Since its inception in 2011, ShipSticks.com has experienced rapid growth. The company was created to solve a traveling golfer’s worst nightmare: not receiving his or her golf clubs on time. It’s since expanded into shipping skis, luggage, and more. As the most reliable and cost-effective shipping service available, Ship Sticks has partnered with the world’s finest golf resorts, country clubs, and hotels to allow for an effortless shipping experience.
The four-time consecutive winner of Golf Digest Editors' Choice Award for “Best Golf Club Shipper” wanted to be better than the best. Ship Sticks knew there were areas of the business that could be improved upon. Dedicated to providing top-notch customer service, the company zeroed in on the Customer Call Center team in an effort to help drive employee productivity and workplace efficiency. With data collected through ActivTrak’s workforce analytics platform, Ship Sticks was able to identify bottlenecks and optimize performance across the call center team.
Crystal-clear view of employee workflow
In order to improve efficiency, you must first have the ability to measure it. For the Ship Sticks management team, understanding how work gets done in the call center is critical to their success. Part of increasing efficiency is finding instances of misspent time.
“There are two ways to look at misspent time: one is from the parental perspective, which is not the objective that we had,” explains Nick Coleman, CEO of Ship Sticks. Instead, company management was looking to tighten up the customer service representative (CSR) workflow. The data ActivTrak collected showed them that CSRs were opening multiple applications just to service one customer.
With detailed reports like the Activity Log, they discovered that lag time in jumping back and forth between applications was at least seven seconds per click. Along with that, application usage data helped Ship Sticks management determine which software applications CSRs needed on their computers and which ones they didn’t. Coleman and his team used that information to eliminate unnecessary applications and create a more streamlined technology.
Better efficiency means better customer service
There are worse things than calling customer service, but not many. Ship Sticks is aware that most people want to spend as little time on the phone as possible. They accomplish this by increasing the efficiency of their CSRs. Ship Sticks uses ActivTrak to identify inefficient time by revealing trends when accessing internal tools.
Eliminating extra clicks and lag time means Ship Sticks’ CSRs have more time to serve other customers. “The seven seconds or ten seconds that they're spending while you're silenced on the phone is ten more seconds per call that we gain to service another customer,” Coleman says.
It also means the customer doesn’t have to sit on the phone in awkward silence while the CSR waits for an application to load. As nice as your hold music may be, customers want their issues dealt with quickly and with minimal friction.
Informed staffing decisions
Oftentimes, businesses struggle with determining workforce planning. Figuring out how many employees are needed, which departments, and at what times can be overwhelming. Since ActivTrak understands application and website usage, Ship Sticks can analyze how each employee uses their CRM tools. “That insight is very important because that insight goes to staffing and staffing is a very big expense,” Coleman says.
Historical data is instrumental in forecasting volume of work. Ship Sticks reviews ActivTrak reports to discover trends and patterns in the number of active employees or the total time an application is used. This information helps them determine peak call times, when staff is needed, and when they’re not needed.
Continuing to look for new ways to improve
A year into ActivTrak use, Ship Sticks executives say they’ll continue to use the workforce analytics software to increase employee efficiency and provide a better customer service experience for their customers.
Customers aren’t the only ones who reap the benefits. Management says the CSRs appreciate the improvements made to their workflow. “They’re grateful and they’re thankful [for the changes we’ve implemented based on ActivTrak data]. They’re like, ‘Wow, I can do this much faster,’” Coleman says.
Whether it's used to get a clear view of how employees work, to become more efficient, or to make smarter staffing decisions, Ship Sticks understands the importance of behavioral data. And with the insights gathered from ActivTrak, Ship Sticks is able to become better at what they set out to do almost a decade ago: eliminate the aggravations associated with traveling.
About ShipSticks.com
Ship Sticks provides a door-to-door shipping solution for the traveling golfer who desires a hassle-free traveling experience. As the most reliable and cost-effective shipping service available, Ship Sticks has partnered with the world’s finest golf resorts, country clubs, and hotels to allow for an effortless shipping experience.
Shipping golf clubs and luggage with ShipSticks.com allows you to save time and money at the airport by avoiding the long check-in lines, crowded baggage terminals, and expensive baggage fees. Whether your clubs are being picked up from your home or office, Ship Sticks guarantees an on-time delivery to wherever you’re staying or playing. For more information, please visit www.shipsticks.com.
About ActivTrak
ActivTrak helps digital workforces work wiser and thrive. More than 9,500 customers and 550,000 users have deployed our workforce analytics cloud to gain insights and metrics about digital work so they can measure and optimize productivity and wellness with the employee in mind. These innovations have been recognized by the Deloitte Technology Fast 500, the Inc. 5000 and the Brandon Hall Excellence in Technology award. Based in Austin, Texas, ActivTrak is backed by Sapphire Ventures and Elsewhere Partners, and led by a seasoned team of software industry veterans.
