or Instagram messages as well. 

This improved approach gave CROSSNET a much-needed productivity boost while navigating the hurdles of global popularity.

The Siena team was super hands-on when answering our questions and helping us get set up. And our Siena persona has matured and progressed considerably as we’ve given her more to do. ­- Chris Meade, Co-Founder at CROSSNET

Results

CROSSNET stayed lean but responds 300% faster, saving thousands per month

Since partnering with Siena, the CROSSNET team saw immediate impact:

1. ^$2.5K saved in the first month
2. ^$40K saved per year 
3. ^62% automation rate

With customer demand hitting its max in the summer, Chris expects to save even more during peak season — up to $4,000 per month. The financial savings and peace of mind afforded by Siena have allowed CROSSNET to focus on expansion and customer satisfaction, propelling the company's growth into new countries and households.

We’re saving $30,000 to $40,000 or more on customer support each year, plus the countless hours from our management team overseeing responses. That goes a long way for a volleyball company. ­- Chris Meade, Co-Founder at CROSSNET