Meet Stoov®, an acclaimed Dutch company renowned for its innovative heating cushions and remarkable three-year growth journey. Backed by a dedicated team of approximately 40 professionals, Stoov® attributes its success to a steadfast commitment to customer satisfaction.

Operating as a highly seasonal enterprise, Stoov® experiences peak sales during the winter months when shoppers are looking for ways to stay warm. This seasonality leads to a unique challenge: How can they predict and navigate these seasonal fluctuations? (Hint: The answer is "with data.")

Guiding Stoov®'s data-centric approach are Guus Brinkman, the Head of Data and Technology, and Frank van Dam, the Customer Care Team Lead, who played a pivotal role in reaching data-driven potential by evaluating and implementing the right technology.

Challenge: Using customer insights to stay efficient across seasons

In their quest to efficiently scale their customer service team during peak periods, Stoov® recognized the importance of tapping customer interactions for insights. However, they encountered obstacles in accessing comprehensive data.

Their previous customer support system, Zendesk, lacked integration with their primary system, preventing them from accessing insights related to product issues, reshipment reasons, shipment patterns, or making informed data-driven decisions. Zendesk's dashboard was cumbersome to navigate, leading to considerable time investment.

Under the recommendation from the agency, Code, Stoov® underwent a transition to Shopify. This decision was driven by Shopify's enhanced features regarding design and connectivity, as well as its superior scalability and future readiness.

After joining Shopify, Stoov® sought a Zendesk alternative that seamlessly integrates with their Shopify store and offers comprehensive insights from various channels. Their search led them to Gorgias, which is tightly integrated with Shopify and offers the ability to combine diverse data sources, including product and order data.

Solution: Leveraging customer insights to stay efficient across seasons

One main reason Stoov® chose Gorgias was the robust analytics, including Ticket Fields. By identifying common questions through Gorgias Ticket Fields, Stoov® addressed customer concerns through product and website improvements. They use Ticket Fields to understand what kinds of questions customers asked and which of those questions could be solved proactively, plus a variety of other improvements.

In a candid conversation with Gorgias, Guus Brinkman, the Head of Data and Technology at Stoov®, shared these insights about the company's CX operations efficiency:

Insight #1: Reducing contact rate by solving CX issues at the root

As a highly seasonal business experiencing peak sales during winter, Stoov® effectively scales its customer service team by leveraging customer interactions. But despite a significant revenue increase, the support ticket volume did not double.

Stoov® leverages insights from Ticket Fields to address customer concerns through product and website enhancements. For instance, Stoov® previously experienced a spike in tickets. Thanks to the Ticket Fields' "Contact Reason" field, they understood that their customers were unsatisfied with their battery life. In response to feedback about battery life dissatisfaction, the product team introduced a larger battery option at an additional cost of €20.

This simple optimization resulted in 50% of customers opting for the bigger battery, leading to a 10% increase in Average Order Value (AOV). These insights also contributed to improved website conversion rates as Stoov® deeply understands customer needs and removes obstacles using data from Ticket Fields.

Stoov® continously enhances the website, guiding A/B testing and conversion optimization efforts for customer-centric decisions benefiting the business and customers. By efficiently managing customer inquiries, Stoov® achieves these positive results without doubling its support team.

Insight #2: Saving costs by reducing reshipments

Stoov® uncovered a crucial insight regarding reshipments. By closely examining customer interactions, they identified distinct patterns in the products being reshipped and the timing of these reshipments.

Empowered by this understanding, Stoov® implemented a strategy: instead of immediately reshipping items, they began asking shoppers more specific questions to pinpoint the issue. This proactive step helped avoid unnecessary reshipments. The outcome? There was a remarkable decline in the reshipment rate, from roughly 15% to about 5%.

Considering Stoov® ships approximately 560,000 packages this year, this 10% reduction translates into noteworthy cost savings — nearly 60,000 packages spared. This data-centric approach resulted in significant cost reductions and elevated customer satisfaction levels.

Insight #3: Improving agent performance and customer satisfaction

Gorgias Ticket Fields and Statistics revolutionize Stoov®'s performance monitoring strategy. The support Performance Overview page becomes a compass during peak seasons, meticulously tracking ticket volumes and resolutions. Stoov®'s commitment to a 24-hour response time ensures unwavering customer satisfaction. This diligence extends to agent performance, as Stoov® aligns them with company policies and maximizes shopper contentment through meticulous query handling.

Furthermore, Stoov®'s devotion to impeccable response times significantly enriches customer delight. Their unwavering dedication to first response time and overall response metrics transforms the customer experience.

Leveraging the capacity of Agent Report statistics, they dissect historical data, unveil insights, and fine-tune response strategies daily. Stoov® collaborates seamlessly with external agents, reinforcing hourly performance evaluations. In tandem, these efforts orchestrate operational efficiency, nurturing consistently gratifying customer journey.

Results: Triumph with data-driven insights

Embracing data-driven insights, Stoov® remains dedicated to continuous improvement, underscoring the significance of customer-centricity and data utilization in achieving exceptional customer experience.

Our dedication to customer-centricity is evident in the branding strategy's success. 40% of our customers coming through word-of-mouth recommendations.

- Guus Brinkman, the Head of Data and Technology

The customer service department's KPIs showcase the success of their data-driven approach, boasting an impressive customer satisfaction score of 4.93, a 80% reduction in ticket first response time, and a 23% shorter resolution time. Additionally, their efforts led to a remarkable reduction in pre-sale questions, from 30% to only 18% in their tickets.

Our integration of data-driven insights has delivered remarkable results, showing a significant 10% decrease cost savings.

- Guus Brinkman, the Head of Data and Technology