Suburban Propane Increases Efficiency and Transforms CX with Zoom + Bridgepointe

When Suburban Propane, a company specializing in propane, heating oil and refined fuels, faced aging on-premise systems and growing customer expectations, the team knew it was time for a change. Their legacy infrastructure—spanning call routing, recording and reporting—was not only nearing the end of its life but also limiting their ability to communicate efficiently with customers. 

Due to the demand for greater flexibility and volume, especially during the winter months, Suburban Propane required a modern, cloud-based platform that could streamline operations, support scalability, and enhance both the customer and agent experience. 

Before teaming up with Zoom and Bridgepointe, the contact center faced several critical pain points: 

• Outdated and fragmented tools: Having separate platforms for call management, recording, and analytics resulted in complexity and hidden costs. 
• Rigid call flows and limited reporting: Customizations required deep technical expertise, making it difficult to adapt quickly. 
• Customer communication bottlenecks: Phone was the only reliable channel, and updating IVR prompts or system messages required third-party voiceover recordings—a slow and costly process. 
• Inability to scale seamlessly: With up to 225 agents during peak times, the legacy system was unable to support dynamic staffing or real-time operational adjustments. 

According to Joe Brown, Director, Contact Center at Suburban Propane, “Phone was the only real way customers could reach us—live chat, virtual agents or other channels. I was the only one who could build call flows or custom reports. It required technical scripting knowledge, which most of the team didn’t have. If a hurricane hit part of the country, we couldn’t post a timely IVR message without waiting on a voiceover recording.” 

A Unified Platform, Transparent Pricing and a Seamless Rollout 

To help Suburban Propane make the best decision possible, their Bridgepointe strategist conducted a complete analysis of their needs and then presented them with multiple options from a select group of vendors. After a thorough evaluation of possible platforms, the choice became clear. 

“Zoom had everything we needed under one umbrella, and the pricing structure was straightforward. Other vendors had what we needed, but were either too expensive or required bolt-on tools.” 

With a feature-rich, all-in-one platform that eliminated patchwork tooland the need for add-on costs, the team selected Zoom Phone and Zoom Contact Center as the cloud communications backbone. The plan included an option to phase in additional functionality, such as Zoom Workforce Management.  

Then, Bridgepointe played a central role in orchestrating the rollout, providing: 

• Strategic implementation planning: A phased rollout approach avoided disruption during peak busy months. 
• Hands-on support and coordination: Weekly check-ins, real-time project tracking via SmartSheets, and responsive Zoom support ensured everything stayed on track. 

Zoom’s intuitive user interface also made a rapid impact with: 

• Drag-and-drop call flows allowed the tram to make real-time changes—no coding required. 
• AI-driven tools, including live transcripts and sentiment scoring, enabled agents and supervisors to immediately improve their performance.  
• Inclusive licensing meant no upsells. Everything promised in demos was included out of the box.  

“What they promised is what we got. That’s rare. Usually, you discover all the cool features come with extra costs, but Zoom included all of them,” explained Brown. 

With Zoom and Bridgepointe, Suburban Propane transitioned from an aging, siloed system to a fully integrated cloud communications platform.