twenty-two | case study
th assyst
How Sho
p Direct saved money wi
While IT knew the system could work, Customers with an IBC account (fi nancial support account) used to receive plans set up
implementation required much thought and under the wrong brand name resulting in unnecessary query telephone calls to the helpline
careful consideration. After assessing the which on average cost the company an estimated £2.28 per call. To eliminate confusion,
processes, mapping the fl ow of incidents letters now explain customer account details and the brand it relates to which has led to a
through the system and adapting the Intranet signifi cant reduction in helpline calls. By making just one simple change Shop Direct will save
form in to which assyst would feed and extract approximately £228,000.
data, the IT team’s next challenge was to
develop a way for the Customer 1st aid Team Customers are now automatically notifi ed and re-directed to the correct website whenever
to easily distinguish Customer 1st aid incidents they enter an account number for a different site. This change, identifi ed through the Customer
from IT incidents. The answer lay in the use of 1st aid programme, has produced annual savings of over £835,000.
categories and different service departments
and items to differentiate between IT Changes to the home delivery service have resulted in a 50% decrease in the number of
‘incidents’ and Customer 1st aid ‘issues’. logged incidents, representing an annual saving of £124,000.
Champions Of Business
Another key challenge was exactly how to Tangible Cost Benefi ts
categorise customer issues and feed the Shop Direct are now able to respond speedily These tangible return on investment (ROI)
relevant information in to the records which and effectively to poor customer experiences fi gures are, however, a secondary benefi t;
would allow valuable metrics and reports to and they have already actioned more than the real driver of the system is, in fact, the
be produced. Shop Direct overcame this by 500 service improvements across the business improvement of the customer experience.
setting up customer ‘Champions’ for each from the fi nancial services team to sales and Better customer experiences result in
business area. If the Customer 1st aid Team marketing, to the call centre and even in the improved customer retention and ultimately
could not resolve the customer’s problem in warehousing and home delivery departments. a signifi cant growth in repeat purchases from
the fi rst instance, then it would be escalated In just 18 months since the use of the assyst individual customers.
to the Business Area Champion; this was system in this capacity, Shop Direct has And what’s more, employees now feel that
essentially a second line support role. already seen an impressive £3.1 million saving they can “make a difference.”
Although the Champions would not have across the business and many more business
access to assyst, issues would be assigned to benefi ts are expected over the coming year
them and they would receive the information through focused service improvements.
via an e-mail generated by the ‘assign’ action
for each business area.
“We have saved £3.1
Issues are still raised on the Intranet page,
however, they are now able to automatically
million through delivering
import these into assyst and assign to the
more than 500 customer-
Customer 1st aid Administration Team who tidy
up the record, assess it and, where relevant,
focused improvements
assign it to the Business Champion. with the help of the assyst
Champions were also given the ability to
solution”
view their issues and acknowledge ownership,
Sheila Liddell, change management team
to update the record as required and, on
leader
completion, to assign it back to Customer 1st
aid Team. The email generated by the ‘assign’
action was set up with a docket containing two
links; one that allows the Champions to view
and update the issue, the second to initiate a
search on multiple issues.
The Customer 1st aid Administration Team
is now able to publish the results of logged
incidents and the changes resulting from
them, and highlight to the initiating member
of staff that their issues have been addressed;
all key factors in gaining buy-in to the system
and driving adoption.
august.september | 2009 www.supportworld.co.uk
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