Amway
Manufacturing and marketing company Amway is bypassing communications bottlenecks using Datasquirt’s CONTACT to manage its text and email messages.
Life gets busy for Amway and its IBO network towards the end of
each month. The company pays its IBOs using a tiered structure -
the more they sell, the higher their commission rate - which is
calculated monthly. As the month draws to a close, there's a flurry
of activity with IBOs stretching to meet sales targets and reach
higher reward levels. As a result of the increased activity, 70
percent of the contact centre's traffic arrives in the last three
days of each month.
Amway is now delivering timely outbound marketing campaigns to
its entire Australasian network of independent business owners
(IBOs) during peak email and phone-traffic periods. During its
month-end peak, Amway is using timely outbound SMS text messages to
keep IBOs informed of their current status and, if necessary, to
encourage them to move up a gear. It also uses SMS texts to
communicate special offers and other promotions, as well as sending
congratulatory messages to the month's high achievers - something
that has proved popular.
Using SMS to grow sales
Amway New Zealand's regional contact centre manager, Gay
Reed-Barrance, says SMS text messaging has been a very successful
outbound marketing channel for a number of reasons: it's
cost-effective, fast, efficient, interactive, fun and, most
important of all, it grows sales.
It also smoothes call centre demand and enables the contact team
to work smarter, with staff handling incoming text messages between
phone calls. Another benefit is that all customer history is
captured in a single database.
She says: "Email looks cost-effective and it can be at times,
but not everybody opens all of their messages straight away - in
fact, some don't open them at all. We know this because we monitor
responses. On the other hand, very few people say no to text."
Text is a particularly appropriate communications channel for
Amway because many IBOs tend to be out and about visiting customers
rather than sitting at home in front of a PC. It's also a popular
communications channel with people in Amway's key demographics - 30
percent of IBOs are Asian and many are younger people who are more
comfortable with cellphone messaging.
There's a noticeable impact on internal reporting. "CONTACT
tells us how many messages are sent and how many IBOs respond - the
rates are very good," says Reed-Barrance. "We also know very
quickly what percentage of people said yes or no to a
promotion."
Targeted cost savings
Text doesn't just deliver a high read and response rate it's
also very quick, with up to three-quarters of Australian IBOs and
half of New Zealand IBOs replying within two hours.
Reed-Barrance says SMS text is cheap compared with the cost of
making and handling voice calls - with the added advantage that
there's much more potential for automation. She says CONTACT has
the ability to highlight and act on key words, so, for example,
each year when IBOs are asked to renew their relationship they can
get a reminder text and their replies can be processed
automatically.
"CONTACT tells us how many messages are sent and how many
IBOs respond - the rates are very good. We also know very quickly
what percentage of people said yes or no to a promotion."Gay
Reed-Barrance, regional contact centre manager, Amway New
Zealand
"We also use it for competitions - it can be highly targeted."
The company is now using text to sell products and provide other
essential information throughout the network.
Text has also moved to centre-stage inside Amway itself. The
contact centre teams are currently located in different parts of
the company's building, so team leaders now use it to report
internal performance information every half-hour.
Key solution features/benefits
- Improved response time from IBOs in the field
- Automation that allows the call centre to 'do less better'
- Integration of non-voice contact into call centre
processes
- An over 20% reduction in administration staff providing real
cost savings
- The opportunity to introduce quality assurance - responses can
be reviewed before they're sent to a customer
- Customer history is captured in one place.
About Amway
Amway began in 1959 with two young entrepreneurs in the United
States. Richard DeVos and Jay Van Andel developed an innovative
business plan that offered anyone the opportunity to build their
own business and share in the profits of a range of exceptional
products. Today, Amway boasts over 450 quality products and
millions of Independent Business Owners worldwide. It is
represented in over 80 countries and territories throughout the
world. Last year alone, 3.5 million IBOs renewed their businesses.
The company has a global staff of over 6000 scientists, marketing
professionals, product experts, farmers, managers and other
employees. For more information please visit http://www.amway.co.nz/
View the
demo or contact us to find out more.
