How Drs. Foster & Smith keeps web-enabling its call center
Last year Drs. Foster & Smith integrated all e-commerce applications and databases into its back-end order management systems to create streamlined shopping and better customer service. The move is saving the company about $1 per order. But more importantly, the move freed up resources and employee time, which Drs. Foster & Smith is investing in more effective web-based call center programs.
For instance, the direct marketer is increasing its use of live chat by devoting more call center resources to live web dialogues with customers, extending the hours it offers live chat and placing live chat on more strategic pages on the web site. Drs. Foster & Smith now offers live chat with dedicated call center reps on weekdays 7 am to 9 pm and on weekends from 7:30 am to 7 pm. “Because we have more time to devote to the web we’ve expanded how and where we are using live chat,” says Joseph Voellinger, Internet operations and communications manager. “We now have live chat on the checkout pages and that’s helping us cut down on shopping cart abandonment because we have dedicated employees who can help solve problems before they happen, such as walking new customers through the credit card entry process.”
With more live chat resources, reps can also generate new cross-selling opportunities by sending shoppers links to product pages or specific articles on pet care and pet health care.
As the web becomes the main sales channel at Drs. Foster & Smith, which recorded web sales of $90.1 million in 2004, up almost 30% from $69.9 million in 2003, the company is looking at new ways to improve Internet operations in the call center such as working toward the day when all reps will be working at web-enabled personal computer stations rather than dumb terminals and cross-trained in both catalog and e-commerce order processing and customer service.
“We are looking at improving the total customer experience and what we can do to make the web an even more integral part of the call center," Voellinger says.
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