How Samsonite found an individual approach to suitcase buyers and answers any of their questions on time

We sell suitcases and bags from four brands: Samsonite, American Tourister, Lipault and Tumi. Tumi is a premium brand and Lipault is a young French brand. The main brand is Samsonite. Each store has a separate website, plus we are present on all major marketplaces: Wildberries, Ozon and Lamoda.

We use phone calls and email to communicate with clients from the very beginning. Clients call us or write to one of the email addresses on the websites, as well as through the feedback form — these also come in by email. A year and a half ago, we realized that we could no longer cope with customer requests. At that time, our level of service was below the market level.

Calls. The call center was in-house. Staff members, who were not enough, did not have time to answer calls and could not give competent answers to all questions. We decided to contract an external call center, but that made it necessary to give its employees a tool to do the work. At the very least, they needed an interface in which operators could work with orders and requests. According to the company's security rules, we cannot have external employees in our accounting system, so we needed a separate tool that would give operators only the information they need to work, no more, no less.

Correspondence. For correspondence with clients, we used a regular mailbox on the corporate domain. But this scheme turned out to be unsuccessful. We lost some of the messages, there was no control. As a manager, I did not understand which messages the employees answered and which ones they hadn't, and if they did, whether the client was satisfied with the answer.

In order to switch to full-fledged client work with a high level of service and control, we began choosing a helpdesk system. We considered several services on the market. At one of the exhibitions, we talked with Ivan, at that time the commercial director of Usedesk, after which we returned to discussing the platform. And after a more detailed analysis, we realized that Usedesk covers all our needs — written communication with clients.

We started with eight text channels: four sites, each with its own mail and feedback form. We immediately connected all eight mailboxes, configured the rules for processing messages and created message templates. Later, they began to close correspondence with marketplaces on Usedesk and the number of mailboxes increased. Today there are already more than twenty of them. Everything was done easily on our own.

We have never contacted programmers to work with Usedesk. We integrated Usedesk with RetailCRM ourselves and set everything up for ourselves. The most that we used was consultation with the Usedesk service specialists when something did not work out for us. For example, we run a rule, but for some reason it does not work. We write to support, our rules are reviewed and errors are corrected. We see them and we are already running the next rule correctly.

Triggers. Now all incoming emails are turned into tickets and, using the rules, are automatically closed or redirected to the desired department, where they are manually sorted by the employee responsible. For example, if a ticket is related to technical issues, it goes to the technical team. Issues with a guarantee go to the employee who is responsible for warranty service, while anything related to orders goes to the call center. And messages from payment systems are automatically closed and placed in a special folder. We now have more than a dozen different rules.

Templates. We do not use bots to reply to clients. We provide a high level of service and never reduce it, despite any collapses and crises. Even in 2020, our customers/potential clients could quickly and effectively get a full consultation or an answer to their question, despite the quarantine due to coronavirus. To provide this level of service, we need to respond promptly and to the point.

Instead of bots that annoy people more than helping, we use templates. Our employees have prepared options for template answers that the operator can quickly apply and modify slightly for a specific client and their request. This greatly facilitates the operators' work, saves time and allows for faster response.

To date, we have connected company employees from different departments, divisions and even contractors to Usedesk to work with our clients in their area of responsibility. For them, we have set up email notifications — if a person is mentioned in the ticket, they will receive an email. This is very convenient because they do not sit in Usedesk all the time — they have their tasks. And upon receiving a message, they can quickly go in and see what happened with the client and respond promptly.

Working with online buyers. All online store orders automatically go to a CRM, and all further communication with the client is tied to the order. Questions about orders go to the call center operators: delivery, loyalty program, special requests for the order, and warranty cases.

Usedesk is connected to the CRM, so when an operator receives a request from a client, in the Usedesk window on the right, they can see the entire history of interaction with them. The operator immediately sees when and what the customer bought. If, for example, a customer wants to replace a product in an order, the operator opens the order in the CRM directly from Usedesk and makes changes.

Last year we introduced a service that is unique on the Russian market — engraving on the handle of a suitcase. When a customer buys a suitcase from an online store, there is a special field in the order form where you need to enter the phrase for engraving. If a person calls by phone and asks to correct the inscription, we ask them to submit the phrase in writing. All this is recorded in the correspondence and stored in the order. Luggage is engraved forever — every symbol is important to the client.

Occasionally, customers write us about offers. Even less often, they apply for a warranty or repairs. For example, an airline damaged a suitcase, repairs are needed and the customer wants to know where to have it repaired. The operator assigns such a ticket to a particular employee who makes decisions on warranty cases and repairs. They will then contact the repair shop closest to the customer. But there are very few such requests, these are fractions of a percent.

In our company, the communication marketing department is responsible for loyalty, so they handle situations where a client does not understand something about the accrual of points, or they want to know when they were credited for issues or to clarify the conditions. The employee is also connected to Usedesk and processes tickets related to belief.

We are also often approached by companies that buy suitcases for their employees. We have had requests from hockey clubs and large manufacturers who made gifts with their logos. It is more convenient for these clients to write than to call. Such tickets are redirected to an employee who works with corporate clients.

Working retail outlet buyers. Retail outlets are not connected to Usedesk, but we have a single call center for customer requests. If necessary, the operator will connect the customer to the desired store. The system also works in the opposite direction — for example, a customer comes to a store, but it turns out that they need delivery. The store then places an order for the client on a special version of the site, and the online store operator picks it up. Regardless of where the client turns, they will get help from a specialist.

Working with marketplaces. We have many brands on different marketplaces. Each one requires correspondence that employees are responsible. For example, a logistics block is led by one employee, a union with calculations or general questions is led by another, and technical problems are handled by another employee. However, all these issues come into the same mailbox, so an employee in the operational department sorts incoming tickets and assigns them to the employees responsible.

Automatic closing of service messages. When a person places an order, they receive a service confirmation message that is copied to our email and turns into a ticket. It may be necessary if the client has a question about the message, so we store them and the operator can easily find the desired message by number. But there is no point in wasting operators' time on such messages, so the bot immediately closes them.

To receive feedback from customers, we have implemented an operator consultation evaluation mechanism. There are many tickets — thousands. It is impossible to view each ticket. Therefore, we select a few tickets and first of all go through the ones with a poor customer rating. As a rule, if a client is dissatisfied, they will give a negative rating.

Every ticket contains the standard Usedesk requests for rating: "good/poor/normal." If the client rates it "poor," the closed ticket is reopened and goes to the operations manager, who is responsible for the service level regardless of who answered the client.

Then we understand and analyze the work of the operator. If a client gives a bad rating, despite the operator fulfilling the request with high quality according to our standards, we close the ticket.

And if it turns out that the client did not receive an answer to their question, we look at what the operator should have answered the client. We have instructions and scripts that should be used by both operators and partners who communicate with our customers. If it turns out that the instruction or script does not work, we make changes and train the operators.

In Usedesk, we see how many calls were made, what kind they were, how quickly they were answered, at what time, how well, who answered, who answered more, who answered less and which of the operators answered which calls. We get the entire layout in convenient and understandable reports. For any period of time, we can measure whether the quality of our answers meets the expectations of customers. This allows us to maintain a high level of service according to the feelings of our customers, and not according to our internal estimates. Our goal is for the client to experience only positive emotions from interacting with us.

I understand that we are still at the very beginning of our journey with Usedesk. We do not have hundreds of thousands of calls, but, on the other hand, we do get more than two per day. One person with one email address will not be able to cope with such a flow.