Sainsbury’s has collaborated with Engage Hub to deploy an interactive voice response (IVR) telephone system across all of its 600 superstores, following a successful pilot of the technology in 2015.

Fully integrated into the retailer’s systems, the IVR platform provides customers with answers to questions without having to speak to a customer service representative, designed to save time for both customers and in-store staff.

Sainsbury’s found that it was losing 15 per cent of its calls per annum, as customers struggled to find the information that they were looking for. The retailer recognised that its new contact centre could handle the majority of incoming superstore calls, but its existing IVR system was still routing calls to in-store staff.

Engage Hub’s solution is aimed at driving call centre efficiency and reducing the number of missed calls. Should a customer select an option that takes them through to an unmanned phone, the logic will trigger an action to redirect the customer to a contact centre.

Paul White, business manager at Sainsbury’s, said: “Sainsbury’s has invested heavily in its new contact centre, and to maximise its usage, it meant we also needed a new IVR system. One of the benefits of directing more customers to contact centres is that they can take a total view of product availability.

“While a colleague could tell a customer about product availability in their store, a contact centre can tell you where to go locally if your regular store does not have a particular product in stock.”

Simon Brennan, vice president of sales Europe at Engage Hub, added: “Sainsbury’s needed a solution that provides an efficient, detailed customer contact channel, to streamline operations as part of its digital transformation strategy. Call traffic is diverted to contact centres where possible, to free up instore resources and enable better communication with customers.”

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