Case studies

Laithwaites Wine

Outbound Telesales Case Study

The company

Laithwaites is the world’s largest mail order wine merchant operating within marketing brands e.g. Laithwaites and the Sunday Times Wine Club. It also owns Averys, Virgin Wines and Warehouse Wines within the UK.

The challenge

Laithwaites have worked extremely hard to make their in-house call centre one of the best in the UK. Top in their category in the recent “Top 50 Call Centres for Customer Service” is testimony to this. Brand is key and Laithwaites strive to ensure that the customer experience is exceptional; the sole objective of the call centre staff is to make people happy. Laithwaites were looking for a call centre partner who could be equally passionate about the customer journey. They wanted a partner who could be flexible in terms of workload and also deliver an excellent return on their investment.

The trial

Data Base Factory were one of two companies who were chosen for a three month head to head trial. Very simply whoever delivered the lowest cost per sale and the best customer experience would win. At the end of the trail DBF had demonstrated a real commitment to keeping the cost per sale low and the return on investment high. Furthermore the quality of the calls was exceptional and DBF were awarded the ongoing contract.

Brag of the week

During the trial all of the agents were asked to select a call from the week of which they were most proud. The Team Leader would listen to them all and choose the best three. The Contact Centre Manager, the Account Manager, the Team Leader and the UK Manager would then listen to the calls together and pick a winner who earned £25. The winning call was then played to the team and they were asked why they thought it had won. The winning call was also sent to Laithwaites with an explanation as to why it had won. It developed a wonderful culture of continuous improvement and genuinely raised the bar in terms of quality.

The results
  • In 2 years DBF sold a total of over £5m of wine.
  • The team size flexed considerably in line with seasonal promotions from 12 FTE up to 35 FTE giving Laithwaites the flexibility that they sought.
  • The Return on Investment (ROI) throughout the contract was 465% so for every £1 spent DBF sold £4.56 of wine.
  • Cancellations were very low.
  • Complaints were very low.
  • Laithwaites were very hands on with the agent training and often came to DBF to conduct wine tasting sessions to give the agents a fantastic understanding of the product.
  • The customer experience was excellent and DBF fully embraced the ‘Laithwaites way’.
  • The commercial model started on an hourly rate then moved to a revenue share model that totally de-risked the channel for Laithwaites.
  • A fully Ofcom compliant predictive dialler was used to maximise productivity.
  • DBF had secure access to the Laithwaites CRM application ensuring the best possible customer experience.
  • All calling was done within the DMA B2C Best Practice guidelines (which DBF helped to write!).
  • DBF continually ‘added value’ to Laithwaites business by sharing the latest industry research and best practice.
  • Both parties enjoyed working in an open and honest partnership.
Testimonial

“Laithwaite’s approach is in many ways unique; sometimes quirky. It was therefore such a pleasure to be able to work with DBF who were, working closely with us, able to deliver a seamless Laithwaite’s experience for our customers. Trust, integrity and quality are key words that I would use to describe DBF. And enjoyment. They enjoyed working on our account - that came across in their calls – and we enjoyed working with them.”
Mark Capon, Laithwaites 2011