Channel Strategy Clears Backlog for Retail Client

Circumstance 

When Covid-19 forced retail stores to close all around the country, contact volume at this fabric and craft online store increased some 400% in April, 2020. The difficult choice to shut off the phones was made rather than make customers wait more than an hour on hold. The recovery strategy was to focus on clearing the backlog of 140,000 emails until stability returned.

Action

• SSG drafted a ramp plan to recover and retain customers   
• Recruiting focused on hiring experienced agents with strong writing skills 
• Training was conducted in center and agents were sent to Work-at-Home after nesting 
• Operations used Six Sigma principals to drive continuous improvement 
• SSG committed to ramping from 17 FTE to 65 FTE 

Result 

• 100% agent retention through ramp    
• Emails handled per hour increased 14%  
• Email AHT reduced by 10%  
• QA scores increased from 94.6 to 97.1% 
• Added Voice support in June and reduced AHT 7%
• Added chat support in June with AHT improving 19%  

Partner Testimonial

“At the beginning of the pandemic, our online business grew exponentially. This resulted in a sudden increase of support interactions and the need to double the size of our team. SSG was able to accommodate the numbers we needed, no questions asked! I don’t know how we would have been able to handle these volumes without them!” Ruth Jones Manager, JOANN Customer Care