Providing an eCommerce Support Solution to drive growth on behalf of our client

This client is one of the global leaders in e-commerce solutions. They provide a financial and logistical platform to some of the world’s largest online retailers with the aim of streamlining the customer experience, increasing customer retention and satisfaction, as well as freeing up time and resources for those retailers’ internal teams.

We have partnered with this client since 2018 to handle their frontline eCommerce support. This consists of corresponding with the customer service teams of the client’s supported retailers, as well as handling queries originating directly from the public. We began by providing both Level 1 & 2 customer support on behalf of the two main retailers supported by the client, with further online retailers being added to our support network as our relationship strengthened.

Supporting our client’s growth strategy 

Our client aimed to reach €1 billion in revenue by 2020 and grew their customer base substantially from 2018 in pursuit of this.  As such, our client required an experienced and highly skilled contact centre to aid them with the significant increase in customer queries and administrative tasks.

Due to the nature of the client’s e-commerce business model, the volume of queries spiked annually starting from Black Friday, and volumes remained at a peak level until mid-January. This required a significant ramping up in staffing levels in order to handle the increased volumes efficiently while remaining within the specified Service Level Agreements (SLAs).

Supporting an orderly and complete customer journey 

Our client leveraged Arema Connect to enhance the customer’s experience due to our previous experience in fulfilling eCommerce support for multinational clients and our demonstrable experience in handling the seasonal peaks and troughs of the eCommerce world. 

Arema Connect played a vital role in assisting our client to enhance the customer’s experience across all touch points of their multichannel distribution system. We manage a number of query types, from organising parcel deliveries, handling reverse shipments, to any queries that manifest between the point of purchase and the point of consumption. Arema Connect is there every step of the way to ensure a complete and orderly customer experience. 

Initially, we provided the client with a dedicated team consisting of an experienced Key Account Manager (KAM) and 8 customer support agents at the commencement of the contract, in Q3 of 2018. As time went on additional support was needed, thus the decision to add 7 more agents to support the client’s growth strategy. In Q4 each year the team ramps up to 25-30 agents.

The primary function of this team was to handle email queries from the client's customers in the form of tickets. This involved both Level 1 and Level 2 support, where queries would originate either from the customer service teams of client’s partnered retailers or directly from customers of those retailers.

Our eCommerce Support duties on behalf of the client 

• Answering Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) including information on custom duties and taxes;
• Tracking and locating delayed packages;
• Scheduling re-shipment and return to sender requests;
• Processing payments and refunds;
• Monitoring trends for different retailers and carriers;
• Ad-hoc administrative tasks.

Integrating with our client’s system 

Queries were raised, managed and responded to within the client’s preferred ticketing system, Zendesk. The system's functions included separating the tickets into various queues based on the retailer they related to, as well as the option to assign tickets directly to specific agents. The queues were also based on the status of the tickets - Open, Pending (awaiting a response from customer), or On Hold (awaiting a response from a 3rd party, such as the corresponding carrier). The system contained complete reporting functionality so that both the KAM and the client’s management team had total and real-time visibility of the team’s progress at any given time.

The team was able to search and review the details of all orders in the client’s Customer Service portal. This platform contained all of the information on an order that may be required by the customer support team in order to raise an investigation into its whereabouts or any financial queries regarding the order. These details included the customer’s contact details, the order number, the tracking number, the contents of the order, and the payment reference number.

The majority of the queries received were either in relation to delayed packages or refunds. Agents would take ownership of an assigned ticket and see it through to completion, which often involved making contact with the client’s chosen shipping partners to investigate the location of missing packages and determine the estimated time of arrival (ETA). Where a missing package could be located, shipping would resume and the customer would be provided with an updated ETA. Where a package was determined to be Lost In Transit (LIT), an apology and a refund or replacement would be offered to the customer, and the consignment in question would be added to an internal claims log so that the client’s Logistics department could submit a claim against the carrier.

We also regularly received queries from customers disputing refunds. To aid resolution in these situations, the team was granted access to the client’s internal payments system. This programme allowed the team to investigate payments and refunds, and provide Proof of Refund (POR) to the customer if appropriate. In cases where a refund was required but was found not to have been issued, we would reach out to the client’s internal Finance team and request that the refund is processed.

Quality-focused eCommerce support solution 

Quality monitoring was carried out throughout the contract on a weekly basis, in order to ensure a consistently high level of quality. The process entailed a review of a random sample of tickets handled by each agent the previous week. These were checked to ensure that the correct process was followed and the appropriate information was captured from the customer. Should any errors be evident in the handling of the ticket, one-to-one refresher training was scheduled for that agent with the KAM to eliminate any knowledge gaps or misunderstandings on the part of the agent.

Partnership approach

We maintained an excellent working relationship with the client through daily communication via email and online meetings. We kept open lines of communication with the client’s Customer Service Management team as well as their internal Operations teams, which ensured optimal transparency and efficiency of all processes. 

Delivering results 

Throughout our partnership with the client, Arema Connect assisted in growing their business and customer base to increase revenue, leading to the client reaching their target of €1 billion in revenue in 2020.

Our expertise was particularly apparent throughout peak seasons, particularly around Q4. During peak times, the size of the dedicated team was increased substantially to handle the increased ticket volumes while ensuring we maintained the existing SLA.

Ticket SLAs       

• New Tickets – touched within 24 hours –Average of 99%
• Reopened Tickets – updated within 24 hours – Average 95%
• Older Tickets – updated within 72 hours - 90%

Agent Targets

• 150 ticket touches per day – 100%
• 5,250 ticket touches per week – 100%

A spike in volumes was also experienced as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. Due to a lack of access to shops, customers around the globe instead transitioned to shopping solely online. This in turn required us to ramp up the team on minimal notice in order to handle the surge of queries, with ticket volumes in May unexpectedly exceeding the volumes of the previous December, which would typically be the client’s busiest month of the year.

Arema Connect and the client fostered a successful, mutually beneficial relationship, culminating in the client reaching their projected revenue targets, and Arema Connect being afforded the opportunity to showcase our talents and experience. This also led to a shortlisted nomination at the Irish Customer Contact Management Association (CCMA) awards in the category of Outsource Partnership of the Year.

With eCommerce support being one of the core services provided at Arema Connect, we were prepared to intensify our support and expand our team to keep pace with the increasing volumes in line with the client’s growth strategy.