Success Story –
METRO Deutschland
How to stay in control of customer service as contact volume increases?
Up to 10% more reachability & better balanced agent utilization despite seasonal call influxes
When peaks are very high, the wholesale company METRO Germany needed a solution to ensure that customer service availability and quality remain at a high level.
Thanks to virtualQ’s intelligent callback management system, holding times have been reduced, efficiency has increased by an average of 10%, and the workload of external service center agents has been lastingly reduced.
Download the entire Success story of METRO and virtualQ !
Challenge
- High peak periods around Easter and Christmas regularly result in greatly increased demand at the METRO Service Center.
- Due to fluctuating request and demand curves, agent utilization is not uniformly constant.
- Waves of illness further complicated staff planning.
Challenge
- Busy periods around Easter and Christmas regularly result in a sharp increase in demand at the METRO Service Center
- Due to fluctuating query and demand curves, agent utilization is not consistent across the board
- Workforce planning is further complicated by waves of staff illnesses
Goal
- Reachability at the service center should be guaranteed even with high call volumes
- The waiting time of callers should be minimized Continuous peaks should be smoothed and become more controllable
- Agents are to be relieved by optimized forecasts and control
Goal
- Reachability at the service center should be guaranteed even with high call volumes
- The callers’ holding time need to be minimized
- The peaks should be smoothed out and become more manageable
- Agents must be relieved of heavy workloads
Result
- On average, 12% of callers use the callback service
- Up to 10% improvement in reachability since the tool was deployed
- Optimal agent utilization despite fluctuating call volumes
Result
- On average, 12% of callers use the callback service
- Since the tool was deployed, there has been an improvement in reachability of up to 10%
- Agent utilization has been optimized despite fluctuating call volumes
Challenge
- Busy periods around Easter and Christmas regularly result in a sharp increase in demand at the METRO Service Center
- Due to fluctuating query and demand curves, agent utilization is not consistent across the board
- Workforce planning is further complicated by waves of staff illnesses
Goal
- Reachability at the service center should be guaranteed even with high call volumes
- The callers’ holding time need to be minimized
- The peaks should be smoothed out and become more manageable
- Agents must be relieved of heavy workloads
Result
- On average, 12% of callers use the callback service
- Since the tool was deployed, there has been an improvement in reachability of up to 10%
- Agent utilization has been optimized despite fluctuating call volumes
Intelligent callbacks from virtualQ provide relief
Seasonal peaks, such as the Christmas and Easter periods, put a strain on capacity at the METRO Service Center. In order to achieve more efficient customer service in the long term, METRO Deutschland approached virtualQ. AI-based peak management using intelligent callbacks now enables better management of call peaks.
Uncomplicated connection takes just a few days
For the deployment, virtualQ was connected to METRO Deutschland’s existing ACD. virtualQ’s aritficial intelligence and algorithms calculated the optimal utilization of agents; the algorithm learned autonomously and was thus able to automatically forward callbacks to available agents at suitable times after just a few weeks.
Automatic control offers real added value
With virtualQ, callers are reliably called back at convenient times when call volumes are lower – instead of being put on hold or, worse, hanging up. In this way, workload for call agents is automatically and efficiently optimized.
Refer to the full succes story to get all the facts and figures!