Case Study: National Retailer Looking For Relief from Growing Customer Operations Cost

• The Case: The Company is a US based retailer with 500 stores nationwide. Struggling with a slowing demand in the economic downturn, the retailer is looking for enterprise cost reduction opportunities, as well as a better understanding of cost drivers in Customer Operations.
  
  
• The Problem Statement: Customer operations related costs on an ascending rate, despite economy-driven lower sales revenue. Initially attributed to an expanding customer base, these growing costs appeared to be driven by a multitude of special causes, exceptions, and external factors.
  
  
• The Fix: The first step was to execute a complete, 360-degree analysis of the operational environment and a deep-dive into the root-causes for the specific cost lines showing the most sustained upward trend. Our consultant started by gaining a thorough understanding of the client's short and long term strategy, as well as the main challenges - both systemic and special cause - encountered in the recent past. Then, moved into analyzing all areas of the business unit with a focus on delivering a customer centric, efficient cost structure. By capturing and evaluating the voice of customers and employees, and by identifying key process efficiencies, our consultant made recommendations pinpointing the key areas to improve existing process while driving cost down. These recommendations allowed the company to identify $ 12 M annualized cost reduction and increased revenue. An implementation plan was deployed, creating a control mechanism to allow key metrics to be closely monitored to ensure stable, sustained efficient performance. The plan also included long-term customer-focused efficiency measures, based on a benchmarking and best practices study for the industry.
  
  

[ See more case studies ]