Case Studies

Customer Profile

Founded in 1944 and headquartered in Marshfield, Wisconsin, Figi’s, Inc. is a leading direct marketer of food-related gift items, as well as collectible treasures, personalized merchandise and flowers.

Market:

U.S.

Industry:

Fine quality food-related gift items, collectibles and other merchandise

Challenge:

Manage dramatic seasonal call volume increases efficiently and smoothly.

"As we enter our fifth season as Figi’s outsourced call center partner, we’re looking forward to another successful holiday season. We have gained incremental efficiencies year over year with regard to the program ramp up – not only from a human resources perspective, but from a technology and telephony standpoint as well"
Darcy Tudor, VP & Program Manager, MAI

FIGI’S GIFTS IN GOOD TASTE
Seasonal Customer Service Support

SCENARIO

While Figi’s Gifts in Good Tastes are popular year-round, the company’s business peaks dramatically during the holiday season which presents unique customer service challenges that Figi’s in-house customer service staff cannot meet effectively. Starting in 2008, MAI has provided seasonal customer service support for approximately 60 days to ensure Figi’s is able to process orders efficiently and accurately.

APPROACH

Working with Figi’s management, MAI created a strategic project plan to address the dramatic increase in call volume experienced annually during the peak gift-giving season. The plan is refined annually and involves:

  • Recruiting, hiring and training 200+ agents:
    • Recruitment begins in October
    • Candidate screening, interviewing, testing and background checks are performed
    • Program goes live mid-November.
  • Secure, dedicated network connectivity to Figi’s AS400 system
  • Providing 24 Hours of training per agent
  • Processing order phone orders with up-sell, order status inquiries, product assistance, adjustments/reships, partial allowances, shipping and handling calculations, returns, complaints and general customer service
  • Providing access to real-time Avaya Call Management statistics,including agent, queue and trunk status
  • Staffing to forecasted levels within 95% scheduled adherence, measured at half-hour intervals
  • Providing remote monitoring capabilities, plus monitoring one call per agent per day

RESULT

MAI’s project plan details tasks and dates for recruiting/hiring, telecommunications, network, hardware and software. Recruitment for the program begins in October. MAI typically obtains in excess of 450 applications from prospective employees. Candidate screening, interviewing, testing and background checks are performed prior to mid-November when the program goes live. Two MAI trainers attend four day Train-the-Trainer sessions at Figi’s, Inc., then subsequently train, test and certify more than 200 agents. Weekly conference calls are held to discuss progress checks and address outstanding issues.

Now approaching its fifth year, the program averages 13,000+ dedicated agent hours, 78,000+ calls and 50,000+ orders handled through MAI. Order accuracy goals and targeted up-sell conversion rates have been achieved every year. Quality requirements and schedule adherence objectives have also been achieved.