Asos: Innovation in Customer Care

ASOS.COM was established in 2000, and has gone on to become the largest UK online retailer of unisex fashion, beauty and accessories. They continue to grow from strength to strength and have reported a 104% rise in sales compared to the previous year, and a 100% increase in operating profit. Part of their strategy is to ensure that each and every customer experiences the same level of outstanding customer care.

The Challenge

ASOS.COM relied on using the various Carriers systems for gaining visibility and tracking details for orders despatched. With five different Carriers this proved to be a cumbersome process with the various systems often working in different ways and displaying data in different formats. It was difficult to provide our customers with a consistent message. Not only was this a laborious chore, it was also generating unnecessary call centre costs and meant it was difficult to be proactive in dealing with Carrier related delivery issues.

The Solution

By using MetaPack, Customer Care are now able to provide a timely, accurate and high level service to customers. Using one simple, easy to use interface the teams are able to: confirm the correct delivery address details; check to see when the parcel arrived at the pack bench and when it was despatched; check the earliest and guaranteed delivery date and time, and monitor all carrier statuses screen through the delivery process. On notification of despatch, whether it is day or night, an email is sent to the customer with details of the tracking number and a link to the relevant carrier tracking site. This allows the customer to track
their own delivery, thus reducing the level of inbound calls and creating a cost saving on outbound calls to carriers. With the ability to integrate new carriers easily and increase the delivery options available to customers, ASOS.COM can now automatically upgrade parcels to the best service, based on weight and value, to ensure that they do not miss their delivery promise to the customer. The customer care centre is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and they can now smooth out resources in the customer care centre at peak times, allowing them to work with optimum performance.

"Providing excellent customer care is imperative to our strategy. With the MetaPack functionalities in place we are now in a better position to offer the best possible care to our customers. The savings we’re making through using MetaPack are allowing us to use our resources more productively and offer a more proactive service."

Stuart Hill,Head of Customer Logistics