Wilson Sporting Goods finds that using RightNow’s eService Center helps offload customer service staff during e-mail marketing initiatives, while increasing site traffic and sales.
Wilson Sporting Goods makes more than
the volleyballs featured in the movie "Castaway," and its e-mail marketing
programs make sure its customers know it.
Rick Kerpsack, Wilson’s director of
interactive marketing, wanted to start using large-scale e-mail campaigns as
part of his marketing strategy for Wilson’s varied line of athletic equipment.
But he was concerned about the flood of customer inquiries that could result
from a mass mailing.
That’s where RightNow’s eService Center
came in. RightNow’s eService Center is a hosted contact center service that lets
users manage customer service inquiries across both traditional and online
customer channels. It includes Web self-service, e-mail response management and
live chat capabilities, ensuring users can answer their customer inquiries
whenever and wherever they need to.
"As part of a campaign, we drive
customers to a specific [eService Center-supported] URL," Kerpsack explains.
"That URL links to our self-service content, so customers quickly find answers
themselves without calling or e-mailing."
Kerspack said he staggers his e-mail
messages, sending 20,000 or so a day for a few days straight, rather than
blasting 90,000 at one time. This staggered mailing approach gives the Wilson
marketing and customer service team time to create knowledge items specifically
for the active campaigns, helping them tailor eService to answer the majority of
inquiries, he said.
"As soon as questions start coming in,
the service reps identify common questions," he says. "With RightNow, we quickly
post new knowledge items on our site so that customers quickly find the answers
themselves."
Kerpsack also credits RightNow’s
reporting tools for helping his company improve service quality. For example, by
comparing the statistics from each of the three equipment areas – racquet, team
and golf --Wilson’s managers can benchmark each department and identify
strengths, weaknesses and make necessary adjustments.
"That’s very useful information for
making adjustments in how each team does things," Kerpsack said. "The
competition created between the service teams doesn’t hurt
either."
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