Parcelhub has been helping UK retailers fulfil online orders throughout the pandemic supported by Freshworks’ customer service software, Freshdesk.
This enabled Parcelhub to increase its productivity and handle double the number of daily tickets per agent while bricks and mortar retail outlets have been closed, all while its customer services agents have been working from home.
Parcelhub handles orders from over 2000 retailers. Using its network of warehouses and vehicles it collects & consolidates the parcels before passing them onto the retailers’ carriers of choice. Parcelhub white-labels Freshworks’ Freshdesk software as part of its own solution. This way, the company can respond directly to any enquiries raised by its clients’ customers. By outsourcing its customer service function to Parcelhub, one of its clients saved over £40,000.
As the COVID-19 crisis hit the UK and retailers across the country closed their stores, Parcelhub’s business accelerated to fulfil increasing demand for online orders. In May, the business saw a 250 per cent increase in the number of orders flowing through its doors. This also led to an increase in the number of tickets its clients’ customers were raising, everything from delivery time to returns and social distancing enquiries. On a typical day, each of Parcelhub’s 60 agents would normally handle 100 tickets each. During lockdown however, this doubled to 200 tickets per agent, per day.
“Our team was working at double their capacity. Our customers were handling requests on everything from sports equipment, to clothing, to home improvement stock and even essential items,” said James Hayes, director business development, Parcelhub. “As Freshworks’ client for a number of years, we are fully versed in the capabilities of its Freshdesk software and offer it as part of our service to our own customers. It has been particularly valuable during the current pandemic as it has allowed us to alleviate some of the stress on the retailers by handling their inbound customer queries.”
Despite the 100 per cent increase in agent ticket requests, Parcelhub’s Proactive Tracking Support team has managed to quickly adapt to the new working situation to achieve all its clients’ individual service level agreements. Thanks to Freshdesk, the Parcelhub team has been able to adapt quickly and prioritise the tickets based on those SLAs. This helps to maintain the company’s own reputation, but also the customer service reputation of the retailers it represents. Freshdesk helps Parcelhub to prioritise, categorise and assign tickets and allows for collaboration to take place across its platform, giving retailers full visibility of Parcelhub’s responses and enquiry handling.
“Freshdesk has played a key role in helping Parcelhub to continuously deliver on its SLAs all while managing the increased demand for its services. The Parcelhub team have been able to do this, all while providing that next level customer support that its clients rely on to maintain their own reputations,” said Simon Johnson, UK general manager, Freshworks.
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