W W W. F O R E S E E . C O M [ CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ANALYTICS ]

CASE STUDY | IDEAL SHOPPING

As one of the UK’s leading home shopping retailers, Ideal Shopping Direct sells a wide range of products, both online and via TV channels that reach 25 million homes. With a strategic goal “to build trust and loyalty with our shoppers to ensure sustainable growth for the future,” Ideal Shopping understands the importance of a positive customer experience at every touchpoint.

A critical point of contact between customers and the company is the telephone order line. When customers call to order a product they’ve seen on TV, they interact with the retailer’s India-based contact center, so it’s essential that the offshore agents understand their role in providing a great customer experience.

Prior to working with ForeSee, Ideal Shopping had a process to assess how effectively its offshore contact center agents were adhering to company standards. “But, we lacked the voice of customer,” says Vince Quarizzo, Ideal Shopping’s Customer Service Manager. Adding CX measurement gave the company direct insights from its customers into how effectively the telephone order process met their needs and expectations. “Before, we were measuring our agents from our perspective. Now, we’ve been able to add in the other side of the conversation – the VOC – and understand the drivers of satisfaction and sales,” says Quarizzo.

ForeSee Helps Ideal Shopping

Direct Dial-In to Voice of Customer

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W W W. F O R E S E E . C O M [ CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ANALYTICS ]

CASE STUDY | IDEAL SHOPPING

USING CUSTOMER FEEDBACK TO IDENTIFY DISCONNECTS

Following telephone transactions, shoppers have the opportunity to provide feedback about their satisfaction with key components of the telephone order process, such as agent professionalism, queue times and accessibility. Going beyond basic efficiency metrics, CX measurement uses a scientifically-proven algorithmic approach that links perceptions, attitudes and future intentions, such as likelihood to repurchase and word of mouth recommendations. This predictive approach to VOC measurement enables Ideal Shopping to prioritize improvements in the telephone ordering process based on where they will have the greatest impact.

ForeSee’s customer experience analytics made Ideal Shopping aware of several disconnects between the automated IVR system and its live agents. In the past, customers who connected to a live agent through the IVR had to re-enter their contact information, which led to dissatisfaction. Today, agents have access to customer details entered via the IVR, allowing them to provide better service.

Ideal Shopping also readjusted its agent staffing levels based on insights from ForeSee. “We realized that forcing customers to use the IVR detracted from a positive experience. Now, we make sure we have the right number of agents in place so that customers can speak to an agent if they want to,” says Quarizzo.

TAKING ACTION TO ENHANCE THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Based on customer insights, Ideal Shopping refined its upsell offers. The company learned that add-on offers related to the purchase were well-received and increased satisfaction, whereas offers that seemed random had the opposite effect. For example, customers buying an iPad would appreciate the offer of an iPad case, but their satisfaction would plummet if offered a bag of garden compost. “This seems obvious, but voice of customer really showed us how the appropriateness of an upsell order could enhance or detract from a customer’s perception of the order process,” says Quarizzo.

“Before, we were measuring our agents from our perspective.

Now, we’ve been able to add in the other side of the conversation –

the VOC – and understand the drivers of satisfaction and sales.”

| VINCE QUARIZZO, CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER, IDEAL SHOPPING DIRECT

CASE STUDY | IDEAL SHOPPING

W W W. F O R E S E E . C O M [ CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ANALYTICS ]

CASE STUDY | IDEAL SHOPPING

“ForeSee helps us focus our

energy on key drivers of the

customer experience and

make decisions based on what

our customers tell us…not

what we think.”

VINCE QUARIZZO, CUSTOMER SERVICE MANAGER, IDEAL SHOPPING DIRECT

As a result of acting on VOC, Ideal Shopping’s contact center CX score has increased an impressive 30 points over a two-year period. “ForeSee helps us focus our energy on key drivers of the customer experience and make decisions based on what our customers tell us…not what we think,” says Quarizzo.

MOTIVATING AGENTS FOR IMPROVED PERFORMANCE

For Quarizzo’s UK-based team, CX measurement is an effective third-party method of monitoring how effectively the India-based contact center is meeting the needs of shoppers. For the offshore team, VOC is a motivational and transparent metric.

“I’ve seen a real cultural change among the agents. They’re totally bought into the concept of measuring customer satisfaction and the mentality of having their performance tracked using the VOC metric,” says Quarizzo.

Customer satisfaction scores are reported daily at the agent level, which has created a “healthy competition” among agents. To reinforce the importance of customer-centricity, monthly rewards are tied to the CX scores.

More importantly, Ideal Shopping now has actionable VOC to drive changes to processes, procedures and agent scripts that detract from the customer experience. At the offshore contact center, managers make extensive use of the online portal to delve into customer feedback, down to the individual agent level. Ideal Shopping uses this information to improve the performance of individual agents and to reach out to dissatisfied customers to resolve any outstanding issues. On a team basis, the company conducts workshops to improve areas of the customer experience identified by the customer experience analytics.

W W W. F O R E S E E . C O M [ CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ANALYTICS ]

CASE STUDY | IDEAL SHOPPING

DRIVING RESULTS BY LISTENING TO SHOPPERS

As a result of acting on VOC to provide a better telephone sales process, Ideal Shopping has seen positive trends in a number of key metrics. “We’ve virtually eradicated customer complaints,” says Quarizzo, who explains that the company receives an average of 40,000 calls to agents a month. The retailer has reduced the average call time — seven minutes to four minutes — as the ordering process has become more efficient and cost-effective. As customers are happier with the ordering process and their purchase, Ideal Shopping has seen an 11 percent year-over-year drop in the number of customers who call back within two weeks to return the product or because of a product issue.

The ultimate goal of acting on VOC is to drive sales and loyalty, and Ideal Shopping has experienced results in this area. Both the average order value and the average order frequency have increased.

Based on the success of managing the telephone order process based on VOC, Ideal Shopping plans to expand its CX measurement to additional points of customer contact.

A B O U T F O R E S E E

Founded in 2001, ForeSee is the pioneering leader in Voice of Customer (VOC) solutions. Armed with the ForeSee CX Suite, more than 2,000 companies worldwide — in retail, government, financial services, healthcare, consumer packaged goods, and other industries — have transformed their VOC programs into a strategic and rigorous business discipline that delivers economic impact. Only ForeSee offers a multi-patented algorithmic approach to customer experience measurement, access to an unmatched 175 million benchmarked experiences, and actionable insights from a team of 200 expert analysts that give certainty to CX improvements. A subsidiary of Answers Corporation, ForeSee is headquartered in Ann Arbor, MI and has offices in Mountain View, New York, St. Louis, Cleveland, Vancouver, and London. For more information, visit www.foresee.com.

C O N T A C T U S

To learn how we can help you gain comprehensive insights into the impact and value of your customer experience, please contact us at 800-621-2850 or sales@foresee.com.

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