Lillian Vernon brings its call center reps back to the U.S.
Online and catalog retailer Lillian Vernon Corp., No. 66 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, has closed its Manila-based call center and moved the jobs to Virginia Beach, VA.
Lillian Vernon says the change was prompted by increased efficiencies in the Virginia Beach operation and by the elimination of cross-sell offers of third-party products, such as magazine subscriptions, discount buying clubs and insurance offers, to callers placing orders.
“Last summer, we began focusing on the basics of matching our products to our customers,” says Toni Cicero, vice president of customer care. “Our emphasis has been on bringing our Lillian Vernon products back to the forefront for our customers.”
Lillian Vernon outsourced order and customer service calls to India in the fall of 2003. It moved those to the Manila contact center in 2004.
“By lifting the burden of multiple sales offers from our customers and offering them the right items relevant to their interest, we were able to improve customer satisfaction, shorten call times and touch more customers,” Cicero said.
Since suspending its third-party sales programs, the company has experienced a 39-second reduction in the average handling time of all calls.
“Handling time has been significantly reduced no matter whether the call is an order or customer service transaction,” says Andrew Clayton, call center operations manager.
Lillian Vernon also reports a 20-second reduction in average call time for customers using an advanced interactive voice response program that Lillian Vernon has been testing for several months. The company also credits customer access to online package tracking for increased productivity in the call center.
Lillian Vernon also made improvements in its fulfillment center, which also reduced call center volume.
As a result of all these initiatives, Lillian Vernon has reduced its call volume by 450,000 a year, the company says.
“By improving operations in our distribution center and decreasing our ship times, we have been able to cut call volume by 450,000 year-to-date,” Clayton says. “That coupled with our handle time reductions has decreased our overall staffing requirements.”
Lillian Vernon vice president of online Kristen Montella, is speaking at Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition, June 4-7 in San Jose, in the session Avoiding Disaster: Managing a Technology Implementation. http://www.internetretailer.com/IR2007/Sessions/session8.asp
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