Case Study
Global Retailer: Transforms Network and Boosts Customer Experience
Client
Highstreet Shoe Retailer
Retail
Retail
Customer Overview
A leading-edge fashion footwear retailer transforms and modernises to optimise customer experience.
The retailers’ stores provide style conscious customers with innovative shoes to suit every occasion. With over 160 stores globally and an evolving ecommerce platform, its in-house design team creates a unique product range for customers of its high street stores. To deliver these innovative products with the passionate, inspiring, and individual service their customers expect, they are embracing the cloud, modernising applications and transforming the network that supports them
The Challenge
Design a secure, resilient, and flexible network solution to support more bandwidth intensive in-store solutions and improve customer experience.
In response to a rapidly evolving retail environment, the Retailer recognised the need for digital transformation to maintain the outstanding levels of service and engagement expected by its in-store customers.
In order to enhance customer experience, the business hoped to modernise its applications, transfer to cloud based EPOS systems, and move from traditional voice services to a cloud-based alternative.
Deployment of handheld devices would improve customer engagement by offering store associates instant access to inventory levels, along with the ability to place click-and-collect orders to other stores or arrange delivery direct to the customer’s home in the event of a local stockout.
The simple legacy store footprint comprised a single existing line. With more bandwidth intensive solutions under consideration, the network would need upgrading to provide a secure, optimised, and resilient foundation to achieve the desired business goals.
Flexibility and scalability were also critical, as rolling out new stores involved data-intensive processes requiring additional temporary bandwidth.
Kerv offered the retailer a Network Health Check. This 10-day consultancy activity analysed the network infrastructure, calculated existing and potential costs, and presented back a report that identified the best evolution strategy to meet potential network demands while maintaining tight margins. The advice was to deploy an SDWAN solution.
The Solution
A multi-bonded SD-WAN solution across all stores with an agile and responsive network managed service.
Kerv designed a robust, fast, and scalable SD-WAN solution with secure and optimal break out the cloud.
The Network Health Check encouraged the retailer to review its existing service provider contracts to improve the cost efficiency of the underlay infrastructure connecting its offices, distribution warehouses and supply chain sites.
The system was streamlined with a direct internet link to applications, reducing data flow inefficiency and improving the quality of service.
The Kerv SD-WAN solution could be deployed over new or existing connections, giving the business the freedom to choose the most available and cost-efficient services for their stores.
While they effectively commoditised the underlay technologies, the SD-WAN overlay ensured they would still receive the same integrated service experience. A multi-4G bonded solution would deliver the vital additional bandwidth and availability required to upgrade store processes.
Associates could carry out stock management queries and customer orders to improve engagement, while enhanced flexibility and scalability support rapid deployment of new stores, allowing data-heavy downloading of systems and applications.
Robust and seamless failover when outages occur provides the necessary resiliency, and prioritisation of business-critical applications (such as payments) ensures the business will not miss out on potential sales in the event of a single line failure.
The Outcome
Increased resilience and availability, improved customer engagement and outstanding price-performance efficiency.
- Cloud Confidence
The new network has given the business confidence to start migrating services to the cloud to improve efficiency, and the ability to embrace an omni-channel offering. - Improved Customer Experience
Store associates have rapid access to inventory information and allow for real time placement of
click-and-collect and home delivery orders, preventing missed sales during stockouts.
- Visibility and Control
Access to the SD-WAN management platform provides clear visibility of all traffic at application level and allows for centralised control from head office. - Resilience and Performance
Using multiple connections ensures heightened uptime and availability. Prioritisation ensures that critical business payment applications enjoy priority over standard applications. - Cost Efficiency
By rationalising the underlay technology, improved flexibility, performance, and resiliency were achieved with no cost increase to the business. - Rapid Site Deployment
The flexible model allows bandwidth to be scaled up to meet demand and supports the rapid deployment of new store sites. - Responsive Support
Kerv’s managed services provide agile, responsive support that is carefully tailored to the right solution for the business.
Want to find out more?
You may find these articles interesting:
SASE: The Iron Man of Network Security
Kerv SD-WAN: Retail Connectivity Without Limits
Accelerating Business: The Power of Kerv Rapid-WAN
Speak our experts!
Give us a few details and we’ll get right back to you.
"*" indicates required fields
Case Study
Global Retailer: Transforms Network and Boosts Customer Experience
Client
Highstreet Shoe Retailer
Retail
Retail
Please note: This project was completed by WORTH, which later rebranded as Kerv Digital upon joining Kerv Group.
Customer Overview
A leading-edge fashion footwear retailer transforms and modernises to optimise customer experience.
The retailers’ stores provide style conscious customers with innovative shoes to suit every occasion. With over 160 stores globally and an evolving ecommerce platform, its in-house design team creates a unique product range for customers of its high street stores. To deliver these innovative products with the passionate, inspiring, and individual service their customers expect, they are embracing the cloud, modernising applications and transforming the network that supports them
The Challenge
Design a secure, resilient, and flexible network solution to support more bandwidth intensive in-store solutions and improve customer experience.
In response to a rapidly evolving retail environment, the Retailer recognised the need for digital transformation to maintain the outstanding levels of service and engagement expected by its in-store customers.
In order to enhance customer experience, the business hoped to modernise its applications, transfer to cloud based EPOS systems, and move from traditional voice services to a cloud-based alternative.
Deployment of handheld devices would improve customer engagement by offering store associates instant access to inventory levels, along with the ability to place click-and-collect orders to other stores or arrange delivery direct to the customer’s home in the event of a local stockout.
The simple legacy store footprint comprised a single existing line. With more bandwidth intensive solutions under consideration, the network would need upgrading to provide a secure, optimised, and resilient foundation to achieve the desired business goals.
Flexibility and scalability were also critical, as rolling out new stores involved data-intensive processes requiring additional temporary bandwidth.
Kerv offered the retailer a Network Health Check. This 10-day consultancy activity analysed the network infrastructure, calculated existing and potential costs, and presented back a report that identified the best evolution strategy to meet potential network demands while maintaining tight margins. The advice was to deploy an SDWAN solution.
The Solution
A multi-bonded SD-WAN solution across all stores with an agile and responsive network managed service.
Kerv designed a robust, fast, and scalable SD-WAN solution with secure and optimal break out the cloud.
The Network Health Check encouraged the retailer to review its existing service provider contracts to improve the cost efficiency of the underlay infrastructure connecting its offices, distribution warehouses and supply chain sites.
The system was streamlined with a direct internet link to applications, reducing data flow inefficiency and improving the quality of service.
The Kerv SD-WAN solution could be deployed over new or existing connections, giving the business the freedom to choose the most available and cost-efficient services for their stores.
While they effectively commoditised the underlay technologies, the SD-WAN overlay ensured they would still receive the same integrated service experience. A multi-4G bonded solution would deliver the vital additional bandwidth and availability required to upgrade store processes.
Associates could carry out stock management queries and customer orders to improve engagement, while enhanced flexibility and scalability support rapid deployment of new stores, allowing data-heavy downloading of systems and applications.
Robust and seamless failover when outages occur provides the necessary resiliency, and prioritisation of business-critical applications (such as payments) ensures the business will not miss out on potential sales in the event of a single line failure.
“The campaign went live successfully in nearly 500 sites. With Kerv Digital, we have set up a true and successful partnership to deliver this challenging project. A big thank you to all involved!”
Result
By integrating a CMS for Costa Express Kerv Digital enabled marketing to move faster with a new CMS and API grouping.
Fostering collaboration between multidisciplinary teams working together alongside the client served to hasten delivery, enhance creativity and provide open and transparent ways of working.
The overall approach achieved the following:
- Establishing security and robustness: Machine-automated updates, with two-factor authentication.
- Adapting technology to meet business needs: Structured content to efficiently distribute marketing material to 8000 Costa Express machines, worldwide.
- Facilitating speed and efficiency: Enhancing speed, efficiency and adaptability of the marketing engine.
Speak our experts!
Give us a few details and we’ll get right back to you.
"*" indicates required fields
Case Study
Global Retailer: Transforms Network and Boosts Customer Experience
Client
Highstreet Shoe Retailer
Retail
Retail
Please note: This project was completed by WORTH, which later rebranded as Kerv Digital upon joining Kerv Group.
Customer Overview
A leading-edge fashion footwear retailer transforms and modernises to optimise customer experience.
The retailers’ stores provide style conscious customers with innovative shoes to suit every occasion. With over 160 stores globally and an evolving ecommerce platform, its in-house design team creates a unique product range for customers of its high street stores. To deliver these innovative products with the passionate, inspiring, and individual service their customers expect, they are embracing the cloud, modernising applications and transforming the network that supports them
The Challenge
Design a secure, resilient, and flexible network solution to support more bandwidth intensive in-store solutions and improve customer experience.
In response to a rapidly evolving retail environment, the Retailer recognised the need for digital transformation to maintain the outstanding levels of service and engagement expected by its in-store customers.
In order to enhance customer experience, the business hoped to modernise its applications, transfer to cloud based EPOS systems, and move from traditional voice services to a cloud-based alternative.
Deployment of handheld devices would improve customer engagement by offering store associates instant access to inventory levels, along with the ability to place click-and-collect orders to other stores or arrange delivery direct to the customer’s home in the event of a local stockout.
The simple legacy store footprint comprised a single existing line. With more bandwidth intensive solutions under consideration, the network would need upgrading to provide a secure, optimised, and resilient foundation to achieve the desired business goals.
Flexibility and scalability were also critical, as rolling out new stores involved data-intensive processes requiring additional temporary bandwidth.
Kerv offered the retailer a Network Health Check. This 10-day consultancy activity analysed the network infrastructure, calculated existing and potential costs, and presented back a report that identified the best evolution strategy to meet potential network demands while maintaining tight margins. The advice was to deploy an SDWAN solution.
The Solution
A multi-bonded SD-WAN solution across all stores with an agile and responsive network managed service.
Kerv designed a robust, fast, and scalable SD-WAN solution with secure and optimal break out the cloud.
The Network Health Check encouraged the retailer to review its existing service provider contracts to improve the cost efficiency of the underlay infrastructure connecting its offices, distribution warehouses and supply chain sites.
The system was streamlined with a direct internet link to applications, reducing data flow inefficiency and improving the quality of service.
The Kerv SD-WAN solution could be deployed over new or existing connections, giving the business the freedom to choose the most available and cost-efficient services for their stores.
While they effectively commoditised the underlay technologies, the SD-WAN overlay ensured they would still receive the same integrated service experience. A multi-4G bonded solution would deliver the vital additional bandwidth and availability required to upgrade store processes.
Associates could carry out stock management queries and customer orders to improve engagement, while enhanced flexibility and scalability support rapid deployment of new stores, allowing data-heavy downloading of systems and applications.
Robust and seamless failover when outages occur provides the necessary resiliency, and prioritisation of business-critical applications (such as payments) ensures the business will not miss out on potential sales in the event of a single line failure.
“We’ve seen a huge internal impact, and we feel confident that it’s the right way of working. We have created a culture of change and have pivoted the way we create a product. We’ve learnt a lot about designing a product with a customer, rather than for a customer.”
Result
By integrating a CMS for Costa Express Kerv Digital enabled marketing to move faster with a new CMS and API grouping.
Fostering collaboration between multidisciplinary teams working together alongside the client served to hasten delivery, enhance creativity and provide open and transparent ways of working.
The overall approach achieved the following:
- Establishing security and robustness: Machine-automated updates, with two-factor authentication.
- Adapting technology to meet business needs: Structured content to efficiently distribute marketing material to 8000 Costa Express machines, worldwide.
- Facilitating speed and efficiency: Enhancing speed, efficiency and adaptability of the marketing engine.
Speak our experts!
Give us a few details and we’ll get right back to you.
"*" indicates required fields
Case Study
Global Retailer: Transforms Network and Boosts Customer Experience
Client
Highstreet Shoe Retailer
Retail
Retail
Please note: This project was completed by WORTH, which later rebranded as Kerv Digital upon joining Kerv Group.
Customer Overview
A leading-edge fashion footwear retailer transforms and modernises to optimise customer experience.
The retailers’ stores provide style conscious customers with innovative shoes to suit every occasion. With over 160 stores globally and an evolving ecommerce platform, its in-house design team creates a unique product range for customers of its high street stores. To deliver these innovative products with the passionate, inspiring, and individual service their customers expect, they are embracing the cloud, modernising applications and transforming the network that supports them
The Challenge
Design a secure, resilient, and flexible network solution to support more bandwidth intensive in-store solutions and improve customer experience.
In response to a rapidly evolving retail environment, the Retailer recognised the need for digital transformation to maintain the outstanding levels of service and engagement expected by its in-store customers.
In order to enhance customer experience, the business hoped to modernise its applications, transfer to cloud based EPOS systems, and move from traditional voice services to a cloud-based alternative.
Deployment of handheld devices would improve customer engagement by offering store associates instant access to inventory levels, along with the ability to place click-and-collect orders to other stores or arrange delivery direct to the customer’s home in the event of a local stockout.
The simple legacy store footprint comprised a single existing line. With more bandwidth intensive solutions under consideration, the network would need upgrading to provide a secure, optimised, and resilient foundation to achieve the desired business goals.
Flexibility and scalability were also critical, as rolling out new stores involved data-intensive processes requiring additional temporary bandwidth.
Kerv offered the retailer a Network Health Check. This 10-day consultancy activity analysed the network infrastructure, calculated existing and potential costs, and presented back a report that identified the best evolution strategy to meet potential network demands while maintaining tight margins. The advice was to deploy an SDWAN solution.
The Solution
A multi-bonded SD-WAN solution across all stores with an agile and responsive network managed service.
Kerv designed a robust, fast, and scalable SD-WAN solution with secure and optimal break out the cloud.
The Network Health Check encouraged the retailer to review its existing service provider contracts to improve the cost efficiency of the underlay infrastructure connecting its offices, distribution warehouses and supply chain sites.
The system was streamlined with a direct internet link to applications, reducing data flow inefficiency and improving the quality of service.
The Kerv SD-WAN solution could be deployed over new or existing connections, giving the business the freedom to choose the most available and cost-efficient services for their stores.
While they effectively commoditised the underlay technologies, the SD-WAN overlay ensured they would still receive the same integrated service experience. A multi-4G bonded solution would deliver the vital additional bandwidth and availability required to upgrade store processes.
Associates could carry out stock management queries and customer orders to improve engagement, while enhanced flexibility and scalability support rapid deployment of new stores, allowing data-heavy downloading of systems and applications.
Robust and seamless failover when outages occur provides the necessary resiliency, and prioritisation of business-critical applications (such as payments) ensures the business will not miss out on potential sales in the event of a single line failure.
“We have enjoyed working with such knowledgeable and professional staff in a truly agile fashion to complete the technical development in such tight and challenging timescales.”
Result
By integrating a CMS for Costa Express Kerv Digital enabled marketing to move faster with a new CMS and API grouping.
Fostering collaboration between multidisciplinary teams working together alongside the client served to hasten delivery, enhance creativity and provide open and transparent ways of working.
The overall approach achieved the following:
- Establishing security and robustness: Machine-automated updates, with two-factor authentication.
- Adapting technology to meet business needs: Structured content to efficiently distribute marketing material to 8000 Costa Express machines, worldwide.
- Facilitating speed and efficiency: Enhancing speed, efficiency and adaptability of the marketing engine.
Speak our experts!
Give us a few details and we’ll get right back to you.
"*" indicates required fields
Case Study
Global Retailer: Transforms Network and Boosts Customer Experience
Client
Highstreet Shoe Retailer
Retail
Retail
Customer Overview
A leading-edge fashion footwear retailer transforms and modernises to optimise customer experience.
The retailers’ stores provide style conscious customers with innovative shoes to suit every occasion. With over 160 stores globally and an evolving ecommerce platform, its in-house design team creates a unique product range for customers of its high street stores. To deliver these innovative products with the passionate, inspiring, and individual service their customers expect, they are embracing the cloud, modernising applications and transforming the network that supports them
The Challenge
Design a secure, resilient, and flexible network solution to support more bandwidth intensive in-store solutions and improve customer experience.
In response to a rapidly evolving retail environment, the Retailer recognised the need for digital transformation to maintain the outstanding levels of service and engagement expected by its in-store customers.
In order to enhance customer experience, the business hoped to modernise its applications, transfer to cloud based EPOS systems, and move from traditional voice services to a cloud-based alternative.
Deployment of handheld devices would improve customer engagement by offering store associates instant access to inventory levels, along with the ability to place click-and-collect orders to other stores or arrange delivery direct to the customer’s home in the event of a local stockout.
The simple legacy store footprint comprised a single existing line. With more bandwidth intensive solutions under consideration, the network would need upgrading to provide a secure, optimised, and resilient foundation to achieve the desired business goals.
Flexibility and scalability were also critical, as rolling out new stores involved data-intensive processes requiring additional temporary bandwidth.
Kerv offered the retailer a Network Health Check. This 10-day consultancy activity analysed the network infrastructure, calculated existing and potential costs, and presented back a report that identified the best evolution strategy to meet potential network demands while maintaining tight margins. The advice was to deploy an SDWAN solution.
The Solution
A multi-bonded SD-WAN solution across all stores with an agile and responsive network managed service.
Kerv designed a robust, fast, and scalable SD-WAN solution with secure and optimal break out the cloud.
The Network Health Check encouraged the retailer to review its existing service provider contracts to improve the cost efficiency of the underlay infrastructure connecting its offices, distribution warehouses and supply chain sites.
The system was streamlined with a direct internet link to applications, reducing data flow inefficiency and improving the quality of service.
The Kerv SD-WAN solution could be deployed over new or existing connections, giving the business the freedom to choose the most available and cost-efficient services for their stores.
While they effectively commoditised the underlay technologies, the SD-WAN overlay ensured they would still receive the same integrated service experience. A multi-4G bonded solution would deliver the vital additional bandwidth and availability required to upgrade store processes.
Associates could carry out stock management queries and customer orders to improve engagement, while enhanced flexibility and scalability support rapid deployment of new stores, allowing data-heavy downloading of systems and applications.
Robust and seamless failover when outages occur provides the necessary resiliency, and prioritisation of business-critical applications (such as payments) ensures the business will not miss out on potential sales in the event of a single line failure.
The Outcome
Increased resilience and availability, improved customer engagement and outstanding price-performance efficiency.
- Cloud Confidence
The new network has given the business confidence to start migrating services to the cloud to improve efficiency, and the ability to embrace an omni-channel offering. - Improved Customer Experience
Store associates have rapid access to inventory information and allow for real time placement of
click-and-collect and home delivery orders, preventing missed sales during stockouts.
- Visibility and Control
Access to the SD-WAN management platform provides clear visibility of all traffic at application level and allows for centralised control from head office. - Resilience and Performance
Using multiple connections ensures heightened uptime and availability. Prioritisation ensures that critical business payment applications enjoy priority over standard applications. - Cost Efficiency
By rationalising the underlay technology, improved flexibility, performance, and resiliency were achieved with no cost increase to the business. - Rapid Site Deployment
The flexible model allows bandwidth to be scaled up to meet demand and supports the rapid deployment of new store sites. - Responsive Support
Kerv’s managed services provide agile, responsive support that is carefully tailored to the right solution for the business.
Want to find out more?
You may find these articles interesting:
SASE: The Iron Man of Network Security
Kerv SD-WAN: Retail Connectivity Without Limits
Accelerating Business: The Power of Kerv Rapid-WAN
Speak our experts!
Give us a few details and we’ll get right back to you.
"*" indicates required fields
Case Study
PureGym Solves Peak Demand Challenges with Digital and AI
Client
PureGym
Project type
Digital Transformation
Product
Genesys Cloud
Overview
PureGym has completely transformed its operating model. Now, a 100 percent digital contact centre provides customers with consistently great service, regardless of whether they prefer email, chat, or social platforms. Contacts don’t abandon during busy periods, enabling the company to capitalise on revenue opportunities and process more member applications than before.
With satisfaction scores trending upwards, PureGym no longer has the expense and headache of recruiting temps and managing incoming calls.
Our contact centre is now 100% digital. As well as increasing self-service and deflection rates we’re able to take advantage of automation opportunities that we simply never had before. And we no longer have the cost or logistical headache of call management.
Challenge
Founded in 2008, PureGym Group holds market leading positions across the UK, Denmark, and Switzerland with recent entries into the US, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Unlike traditional fitness centres, its disruptive customer-centric proposition is based around affordable membership fees (achieved through minimum staffing and unmanaged receptions), no fixed term contracts, and 24×7 access to most of their high-quality gyms.
However, rapid business growth came with a penalty. The company’s contact centre in Leeds was predominately call-based and soon became stretched. In addition, agents were slowed down and couldn’t perform at their best because of different systems such as Mitel on-prem telephony, Citrix virtual desktops, and multiple third-party apps.
We weren’t able to connect previous member interactions, or accurately plan and schedule resources, and it was virtually impossible to upgrade our IT due to continuous 24-hour operations
Like most gyms, peak demand occurs from new joiners every January (New Year fitness regimes) and September (when people return to work or study). To keep pace PureGym would recruit temps for up to three months, which was hugely expensive.
Increased demand also inevitably impacted customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) by creating longer wait times, frustrated customers, and abandoned contacts. With ambitious business growth plans over the next few years – and realising a recruitment-heavy contact centre model would be unsustainable – PureGym set about transforming its operating model.
“We’d launched digital initiatives before, but they hadn’t been widely adopted by our members,” added Michelle Kaye. “So, our goal was to move to a more proactive, digital-first approach to stem rising operational costs without compromising service levels.”
Solution
The first step was retiring on-prem systems and moving to an all-in-one, cloud contact centre platform. Following an extensive tender, the company chose a proposal from Kerv Experience and Genesys.
Kerv Experience showed us how easy the solution was to use and to turn on new omni-channel features, AI automations and workforce management tools. And, with Genesys, we also got the advantage of pre-built integrations and AppFoundry add-ons.
The project was executed in four workstreams to enable channel migration and home working: ensuring seamless experience for members and employees; creating a knowledge library; introducing a chatbot to alleviate advisors of repetitive tasks; and developing internal apps and tools to enhance service.
Guided and supported by Kerv specialists PureGym had a smooth migration with virtually zero disruption. Several months on, it’s reaping the benefits.
“Our contact centre is now 100% digital. As well as increasing self-service and deflection rates we’re able to take advantage of automation opportunities that we simply never had before. And we no longer have the cost or logistical headache of call management.”
Scott Adams,
Member Services Manager, PureGym
Front of house is an online members area supported by a 40-strong customer service team. They efficiently manage email, chat, and social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) interactions from a single unified desktop. Asynchronous Genesys Web Messenger was recently added, enabling international members in different time zones to start a conversation and return to it.
Result
Importantly, the company’s contact centre is now able to manage peak demand more effectively thanks to improvements in tools, data, and resource management. Agents feel empowered and engaged, as opposed to frustrated and demotivated by legacy systems.
This January we had a 72% increase in demand on the previous month, which was 16% higher than the previous January. Despite this huge demand spike, we managed to grow our member base by 10 percent, while reducing agent hours by 15%.
In previous years, PureGym would recruit as many as 10 temporary staff, carrying their pay costs from mid-December (for training) for anything up to three months. Last January it didn’t have to take on any, testimony to the improvements.
“AI and new automations have also allowed us to focus the human touch where it matters most,” noted Adams. “For example, when handling safety issues and sensitive complaints such as possible harassment and welfare concerns in our gyms. Similarly, with the cost-of-living crisis showing no signs of abating, we are having to manage more payment issues, where agents need to show more empathy and care.”
PureGym can do many things it couldn’t do before. Like adherence monitoring and seeing which agents are on and off queue. Now, with the correct tools, agents no longer struggle to work from home and perform better with data at their fingertips. In addition, gamification has injected fun and helped keep agents engaged, especially home workers.
“We run regular competitions with leaderboards and rewards based on points, which can be spent on Amazon vouchers, Virgin experience days and other prizes,” added Adams. “Likewise, improved quality management processes mean our team leaders save time and provide more accurate feedback.”
Built within two weeks, the first PureGym chatbot handles around 6,000 inquiries a week with many email requests successfully resolved through auto-replies. Should further assistance be required, agents can see all previous interactions at a glance, avoiding the need for members to repeat themselves. Other routine tasks, like scripting and form completing, have been automated as well.
Since implementing Genesys we’ve seen CSAT climb, with a consistent score of above 4 out of 5.
Take a Genesys tour
"*" indicates required fields
Case Study
PureGym Solves Peak Demand Challenges with Digital and AI
Client
PureGym
Project type
Digital Transformation
Product
Genesys Cloud
Overview
PureGym has completely transformed its operating model. Now, a 100 percent digital contact centre provides customers with consistently great service, regardless of whether they prefer email, chat, or social platforms. Contacts don’t abandon during busy periods, enabling the company to capitalise on revenue opportunities and process more member applications than before.
With satisfaction scores trending upwards, PureGym no longer has the expense and headache of recruiting temps and managing incoming calls.
Our contact centre is now 100% digital. As well as increasing self-service and deflection rates we’re able to take advantage of automation opportunities that we simply never had before. And we no longer have the cost or logistical headache of call management.
Take a Genesys tour
"*" indicates required fields
Case Study
PureGym Solves Peak Demand Challenges with Digital and AI
Client
PureGym
Project type
Digital Transformation
Product
Genesys Cloud
Overview
PureGym has completely transformed its operating model. Now, a 100 percent digital contact centre provides customers with consistently great service, regardless of whether they prefer email, chat, or social platforms. Contacts don’t abandon during busy periods, enabling the company to capitalise on revenue opportunities and process more member applications than before.
With satisfaction scores trending upwards, PureGym no longer has the expense and headache of recruiting temps and managing incoming calls.
Our contact centre is now 100% digital. As well as increasing self-service and deflection rates we’re able to take advantage of automation opportunities that we simply never had before. And we no longer have the cost or logistical headache of call management.
Challenge
Founded in 2008, PureGym Group holds market leading positions across the UK, Denmark, and Switzerland with recent entries into the US, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. Unlike traditional fitness centres, its disruptive customer-centric proposition is based around affordable membership fees (achieved through minimum staffing and unmanaged receptions), no fixed term contracts, and 24×7 access to most of their high-quality gyms.
However, rapid business growth came with a penalty. The company’s contact centre in Leeds was predominately call-based and soon became stretched. In addition, agents were slowed down and couldn’t perform at their best because of different systems such as Mitel on-prem telephony, Citrix virtual desktops, and multiple third-party apps.
We weren’t able to connect previous member interactions, or accurately plan and schedule resources, and it was virtually impossible to upgrade our IT due to continuous 24-hour operations
Like most gyms, peak demand occurs from new joiners every January (New Year fitness regimes) and September (when people return to work or study). To keep pace PureGym would recruit temps for up to three months, which was hugely expensive.
Increased demand also inevitably impacted customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) by creating longer wait times, frustrated customers, and abandoned contacts. With ambitious business growth plans over the next few years – and realising a recruitment-heavy contact centre model would be unsustainable – PureGym set about transforming its operating model.
“We’d launched digital initiatives before, but they hadn’t been widely adopted by our members,” added Michelle Kaye. “So, our goal was to move to a more proactive, digital-first approach to stem rising operational costs without compromising service levels.”
Solution
The first step was retiring on-prem systems and moving to an all-in-one, cloud contact centre platform. Following an extensive tender, the company chose a proposal from Kerv Experience and Genesys.
Kerv Experience showed us how easy the solution was to use and to turn on new omni-channel features, AI automations and workforce management tools. And, with Genesys, we also got the advantage of pre-built integrations and AppFoundry add-ons.
The project was executed in four workstreams to enable channel migration and home working: ensuring seamless experience for members and employees; creating a knowledge library; introducing a chatbot to alleviate advisors of repetitive tasks; and developing internal apps and tools to enhance service.
Guided and supported by Kerv specialists PureGym had a smooth migration with virtually zero disruption. Several months on, it’s reaping the benefits.
“Our contact centre is now 100% digital. As well as increasing self-service and deflection rates we’re able to take advantage of automation opportunities that we simply never had before. And we no longer have the cost or logistical headache of call management.”
Scott Adams,
Member Services Manager, PureGym
Front of house is an online members area supported by a 40-strong customer service team. They efficiently manage email, chat, and social media (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) interactions from a single unified desktop. Asynchronous Genesys Web Messenger was recently added, enabling international members in different time zones to start a conversation and return to it.
Result
Importantly, the company’s contact centre is now able to manage peak demand more effectively thanks to improvements in tools, data, and resource management. Agents feel empowered and engaged, as opposed to frustrated and demotivated by legacy systems.
This January we had a 72% increase in demand on the previous month, which was 16% higher than the previous January. Despite this huge demand spike, we managed to grow our member base by 10 percent, while reducing agent hours by 15%.
In previous years, PureGym would recruit as many as 10 temporary staff, carrying their pay costs from mid-December (for training) for anything up to three months. Last January it didn’t have to take on any, testimony to the improvements.
“AI and new automations have also allowed us to focus the human touch where it matters most,” noted Adams. “For example, when handling safety issues and sensitive complaints such as possible harassment and welfare concerns in our gyms. Similarly, with the cost-of-living crisis showing no signs of abating, we are having to manage more payment issues, where agents need to show more empathy and care.”
PureGym can do many things it couldn’t do before. Like adherence monitoring and seeing which agents are on and off queue. Now, with the correct tools, agents no longer struggle to work from home and perform better with data at their fingertips. In addition, gamification has injected fun and helped keep agents engaged, especially home workers.
“We run regular competitions with leaderboards and rewards based on points, which can be spent on Amazon vouchers, Virgin experience days and other prizes,” added Adams. “Likewise, improved quality management processes mean our team leaders save time and provide more accurate feedback.”
Built within two weeks, the first PureGym chatbot handles around 6,000 inquiries a week with many email requests successfully resolved through auto-replies. Should further assistance be required, agents can see all previous interactions at a glance, avoiding the need for members to repeat themselves. Other routine tasks, like scripting and form completing, have been automated as well.
Since implementing Genesys we’ve seen CSAT climb, with a consistent score of above 4 out of 5.
Result
Solid 300% growth plan
GoodShape serves multiple NHS trusts, so any drop in performance directly impacts their clients’ ability to staff safely. Near-live data is critical to ensuring these needs are met.
The company has laid a solid foundation for achieving its 300% growth plan. It was the first absence management provider in the UK to be ISO27001 certified. Now, twice-yearly quality audits are more straightforward. Bringing screen and voice recording together has halved the time required by an assessor to undertake an audit.
Other results included a 63% year-on-year drop in abandoned calls (excluding COVID-19 impact during March/April). Advisor and nurse occupancy levels have improved.
Average handling time has reduced by 30 seconds, saving around £80,000 a year. Members can now close absences using IVR. This has cut inbound demand and costs by over £100,000, while third-party chat and email object routing has saved a further £125,000 per annum. In the first four months, over 1,100 customer satisfaction surveys were completed, with an average score of 88.7%.
“We’ve not only managed peak demand, but also raised our game – safely migrating to home working while improving the quality, speed and effectiveness of services. As a result, we now have a significantly more agile business model and resilient disaster recovery plan.”
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Case Study
Global Retailer: Transforms Network and Boosts Customer Experience
Client
Highstreet Shoe Retailer
Retail
Retail
Please note: Kerv Consult was recently rebranded from Monochrome Consultancy when it joined the Kerv Group. This project was delivered at a point when the team was known as Monochrome Consultancy.
Overview
Delivering quality improvement programmes
Qualitas Consortium UK Ltd is an award winning advisory and training services business, working in partnership with NHS England to deliver quality improvement programmes within Primary Care. An in-depth knowledge of the healthcare sector gained from years of experience, has enabled the thoughtful design and delivery of award winning strategic, leadership and organisational development programmes, that support the sector’s continuous improvement.
Kerv Consult and Hive HR Solutions supported Qualitas Consortium to grow their business by almost 100 people in order to support an urgent request from the NHS to drive improvement across GP practices.
The Challenge
Design a secure, resilient, and flexible network solution to support more bandwidth intensive in-store solutions and improve customer experience.
In response to a rapidly evolving retail environment, the Retailer recognised the need for digital transformation to maintain the outstanding levels of service and engagement expected by its in-store customers.
In order to enhance customer experience, the business hoped to modernise its applications, transfer to cloud based EPOS systems, and move from traditional voice services to a cloud-based alternative.
Deployment of handheld devices would improve customer engagement by offering store associates instant access to inventory levels, along with the ability to place click-and-collect orders to other stores or arrange delivery direct to the customer’s home in the event of a local stockout.
The simple legacy store footprint comprised a single existing line. With more bandwidth intensive solutions under consideration, the network would need upgrading to provide a secure, optimised, and resilient foundation to achieve the desired business goals.
Flexibility and scalability were also critical, as rolling out new stores involved data-intensive processes requiring additional temporary bandwidth.
Kerv offered the retailer a Network Health Check. This 10-day consultancy activity analysed the network infrastructure, calculated existing and potential costs, and presented back a report that identified the best evolution strategy to meet potential network demands while maintaining tight margins. The advice was to deploy an SDWAN solution.
The Solution
A multi-bonded SD-WAN solution across all stores with an agile and responsive network managed service.
Kerv designed a robust, fast, and scalable SD-WAN solution with secure and optimal break out the cloud.
The Network Health Check encouraged the retailer to review its existing service provider contracts to improve the cost efficiency of the underlay infrastructure connecting its offices, distribution warehouses and supply chain sites.
The system was streamlined with a direct internet link to applications, reducing data flow inefficiency and improving the quality of service.
The Kerv SD-WAN solution could be deployed over new or existing connections, giving the business the freedom to choose the most available and cost-efficient services for their stores.
While they effectively commoditised the underlay technologies, the SD-WAN overlay ensured they would still receive the same integrated service experience. A multi-4G bonded solution would deliver the vital additional bandwidth and availability required to upgrade store processes.
Associates could carry out stock management queries and customer orders to improve engagement, while enhanced flexibility and scalability support rapid deployment of new stores, allowing data-heavy downloading of systems and applications.
Robust and seamless failover when outages occur provides the necessary resiliency, and prioritisation of business-critical applications (such as payments) ensures the business will not miss out on potential sales in the event of a single line failure.
Result
By integrating a CMS for Costa Express Kerv Digital enabled marketing to move faster with a new CMS and API grouping.
Fostering collaboration between multidisciplinary teams working together alongside the client served to hasten delivery, enhance creativity and provide open and transparent ways of working.
The overall approach achieved the following:
- Establishing security and robustness: Machine-automated updates, with two-factor authentication.
- Adapting technology to meet business needs: Structured content to efficiently distribute marketing material to 8000 Costa Express machines, worldwide.
- Facilitating speed and efficiency: Enhancing speed, efficiency and adaptability of the marketing engine.
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