Comet Relies on RightNow® to Help Support its Goal to be ‘Britain’s Most Trusted Electrical Specialist’
Goals
- Provide effective support to customers wanting to purchase or make enquiries via the Comet website
- Reduce the volume of emails received by Comet’s Customer Care team
- Track every customer enquiry to enable Comet to address them in a timely and detailed fashion
- Support Comet’s goal to be ‘Britain’s most trusted electrical specialist’
Achievements
- More than 50 percent reduction in emails to Comet’s Customer Care team
- Customer self-service rate at 94.1 percent
- 100 percent first time resolution to customer enquiry’s and issues
- Seasonal spikes in customer interactions successfully managed without additional staff recruitment
Every year more than 18 million customers click onto the Comet website to research and purchase electrical goods. With this number of customers visiting the website, there was, on average, over 200,000 emails and letters a year from customers wanting further information or enquiring about a particular product they had purchased. Without a way of tracking these incidents it was difficult to ensure that each customer was responded to and that the response was provided in a timely and satisfactory manner. It was also challenging for Comet to see where there were repeat questions or issues that needed further investigation.
In 2003 RightNow’s self-learning knowledgebase was deployed and within three months of deployment more than 40 percent of enquiry emails were eradicated. Today this has increased to a 50 percent reduction in emails coming into the Customer Care team because customers are able to self-serve by using RightNow’s knowledgebase on the questions and answers page. More specifically, the knowledgebase has had a marked effect not only on the amount of in-bound emails and written enquiries but also on the type of query. The Customer Care team receives fewer repetitive questions ensuring that they are now free to respond to more specific queries. Not only is this positive for staff morale but it also means hiring extra staff at peak times is not necessary. For the customer it means the freedom to find the answer immediately rather than waiting for a response to their enquiry.
As a retailer of 1,000’s of different products from 100’s of different manufacturers, Comet sometimes finds that customers will raise incidents with them about product issues rather than the manufacturer. With the amount of products that Comet sells this could become unmanageable but with RightNow's on demand customer care CRM solution, the company is able to ensure that its commitment to a four hour customer response process works effectively.
Every email immediately becomes an incident via RightNow and every letter enquiry is scanned into the system and tagged as an incident. This is then sent to a specific person within the relevant business division. They then have four hours to respond; if they are unable to, it gets automatically raised to their manager who has to respond in two hours. If there is no response at this stage then the issue is sent to director level. This process highlights the commitment that Comet has to its customers and their queries, not only those who are browsing and purchasing but also those who have issues that need to be resolved. In fact, Comet has a 100 percent first time resolution for incidents coming into the Customer Care team, as the customer incident is not closed until it is fully resolved and the customer is happy.
“The reduction in email has certainly helped us to meet our customer care goals” said Simon Parkinson, General Manager of the Customer Information Centre, Comet. “We are able to empower our customers to self-serve via the web. Also, as soon as an email or written enquiry comes through RightNow’s on demand customer care CRM solution the clock starts ticking. We track every single enquiry, ensuring the customer is given a response within four working days. This means we get a better response from the rest of the business for specific enquiries relating to their expertise, are able to reduce repetitive enquiries by using the RightNow self-learning knowledgebase on our website and, most importantly, the customer, as a result, gets a better experience.”
Parkinson concludes, “RightNow has enabled us to respond to each of our customers efficiently when they contact us, however they choose to get in touch. The ability to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations helps us to earn the place of trusted specialist within our customers’ mind enabling us to be fundamentally different from our competitors.”
Comet Support Site | Comet Homepage
About Comet
Comet, a leading specialist electrical retailer, has more than 250 stores throughout the UK, offering a wide range of electrical products. Thousands of competitor prices are checked every week to ensure that Comet's prices are competitive.
The Comet website - Comet.co.uk - offers easy, convenient shopping and with Comet's click and collect service you can reserve online and collect in store an hour later. Additionally, customers can shop by phone on 0844 800 95 95. Calls usually cost no more than 5 pence per minute from landlines; calls made from mobiles usually cost more.
Comet offers a unique all-round shopping experience with a range of services including home delivery, full installation of products such as televisions & computers, take back facilities for large products, and comprehensive after sales service.
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