HMV Case Study
Store managers are certainly kept on their toes. Trouble is, though, they’re also kept on the phone. Telephone calls to the shop are frequent, 
driven by an active web site and national advertising campaigns.For the store manager, the combination of a ringing phone and growing checkout queue is difficult to handle – no matter how hard you try, one party is always going to be unhappy.
The problem was exacerbated by a lack of call statistics from the existing service provider and a lack of time for store managers to analyse bills. So, when it came to finding a solution, the HMV team were really working in the dark.
The HMV customer experience was under threat and an effective solution was needed quickly. An obvious solution was more staff, but that meant more cost and increased pressure on margins. It’s also an inefficient solution for dealing with the fluctuating flow of customers between busy and quiet periods.
The Issue:
The existing inbound service provider was unable to offer any type of call reporting or other services that could alleviate call handling time at store level.
Required:
A low cost, flexible means of dealing with customer calls, identifying call patterns, understanding reasons for calls and, ultimately, meeting service levels.
Solution:
Daisy Inbound Call Manager – a simple web-based tool that manages telephone calls, leaving staff to manage customers.
‘Nothing low-cost about that,’ you may be thinking, but you’d be wrong. Amazingly, Daisy provides inbound Manager free of charge. Managed in-house or by Daisy, you can choose which route suits your business.
Long-gone are the days when HMV was simply a music store. Go into any one of HMV’s 300 stores around the country and you’ll find DVDs, Blu-rays, games and IPods, as well as the usual vast selection of CDs, all enticing ever bigger numbers of people into the store.
Daisy Inbound Call Manager - Keeping Business Moving
Daisy Inbound Call Manager is a web-based software platform providing a console that allows simple management of non-geographic numbers or even geographic numbers. A vast number of capabilities and management reports are accessed via a simple user interface that gives the user control over when, where and how the numbers are used. In the case of HMV, the functions selected all focused on the priority of improving service quality for the customer making the call. Key features used included:
0843 number
A dedicated non-geographic number set up for each store provided a slick and responsive range of services.
Free Call Queuing
Informative messaging and bespoke HMV music-on-hold to occupy the waiting caller.
Free Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
The feature gives callers quick access to information, or an assistant, with a click on the keypad. Options can be altered instantly. In addition to improving the customer experience on the phone, these services have also made an impact on the quality of service in-store by reducing the number of calls that have to be dealt with by a store colleague, thereby giving the store manager more opportunity to deal with customers.
Daisy Inbound Call Manager -Keeping Managers In The Know
In addition, Inbound Call Manager also gives HMV the advantages of better understanding call usage and more efficient planning of business processes. For example:
Free Call Recording (Up to 7 years)
Deployed automatically during the call, Call Recording provides immediate feedback on requirements, measures training performance and allows management to see where services can be improved.
Free Bespoke Detailed Reporting for Successful or Unsuccessful Calls
Inbound Call Manager reporting gives HMV insight into call patterns for individual stores so that services can be optimised.
Free Web-based Portal for Unlimited Users
Whilst managed by Daisy primarily, the Inbound Call Manager portal gives the HMV team access to all features and the ability to change configurations instantly.
Revenue Share
With a healthy share of 0843 revenue delivered by Daisy, HMV has additional funding to further improve customer services.
“The Best Investment We Never Made!” “The decision to go with Daisy was an absolute no-brainer.”
This was the reaction from HMV Customer Contact Manager, Catherine Santamaria, on learning that Daisy provides Inbound Call Manager and all support services completely free of charge.
Catherine continues, “We were really impressed with the range of features offered by Inbound Call Manager, so it was a very pleasant surprise to learn that, unlike providers of alternative systems, there was no charge for the service. It’s the best investment we never made!”
“Daisy controls most of the services for us at the moment but the system is so simple that it requires very little time or internal resource to manage. We’re using only about half the features on Inbound Call Manager and already it’s been enormously important in improving call handling and customer service delivery.”
“The clarity of reporting has been exceptional. The weekly reports help us analyse call traffic and anticipate where stores may have problems in the future. The same applies to Call Recording. It’s a great asset in maintaining service quality and has already helped us identify several training issues.”
HMV – What’s in Store for the Future?
Following the successful pilot scheme in Yorkshire last year, HMV’s Inbound Call Manager is well into its three phase roll-out programme across all stores. In addition, a Customer Services Call Centre and a Ticketing Line service has been added to the inbound estate.
Catherine sums up: “Working with Daisy has helped greatly, not just with the deployment of Inbound Call
Manager. For example they helped update our Yellow Pages listings, they uploaded our music-on-hold. They’ve done a whole load of things that just makes life easier for us. Importantly, we’ll soon be working together on designing bespoke reports that will give more feedback to help improve our services even further.“
“Again, the big difference with Daisy is that all this comes for free. In fact, it’s so good we’d probably have paid for it – but don’t tell them that!”
HMV’s first store, on Oxford Street in London, was opened in 1921 and since then the chain has become symbolised throughout the world by its iconic ‘His Master’s Voice’ dog and trumpet trademark. Today, HMV operates from over 400 entertainment stores and websites in the UK & Ireland, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore. The brand also extends into entertainment related experiences, including ownership of live music venues and summer festivals across the UK and related ticketing activities.HMV Group was formed in 1998 as a vehicle to acquire HMV and Dillons from EMI and Waterstone’s from WH Smith. In May 2002, the Group was listed on the London Stock Exchange.
