London, May 13th 2008: Today, at the European Customer Management World (ECMW), Fizzback announces the successful completion of the first stage of an ongoing partnership with Phones 4u to help the retailer improve customer satisfaction and advocacy.
After recognising the need to improve customer service in the mobile phone industry, Phones 4u called on Fizzback to provide a modern and effective way to listen to and engage with their customers via SMS.
Jim Slater, Director of Marketing and CRM at Phones 4u, commented: “Fizzback provides us with vital insight into the mood of the customer base and how our stores are driving satisfaction and advocacy. We view it as an essential component of our customer management strategy.”
Fizzback provides Phones 4u with the technology to gather instant customer feedback and engage with their customers in SMS based dialogue. The Fizzback system tracks purchase satisfaction, propensity to recommend and its unique artificial intelligence engine understands and categorises free-form verbatim customer comments. It then analyses the comments received and immediately responds to customers, thanking them for their feedback and, where necessary, notifying them of the action being taken to rectify any problems. As a result, Phones 4u gains valuable customer insight and the means to build a dialogue between the Phones 4u brand and the customer.
Jim Slater continues, “We know our customers are talking – the mobile phone is an important and emotive part of their lives – we just want an appropriate way of joining in that conversation to ensure we shape our processes around their needs.”
The service provided by Fizzback has been run both after the customer’s first store visit, when SMS messages were sent to enquire about their experience, and once they received their first bill – two key moments of truth in the mobile phone industry. This provides a continuous, invaluable means of monitoring store and sales teams’ performance, as well as transparency on specific issues that can be instantly addressed.
Jim Slater comments: “We were pleased to find out that our sales teams were consistently helpful and courteous, but we also wanted to make sure that they had fully explained both the phone’s features and the price plan, ensuring that customers didn’t need to call our support lines, or get an unpleasant surprise in their first bill.”
In fact, Phones 4u is so keen to ensure long-term satisfaction and advocacy that the in-store staff bonus system was modified to incorporate scores and rankings that Fizzback generates, and a significant percentage of the bonus that staff receive is now based upon customer feedback that is received and analysed by Fizzback. Furthermore, store and employee league tables built into the Fizzback dashboard have created a healthy competition around customer service and boosted their service culture.
Fizzback CEO, Rob Keve, comments: “We’re delighted that our ongoing partnership with Phones 4u is reaping tangible, measurable benefits. We’ll continue to work with their team to set new standards in service and customer experience management”
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About The Fizzback Group
The Fizzback Group is an innovator in customer engagement. Founded in 2004, the innovative Fizzback solution helps companies to listen, respond and act in real-time to their customers’ comments. Feedback captured at the point of experience is analysed automatically using a unique artificial intelligence engine, driving intelligent responses, prompting company action and providing powerful insight into the voice of a previously silent majority. Fizzback enables businesses to derive true economic benefits by increasing customer lifetime value and positive word-of-mouth.
The Fizzback Group is backed by Advent Venture Partners and located in London, UK. Contact details: [email protected] or 0845 067 1000.
