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Case Study
Analytics at work, 24/7
BPO helped a leading software firm double its online sales
conversions using an indigenously developed predictive analytics platform. By
Rajendra Chaudhary
 When
it comes to the BPO space, there aren’t a whole lot of places where an
organization can innovate and differentiate itself from the competition. Whether
it is sales or service, for a BPO it is all about engaging with customers in
the most productive manner possible. Every single BPO outfit focuses on that
objective and there’s little difference between how most go about accomplishing
that goal. Therefore, when a BPO organization does do something different (and
wins a patent for it!), it is only fair that due credit is given.
24/7 Customer is a BPO outfit that’s headquartered in
Campbell, CA, USA. It employs more than 9,000 people across 10 global centers
including two that are based in India. Up until recently, there was little that
24/7 Customer did differently in terms of how it interacted with the end customers
on the behalf of its clients. It relied on traditional channels such as phone,
e-mail and chat to service its client’s customers. All that changed when
the company developed its own suite of Predictive Experience (Px) solutions.
Built under the aegis of Ravi Garikipati, Chief Technology
Officer - Innovation Labs, 24/7 Customer, the Px suite consists of a set of
applications that leverage the power of consumer behavior across the Web to
predict what consumers want in sales or service, even before they ask for it.
As a result, the BPO could now ensure that end consumers’ needs were serviced
within the Web channel without them having to call the 1-800 numbers.
One of the first companies that 24/7 Customer deployed the
Px suite for was a leading US based software company (name withheld due to NDA
between BPO and its client) focused on creating multimedia and creativity software
solutions for the Web and print publishing industry. The software firm had an
extremely broad and mature product line and it wanted to identify if it was
simply moving its online revenues around into different buckets or truly bringing
in fresh revenues. It was also keen on identifying products that were not doing
well with the customers. Above it all, it wanted to improve its customer engagement
activities and improve online sales conversion rates especially those around
the self-service mode.
An application, Px for Sales, was deployed on the software
firm’s Web site. It had a comprehensive set of over 90 rules that determined
a visitor’s propensity to buy and the expected revenue from the customer.
It also proactively triggered a chat session whenever it saw the need for customer
assistance. This helped clients target customers who really needed help and
do it in a fairly ‘customized’ manner.
 "After
deploying Px for Sales, the online sales conversion rate of the software
firm jumped from 8% to 22% within a short span of time."
Ravi Garikipati
Chief Technology Officer Innovation Labs, 24/7 Customer |
Explaining how the the application worked, Garikipati said
that Px for Sales was designed such that it could track the Web trail of every
user who came to the client’s Web site and browsed through the pages. Based
on all the information contained in the user’s Web journey, 24/7 Customer’s
predictive services platform was able to predict and service the customer’s
likely objective as he surfed the client’s Web site.
“We did this by tagging a small snippet of Java script
code on to the client’s Web site. After this, whenever any user visited
the site, we could track his entire journey. Over time, by doing this for a
sizable number of users, we collected huge volumes of data and built different
predictive analytics models, in the offline mode. These models were then plugged
into our predictive service platform. Consequently, the next time we had a user
on the site, based on his initial activities, the predictive analytics engine
at the backend could now predict his needs and try to service the same through
interactive chat,” explained Garikipati.
The process starts with the engine predicting a set of possible
objectives. Once a user chooses his objective, the engine helps him out with
a self-service issue resolution framework. In instances where the self-service
issue resolution framework is not able to resolve the customer’s objective,
the customer instance is escalated to 24/7 Customer’s agents who try to
address the query.
The application worked in case of both, authenticated as
well as non-authenticated users.
 Talking
about the benefits that accrued as a result of deploying Px for Sales, Garikipati
said that the online sales conversion rate of the software firm jumped from
8% to 22% within a short span of time. “It even trumped contact centers
that were performing at 16% sales conversions. Plus, it increased Average Order
Value (AOV) of online purchases by $50 per transaction. In addition to all this,
the chat sessions also provided a wealth of data that they could mine for future
trends and customer feedback pointing to areas for improvement on the client’s
Web site.”
“The application also helped customers to find the most
appropriate product on the client’s site by helping them understand what
they might already own, what they needed currently, what they might want tomorrow
and how much it would cost,” added Garikipati.
Since Px for Sales targeted customers with the highest expected
revenue, the software firm achieved higher revenues. Moreover, it also improved
the overall customer experience and helped the client achieve higher satisfaction
level among customers on the chat channel in comparison to the phone or Web.
In addition to Px for Sales, the Px suite also includes Px
for Service which as the name suggests is designed for services centric processes.
rajendra.c@expressindia.com
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