The Background

Chums is a privately owned, independent Mail Order Company based in Liverpool, who have over a million customers buying direct from their online shop.

• Reduce call waiting time
• Increase employee productivity
• Increase customer satisfaction

The Challenge

To analyse the current telephony landscape we implemented a call statistic analysis programme for three days. Chums results with Elite Call Queuing – giving customers an estimated wait time allowing them to hang up and call back without losing their place in the queue. We also enabled a call dialler function which called customers back if they hadn’t rung back within the specified time. A dedicated account manager and customer service team to work through implementation and beyond.

The Solution

Elite Intelligent Queuing (Elite IQ) is a product unique to Elite. We worked very closely with Chums to ensure that this was the most effective solution for them and made sure that they understood all aspects and benefits the technology could bring them. Chums were given a dedicated account management and customer services team to ensure at all stages of implementation and thereafter.

Elite IQ works by giving callers an estimated wait time and encourages them to hang up and call back later without losing their place in the queue. For example, if the customer is told that their estimated wait time is 10 minutes they can hang up and call back 10 minutes later, when they do this their phone number will be recognised and they will be placed at the front of the queue.

In Autumn 2010, Elite deployed the Elite IQ Statistics package for three days, followed by the two week deployment of the Elite IQ service. Further to this the IQ Dialler was implemented for a week. The IQ Dialler works by calling back those customers who have not called back in themselves, but only during agent idle time.

As you can tell, this solution meant that peak times were easily managed without angering customers. Prompting them to call back at times when the lines would be less busy, equally studies have shown that should a caller be informed of their wait time whilst on the line they are more likely to wait and not hang up.

The Result

• Increased answer rate – Elite IQ was highly effective in helping the Chums team answer more calls, with the number of answered calls up by approximately 5%.
• Reduced caller abandonment rate – The implementation of Elite IQ Dialler also reduced the overall caller abandonment rate by an impressive 60.3%.
• Reduced overall average wait time for callers – The average wait time was reduced by 40% after the system was installed; meaning that the average wait time was cut by over one minute.
• For Chums to have seen similar improvements without the Elite IQ system they would have needed to employ at least eight extra staff.
• The calculated return on investment for Chums is in excess of 182%, with no up-front costs.