From B2B Call Center to B2C eCommerce Contact Center in 60 days – a case study

The Challenge:
A very well-known and regarded music company was shifting its business model from selling through a network of dealers to selling directly to consumers. Their original operating model of supporting their network of dealers would not work when selling to millions of consumers. The company was simply not prepared to service and sell to individuals. To make this transition from a B2B company to a B2C eCommerce company required many changes in culture, technology, processes and methodology. The customer service centers were a key component of the transition. Thus, TRG was engaged to help with the transition.

The Process:
The Taylor Reach team of consultants began at the beginning, a full end-to-end review of the people, processes, methodologies and technologies within the call center infrastructure. We identified huge gaps between the current servicing of dealers and the near future need of servicing consumers. We discovered homegrown and antiquated CRM systems that were sufficient to deal with the current state, but unscalable. We also found channel coverage limited to voice and email, an inability to let customers “self-serve”, an antiquated telecom system not designed to handle large volumes of calls, and a management team unprepared for the new vision. TRG was engaged beyond making recommendations to implement our solutions to coincide with the quickly approaching launch of the new business platform.

The Solution:
Starting with technology, we recommended (and then implemented) a CRM platform to help them “know” their customers, a self-service IVR to help consumers self-serve (and deflect volume), and a cloud based phone system to manage the volume with minimal infrastructure changes. The IVR was integrated into the CRM platform where consumers essentially created and then solved their own tickets automatically, without having to speak with an agent. This both extended hours of service and deflected calls while lowering costs for the contact center. We also created new consumer facing processes to drive accountability and efficiency and then worked with center staff to change the customer facing conversations to support the brand in this new environment. In addition, we expanded the channels where they have these conversations beyond voice and email to include the ability to offer online chat and self-serve.

The Results:
The recommended solution launched in less than 60 days and was ready before the new e-commerce website was ready to launch. The new technologies were fully integrated. In the first year of implementation the company realized significant efficiency and operational improvements and the service center was at the forefront of the transition to a B2C company.