How the Dallas Cowboys drive winning customer experience and collaboration with Webex.

Few names in sports are as globally recognizable as the Dallas Cowboys. With six decades of history, five Super Bowl victories, and countless iconic players, America’s Team has built a dynasty of performance excellence.

And off the field, the push for excellence doesn’t stop.

With Webex and Cisco on their team, the Cowboys are leading the league in innovation, collaboration, and the fan experience. In fact, “innovation” is one of the franchise’s core brand values.

But how did Webex make it onto the Cowboys’ roster as its leading technology player? We sat down with Dallas Cowboys Chief Information Officer Matt Messick, Director of Ticket Sales Lucas Kalinec, and Director of IT, Service Management and Strategy Kristen Boydston to learn more about their playbook for hybrid work and customer experience success with Webex and Cisco.

In all of the National Football League (NFL), there’s nothing quite like The Star, the Dallas Cowboys’ state-of-the-art campus in Frisco, Texas.

The Star is home to the Dallas Cowboys headquarters, the base of operations for the entire franchise. Not only is it where fans gather to connect with the Cowboys staff and team across an expansive entertainment complex, but it’s also where corporate employees huddle up, collaborate, and ideate innovative customer experiences.

“It’s just a very unique place in all of sports, and it allows us to create a sense of community with the fans,” Matt Messick said. “We also have AT&T Stadium just a few miles down the road, and all of it is connected by Webex and Cisco.”

If you've ever watched a Cowboys game, you'll likely know AT&T Stadium for the enormous jumbotron suspended 90 feet above the 50-yard line. But elsewhere in this electrifying venue—whether it’s game day or not—is a team full of contact center agents working hard to support fans in every way possible.

From ticket sales to customer service, they’re the heart and soul of the franchise’s customer and fan experience. And like players on the field, they can’t do their job without the right equipment. Fortunately, that’s where Webex gets in the game.

“At the end of the day, we're a team, and we're trying to connect," Messick explained. "And what better tool, what better application to turn to than Webex?"

Director of Ticket Sales Lucas Kalinec knows technology is key to agent and supervisor success—and in turn, customer experience. Whether for inbound support or outbound sales, the AI-powered Webex Contact Center helps the Cowboys elevate customer, agent, and supervisor experiences in one comprehensive solution.

“Our agents love Webex Contact Center, I think first and foremost because of its simplicity,” he explained. “They're handling a lot of calls on a daily basis, and this platform allows them to do that at a very high level, but also very efficiently as they navigate from call to call.”

Simple and seamless integrations are vital when it comes to technology. For the Cowboys, having a contact center platform that integrates with key business applications—especially its customer relationship management (CRM) system—makes for a much better agent experience.

“Webex Contact Center's integration with our CRM system is really crucial for our team,” Kalinec said. “It allows our agents to focus their efforts in one spot and not have to bounce back and forth between multiple systems. And that integration leads to a lot of efficiencies in our operation.”

For example, the platform automatically retrieves customer data from the CRM system when a customer calls in. Not only does this help agents identify the caller, but they can personalize the interaction with a tailored greeting. And, with contextual information about the customer and previous interactions in one place, they don’t have to ask customers to repeat themselves.

AT&T Stadium isn't just for football; it's a top venue for concerts, comedy shows, festivals, and more. The contact center can help with everything from finding seats and parking to understanding bag policies and arranging special accommodations. With 6,000 monthly inbound calls, routing these customers to the right destination is essential.

“Webex Contact Center enhances the customer service experience for our season ticket holders and stadium suite holders in multiple ways,” Kalinec said. “It gets our customers where they want to go, speaking to the appropriate agents, being able to talk to somebody that's knowledgeable about what they are interested in and also doing that in a very timely manner.”

Using the platform’s dynamic routing capabilities, the organization connects inbound callers to the agent best equipped to address their needs. Instead of sending all callers to one main line, it routes them to a specific customer service agent, and then to a salesperson as a secondary contact.

According to Kalinec, this effectively reduces customer wait times while streamlining the entire process. He also said he looks forward to the additional efficiencies the team will gain by leveraging the platform's artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities.

“We’re looking forward to the opportunities around Webex AI as an avenue for our agent team to focus on the most important conversations,” he added.

Rather than having agents take all inbound calls, the Cowboys are exploring what it would look like for virtual agents to handle simple, routine questions.

Just as coaches rely on statistics to gauge on-field performance, supervisors do the same with contact center metrics. When it comes time to call an audible, it pays to have robust, reliable data you can access in a hurry..

With Webex Contact Center, the Cowboys gain detailed reporting from a single pane of glass. Intuitive dashboards give supervisors granular insight into all aspects of their operations, including:

• Call volume.
• Wait time.
• Average handle time.

Metrics allow them to hold agents accountable in various areas and continually optimize their operations — all in support of their ultimate goal: providing the best customer experience possible. And, whenever they need to huddle up and collaborate, they can easily connect through the Webex app, even if they’re working from home.

For example, agents handling complex inquiries can quickly reach internal experts who can answer their questions. These fast collaborations help the Cowboys’ contact center agents serve their customers and resolve issues more effectively.

“Regardless of where they’re physically located,” Kalinec said, “the Webex app provides the platform for our contact center agents to work to the best of their abilities.”

The Webex Suite is a comprehensive portfolio of AI-powered collaboration tools. From video conferencing and messaging to calling and more, it gives the Dallas Cowboys everything they need to stay connected at The Star, on the road, or anywhere else.

“With the Webex Suite, we’re able to connect with each other instantly. We're able to coordinate our calendars, work through problems, and come together as a team,” Messick said. “You wouldn't believe the amount of collaboration that it takes to pull off a Cowboys game, a concert, or any type of major sporting event, and this allows us to have multiple conversations to collaborate appropriately.”

It’s even making an impact on football operations, he added. Before Webex, coaches and scouts had to travel to interview players they hoped to sign or draft. Now, thanks to Webex Meetings, these interviews can happen seamlessly from anywhere.

When the Cowboys head to California for training camp, they might be out of the office, but Webex technology ensures they’re never out of reach.

“Back in the old days, we were boxing up phones and shipping them out there,” Messick said. “Now, it’s just take what you got, take your laptop, take your tablet, head to California, and you’re ready to work for three weeks.”

As a cloud-based portfolio, the Webex Suite is built to meet people’s needs wherever and however they work. This makes it simple for the team to stay connected on the go, which is important in their hybrid work environment. When meeting with players, coaches, and co-workers operating in different locations, environmental factors can easily impact the experience, hindering productivity.

“You want to create that connection where you actually feel like you’re sitting in the exact same room,” Messick added. “There’s nothing worse than somebody being on the other end of a call and just feeling left out. And that’s at the heart of why we’re using these tools.”

One key feature Messick appreciates is AI-powered background noise removal. During a Webex Meeting, it automatically filters out background sound that could otherwise cause a distraction. It keeps everyone locked in and engaged whether at a cafe, in the office, or elsewhere. This, he said, is a game-changer.

"I've seen it firsthand,” he added. “I’ve watched babies crying in the background and dogs running through, chasing another child, and it's nothing. Sometimes it adds a little comedy to it, but [the background noise removal feature] is absolutely incredible.”

In addition to background noise removal, Webex Meetings can also automatically generate real-time captions when someone is talking. Messick said this feature is especially useful for people who might be deaf or hard of hearing, helping them follow along with the automatically-generated captions on screen.

The Cowboys aren’t stopping there with AI-powered collaboration. The Cowboys are excited to use Webex’s automated meeting summaries. Using AI, the platform will automatically recognize when a user steps away from the screen and then summarize any meeting information they missed.

"I think the future of AI will help us do our best at work,” Boydston said. “But when things do come up, and we have to step away or skip a meeting for whatever reason, Cisco AI Assistant for Webex will help us feel like we haven't missed a beat."

It doesn’t take long to notice how many Cisco collaboration devices there are in the Cowboys’ facilities. You’ll see Cisco Phones on every desk, Cisco Room Kits in every conference room, and Cisco Desk Minis in co-working spaces throughout the building.

“Cisco devices are at the heart of how the Dallas Cowboys collaborate between facilities,” Messick said, emphasizing the many ways they’re used across the organization.

Team owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones keeps a Cisco Phone in his office, allowing him to hop on a call with the click of a button. Coaches take Cisco Desk Minis home over the summer, helping them stay connected even while out of town.

“We’ve been using Cisco phones for a long time and have always experienced reliable audio. We are now excited to implement the Desk Phone 9800 Series throughout our newly renovated stadium to ensure event attendees and staff can stay connected,” Messick said.

How do the Cowboys manage their expansive collaboration and customer experience stack? Enter Control Hub—a centralized Webex dashboard that allows the Cowboys to manage its deployment of devices and software. According to Messick, this comprehensive management portal has a tangible impact on the agent and employee experience.

"Control Hub for the Cowboys is that single pane of glass for all of our collaboration devices,” he explained. “If you think about AT&T Stadium and the hundreds and hundreds of phones and meeting spaces throughout our corporate facility and all of our locations, having that single pane of glass [allows you to] monitor all of your devices and proactively get in front of problems before your end user even knows about them."

As Director of IT, Kristen Boydston said it’s nice to have a constant collaborative flow from location to location. No matter where they go, employees are only steps away from connecting to their peers. Plus, with Cisco AI Assistant for Webex integrated into the Cowboys’ Cisco devices, they can join calls with the sound of their voice.

“Oftentimes, we'll already all be in a conference room and just ask Webex Assistant to start the meeting,” she said. “And just like that, we're right in the meeting with everyone else.”

Every year, the Dallas Cowboys host an internal conference called TechCon. Here, they showcase partners and vendors to keep employees trained and aware of the organization’s latest technology solutions.

In the past, they had to piece together aspects of the event from scratch. But with Webex Events, a cloud-based, all-in-one event management platform, they turned TechCon into an elevated experience. As Boydston explained, tools like session registration and push notifications helped attendees stay informed throughout the festivities.

“In 2023, Webex Events completely transformed the way that we hosted TechCon,” Boydston explained. “Webex Events provided a seamless sign-up tool for our session registrations, allowed us to showcase all of our vendors and partners, allowed us to do push notifications to keep everyone well informed – among many other features. It completely elevated the way that we hosted this conference, and made us look like sophisticated event professionals.”

One of the additional features the Cowboys leveraged for TechCon was Slido—a tool that integrates with Webex Meetings, Webex Webinars, and Webex Events. With highly interactive real-time polling capabilities, it helps event organizers energize the crowd and maximize attendee interaction.

"We have started incorporating Slido more and more, just to further engage our audience, create that interaction that people need and want to stay truly engaged with the material that they're presenting," Boydston said.”

It didn’t take long to get up and running on Webex Events. As part of the Webex Suite, it was a seamless process to activate the platform and start innovating to deliver an elevated event experience.

“Within a couple of short weeks, we were able to build out the app, get all the content in it, [and] create the barcodes. An IT team that doesn't do this every day pulled off a professional-level event for all of our employees in a very short amount of time,” Messick said.

After a great first run, the Cowboys replicated their success for a second year—all with the help of Webex Events.

Hybrid work and customer experience innovation are key to the Dallas Cowboys on and off the field—and that’s why they continue to leverage Webex and Cisco solutions. From the contact center at AT&T Stadium to corporate headquarters at The Star, the entire organization can trust Webex solutions to lay the groundwork for an unmatched collaboration and customer experience strategy.

“We're confident that Cisco provides secure, reliable, and scalable solutions. As we look to the future, we believe that Webex and Cisco are going to propel us to that next generation of collaboration and customer experience,” Messick said.

Contact our team today to learn more about how Webex can improve collaboration and customer experience for your organization.