Quarter of a million Comet customers comfortable using self-service solution

Over 250,000 customers have now had their delivery enquiries handled by Comet’s automated self-service system.So far, the system has been used by close to 250,000 of its customers, delivering operational improvements, improved customer choice and freeing up agents to handle more time-consuming calls.

Keeping a close eye on the needs of its customers was foremost in Comet’s mind when it chose SpeechStorm’s phone self-service solution to handle customer delivery and store locator enquiries. Far from a desire to reduce choice and direct calls away from its call centre, the system was installed to give those customers who want to self-serve the option to do so and enjoy the resulting benefits of speed and 24-hour service.

Simon Parkinson, General Manager, Customer Information Centre at Comet spearheaded the drive to implement a phone self-service solution to help deliver a broad-based customer service improvement programme leveraging speech self-service solutions. “We are delighted with the success and customer take up of the phone self-service solution, particularly for delivery enquiries where over 80% are now handled by the automated service. We have been very careful and tactical in our use of automation. It is always implemented as choice and never mandatory and used that way, it genuinely gives the customer the option to choose it if they want to. The 250,000 callers that have chosen automation are using it with ease and our surveys tell us they enjoy and like it.”

Comet now plans to extend its use of SpeechStorm’s voice self-service solutions to other parts of the business to create further choice and improve service levels for its customers. “We will continue to use IT cleverly and tactically and if the customer doesn’t want to use an automated service they simply speak to a live agent as they always have done. This is not about reducing costs and diverting calls from the call centre; it is about extending customer choice.”

“Comet’s focus on providing first-class customer service has certainly paid off in its approach to phone self-service solutions,” commented Roger Chidwick, sales & marketing director of SpeechStorm. “Agents are freed to handle more complex customer queries and those who are comfortable with self-service are getting all the information they need while enjoying a reduced call time. All callers have the option to breakout to an agent if required but very few are taking this option, satisfied instead with their automated enquiry experience. We now look forward to replicating that customer care success across other parts of the business with our comprehensive portfolio of phone self service solutions.”