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ImplementationClient: One of the largest suppliers of promotional products in the world
Industry: Promotional Products
Geography: United States (8 states)
The Challenge: Inefficient customer query management leading to huge case volume overload and escalations.
What Was Needed: The client needed a solution to streamline its customer query management processes, as there was not enough time and resources to respond to every inquiry in a timely manner.
Technology Enablement: Salesforce Community Cloud, Salesforce Service Cloud, and Salesforce Maintenance and Support Services.
Business Outcomes: A self-serve and scaled-up customer service that delivered reduced caseloads and improved customer experience.
Measurable Impact: Significant reduction in caseloads and escalations through the self-serve platform. Ticket prioritization enabled agents to close complex queries faster, and timely reports showed the volume of tickets deflected and solved through the self-service platform.
The Challenge
Inefficient Customer Query Management Leading to Huge Case Volume Overload and Escalations
The client is one of the largest suppliers of promotional products in the world based out of the United States. The company designs promotional products including apparel, bags, drinkware, office stationery, outdoor leisure equipment, houseware and other accessories under various brands, enabling clients to build brand legacies. The client’s product portfolio spans 10+ categories and drives industry innovation with over 100 new products annually, 75% of which have a sustainability stance, developed with an industry-leading commitment to product safety, social responsibility, supply chain security and environmental stewardship.
Large Volume of Unmanaged Customer Caseloads: Being a supplier of multiple SKUs under its brands, the client was experiencing a heavy inflow of customer enquiries across various areas. The client wanted to manage the caseloads more efficiently and drive down queries. They wanted a solution to help streamline their customer query management processes, as there was not enough time and resources to respond to every inquiry in a timely manner.
Absence of Prioritization and Self-Serve Solution: To improve the query management process, it was imperative for the client to consider a channel deflection strategy to prioritize the queries efficiently. For handling the simple queries, a self-service platform was required where the customers can first make use of the relevant articles, FAQs and notifications, before reaching out to the customer service agents. This approach can also maximize the utilization of the agents who can focus on addressing more pressing and complex queries.
- Lack of time and resources to address increasing customer enquiries
- Absence of self-serve customer solution platform to handle simpler queries
- Inefficient utilization of customer service agents
Why change now: With a product portfolio spanning 10+ categories and over 100 new products every year, customer enquiries kept increasing, and the client did not have enough time and resources to respond to every inquiry in a timely manner.
Business Objective
The client’s objectives were focused on managing customer queries more efficiently and improving the customer service experience.
- Manage customer caseloads more efficiently and drive down queries.
- Streamline customer query management processes.
- Prioritize queries efficiently through a channel deflection strategy.
- Provide a self-service platform where customers can use relevant articles, FAQs, and notifications for simpler queries.
- Maximize the utilization of customer service agents by letting them focus on more pressing and complex queries.
The Solution
A Multi-cloud Salesforce Solution Covering Both Community and Service
Achieva worked with the client to analyze the problem and proposed a multi-cloud Salesforce solution.
The solution was built around a channel deflection strategy, so that simpler queries could be handled through self-service, while complex queries were directed to customer service agents.
As part of the implementation, Salesforce Community Cloud was set up on the front end as a self-service platform. Customers could now find answers to their simpler queries through articles, FAQs, and notifications before reaching out to the customer service agents.
Salesforce Service Cloud was implemented to scale up customer service. It enabled agents to manage complex queries more efficiently, resolve them faster, and personalize their customer interactions.
Achieva also provided 24/7 Salesforce managed services, along with certified Salesforce developers and consultants, to keep the Salesforce system performing at its best and increase its overall ROI.
Key Services Provided and What They Enabled
- Implemented Salesforce Community as a Self-Service Platform for Customers
Salesforce Community Cloud was implemented for the front-end where it acted as a perfect collaboration tool to connect customers directly to the information they needed seamlessly in the form of articles, FAQs and notifications for their simpler queries.
The cloud solution was delivered with a seamless digital experience and simple-to-use interface for the customer that matched the look and feel of the rest of the company’s brand.
This cost-effective self-serve solution helped the client reduce huge volumes of customer enquiries and caseloads in all their contact centers.
- Implemented Salesforce Service Cloud for Query Management
Achieva implemented the Salesforce Service Cloud platform to scale up the customer service for more efficient management of complex queries through its agents.
The platform also enabled their agents to solve queries much faster, speeding up the entire process while personalizing their customer interactions.
- Robust Salesforce Maintenance and Support Services for a Better Salesforce Experience
Achieva helped the client achieve peak performance of its Salesforce system with flexible, robust, and resilient 24/7 tailor-made Salesforce managed services. Achieva also provided certified Salesforce developers and consultants to address complex project activities and handle multiple complex scenarios increasing the overall ROI of the system.
Business Impact
A self-serve and scaled-up customer service that delivers reduced caseloads and improved customer experience.
Significant reduction in caseloads through self-serve platforms resulting in reduced escalations.
Prioritization of tickets enabled the agents to solve more complex tickets based on urgency, empowering them to close queries faster.
Timely reports that showcase the volume of tickets that have been deflected and solved because of the suggested articles and knowledge base through the self-service platform.
Improved customer experience due to shorter query resolution times.
Increased productivity of the client’s existing IT team with enhanced support from Achieva through a flexible, robust, and responsive managed service solution.
Increased ROI from Salesforce investments with better user adoption and overall performance.
The Bottom Line
The multi-cloud Salesforce solution, combining a self-service community with Service Cloud and supported by Achieva’s Salesforce managed services, helped the client reduce caseloads and improve the customer experience.
The organization can now:
- Deflect simpler queries to a self-service platform with articles, FAQs, and notifications.
- Prioritize tickets so agents can solve complex queries faster based on urgency.
- Track the volume of tickets deflected and solved through the self-service platform with timely reports.
- Scale up customer service and personalize customer interactions through Service Cloud.
- Get higher ROI from its Salesforce investment with better user adoption and 24/7 managed services.