Deploying a Customer Look-Up for a Large Discount Tool and Hardware Retailer
Challenge
A large discount tool and hardware retailer needed access to its customers’ opt, contact, and promotion history data to make updates in real time. The retailer was looking to reduce the manual and timely process it took to update customer information such as opt in / out, physical address, email, and phone. The retailer was also seeking to understand, and answer, the most frequently asked question from customers, (i.e., Why didn’t I receive my catalog?).
Approach
Merkle worked with the client to configure Privacy Accelerator, a privacy compliance extension of Data Accelerator, Merkle’s cloud-based marketing data management solution. The installation of Privacy Accelerator was designed to meet the specific requirements of the client which included mapping customer’s multiple identifiers as searchable criteria. Through a series of interviews with marketing and the customer service reps (CSR), Merkle was able to better understand how the brand searched for customers and the necessary information to display to act on customers’ requests. The client then performed user acceptance testing with CSR leaders and Privacy Accelerator was deployed to production a short period afterward.
Merkle then created a training guide which was used to train CSR leadership and all CSR associates. The easy to use interface and comprehensive user guide not only limited the follow up to Merkle, but set up the team for immediate success. Due to the decrease in time spent by Marketing on customer issue resolution, the team is able to focus on current and future marketing objectives to meet business needs.
Results
increase in users who could respond to customer’s requests
decrease in time spent on customer issue resolution
increase in customer issue resolution time
increase in customer satisfaction with customer service reps
Keys to success
- The solution enabled customer service reps (CSR) the ability to understand their customer’s marketability status and provide background knowledge for customer inquiries.
- Being able to provide real-time access to customer data allowed CSRs to correct information while the customer was on the phone.