Case Study: Akixi Increases UK Mail Order Company’s Revenue and Sales

Kingstown Associates was established in 2001 and is a leading UK mail order company based in East Yorkshire who own a number of lifestyle brands. Their customer base is over 60-year-olds and they aim to assist elderly people to make their lives easier. They produce 8 different catalogues which are mailed out consistently every few weeks to their vast database of 1.6 million customers. Kingstown Associates’ annual turnover is approximately £22 million and their average order is worth £35.

The Challenge

Kingstown Associates were originally using an Avaya system which was approximately 11 years old. They required a more reliable and updated system that would provide them with what they were looking for. “We went to Kingston Communications and they supplied us with a Panasonic system and it was really not fit for our purpose.  It was very unreliable, we used to have CommSoft and we wanted something that was more robust and something that would stand the test of time and help us grow,” says Kingstown Associates Operations Director, Paul Chambers.

The Solution

Kingstown Associates contacted their service provider, Intouch Advance. Intouch Advance is a leading UK business telecoms provider who supply a broad range of communications solutions to business customers, including fixed landlines, mobile, voice and converged data. Intouch Advance is also a reseller of Akixi and recommended Akixi’s services to Kingstown Associates.

Kingstown Associates started using Akixi’s services 3 months ago, but with more than 100 extensions, 61 ACD agents, 58 presence users and 8 supervisors, they have become one of Akixi’s large end-user sites.

The Benefits

Although Kingstown Associates have only been using Akixi for a short period of time, they have already reaped several benefits of its products. Whilst using Akixi’s products Kingstown Associates have increased their answer rate by an impressive 5%, which in turn has increased their service level exponentially. Paul Chambers says, “last month we answered 98% of calls, so we got  a massive uplift since we used to answer 93%, and I would say the vast majority of it is due to Akixi, in particular the wallboard. The visibility of the wallboard is fantastic and the depth we can drill down to different queues and what agents are doing is useful as well. So it just helps us massively. E.g. this morning so far we have answered 100% of calls, which is amazing considering we have only been open for the past hour and a half!”

Besides the wallboard, Kingstown Associates make use of the several reports available on Akixi’s service. Another favourite report of theirs is the Active Call List, which allows you to see current activity.  The report generates a list of the active calls on the telephone system. For Kingstown Associates this report allows them to take necessary action when there is a high number of calls. Paul Chambers says, “the Active Call List is very helpful; I leave that running on my desktop because you can see when you suddenly need to react because the list grows. Therefore we know how busy we are and we can put extra operators on the calls if necessary.”

Akixi has also helped Kingstown Associates increase their overall revenue and sales.  Paul continues to explain that “it has helped us increase revenue because we  are answering more calls and the abandoned call rate has dropped. Also we are up by 9.8% on our sales. We have not changed the way we run our business, but since using Akixi the pick-up and service level has gone through the roof. It is the best it has been for over a year.”

Conclusion

Overall, the addition of the Akixi platform has assisted Kingstown Associates to grow as a business by enabling them to effectively manage their team. The service has increased their call answer rate from 93% to 98% in the short time that they have been using it. The use of Akixi reporting has increased Kingstown Associates’ customer service, ensuring that as many customer calls/queries are dealt with as soon as possible. Using Akixi has also increased revenue and sales by 9.8%.

“I chose Akixi because the wallboards are so important. I have worked in call centres for the past 27 years and it is fundamental that you have something like Akixi to help you and your team work efficiently,” says Paul Chambers.

For more information, please visit www.akixi.com