Leading retailer reduces AHT by 43% and increases online self service rates to 92%

Reduced AHT from 15 minutes to 8.5 minutes
Increased online self-service rates to 92%
Directed 94% of calls to the right desk in the right store
The client
A leading Australian online and brick-and-mortar department store chain.
The challenge
The client recognised that their customers preferred low-effort channels such as messaging and wanted to achieve the following objectives:
- Free up team members’ time to better serve in-store customers.
- Move less complex calls into lower-cost channels while offering differentiated services.
- Provide a single point of contact for customers.
- Build flexible and scalable solutions to meet current and future needs.
The solution
Probe CX completed a careful and in-depth analysis of the client’s key call drivers and workforce management processes to understand what shopping needs customers wanted to address and how best to offer to them.
Probe CX’s areas of opportunity identified included:
- A lack of automation and proactive contact
- 60 dual-tone multi-frequency interactive voice response systems
- Variations in the way processes and procedures were handled
- Complex pathways and a lack of insights or real-time reporting
- High average handing times (AHT) such as 16 minutes for a single return transaction
- Low operational control
To address these, Probe CX:
- Established three contact centres powered by digital-first technology
- Deflected calls, identified callers and determined caller intent all before the call reached the agent by implementing Oration by Convai; an easy-to-implement, low-cost, AI-powered contact centre plugin.
- Qualified information for back-of-house teams by developing a virtual agent that acted as a self-service option.
The result
As a result of these solutions, the client achieved the following results:
Reduced AHT from 15 minutes to 8.5 minutes.
Automated identification and order information gathering for over 40% of callers.
Returns contacts decreased by 32% in traditional channels.
Customer demand for live human agent assistance decreased by 46% following interactions with the virtual agent.
Increased online self-service rates to 92%.
Directed 94% of calls to the right department in the right store.
Up to $640,000 in labour cost savings.