Nautilus
The People’s Supermarket
The FairPrice Group was founded in 1973 amid a global recession, to disrupt profiteering and keep daily essentials within reach for Singaporeans. First starting out as a single cooperative supermarket called NTUC Welcome, FairPrice Group is the largest retailer in Singapore today.
Its businesses comprise the FairPrice grocery chain, the Kopitiam food court chain, Cheers convenience stores, Unity pharmacies, and more.
Embracing the Omnichannel Revolution
When the company launched its omnichannel customer experience initiative in 2018, they did so in partnership with Zendesk. The goal was to streamline interactions across multiple channels, including phone support, email, and chat to make things easier on the experience for customers. This change enabled FairPrice Group to better meet the diverse needs of its diverse consumer base while simultaneously growing their customer service operations.
As a leader in retail and e-commerce, the FairPrice Group operates the largest supermarket chain in Singapore today. During their growing years (and with the launch of their Online Grocery division) the complexity of their operations grew as well. This was highlighted by the continuously-growing surge of customer inquiries through their call centre.
Challenges of Growth
By 2020, the rapid and exponential growth in FairPrice Group's call volumes had led to issues such as extended customer wait times. As their Online Grocery division was growing, they started looking for a reliable provider that could assist them with optimising their call centre performance to ensure more seamless operations.
Moreover, they needed a solution that would enable them to oversee the general health of their contact centre. They needed oversight on key metrics including agent performance, agent punctuality, talk time, and call volume management.
It was clear that their need for accessible and actionable data warranted an implementation that was not only swift, but also fully optimised to guarantee long-term success.
A Partnership Begins
Natalie Ng, Senior Program Manager for Nautilus, notes the significance of the FairPrice Project. FairPrice Group was the first customer to utilise Nautilus Talk, a native phone integration within Zendesk Support. This solution converts phone calls into actionable customer service tickets that agents can manage directly in the Zendesk platform.
FairPrice Group worked hand in hand with Nautilus to revamp their IVR, utilising Nautilus Talk to address deficiencies with their case handling. Together, they meticulously went over FairPrice Online Grocery’s call flows and rewired their omnichannel platform.
The project went live in July 2020. Their ultimate goal was to achieve operational sustainability while simultaneously improving the customer experience.
Immediate Results
A significant pain point for FairPrice Group at the time was the overwhelming number of routine tickets routed to agents through their self-help IVR (interactive voice response). FairPrice Group identified this bottleneck and immediately got to work.
In 2021 85.91% of their order amendment tickets were being directly handled manually by agents. By 2022 the company achieved a 26.33% reduction in agent-handled order amendment tickets by effectively routing more inquiries through self-service options instead. This positive trend persisted into 2023 with an additional 4.19% reduction. By 2024, agent-handled tickets decreased to just 12.04%, showcasing the effectiveness of Nautilus Talk in automating 87.96% of FairPrice Group’s order amendment tickets.
This improved their ticket management tremendously, exemplified by an increase in automation rate from 14.09% in 2021 to an impressive 87.96% by 2024 on their order amendment requests.
As a result of this successful automation initiative, FairPrice Group managed to streamline allocation of resources, freeing agents up to focus on more complex inquiries while simultaneously reducing manual workloads.
“We achieved significant improvements by designing fully-optimised IVR call flows that created the pathway for better call deflection,” notes Rachel Foo, FairPrice Group’s Head of Customer Service.
FairPrice Group enabled automatic ticket creation for customer requests, adding an integration that allowed customers to validate their order numbers through the IVR. The system would then send them an instruction guide through SMS to amend their orders accordingly.
This improved their ticket management tremendously, exemplified by an increase in automation rate from 14.09% in 2021 to an impressive 87.96% by 2024 on their order amendment requests. As a result of this successful automation initiative, FairPrice Group managed to streamline allocation of resources, freeing agents up to focus on more complex inquiries while simultaneously reducing manual workloads.
Trust and Continued Partnership
The success of the initial implementation fostered a deep trust between both companies, allowing the partnership to expand.
The project went so well that FairPrice Group decided to revamp the rest of their main line. By December 31, 2021 they launched an updated IVR menu for several key divisions, namely FairPrice Online Grocery, FairPrice Supermarkets, FairPrice Rewards, and Gift Vouchers.
Optimised features for the long term
Natalie shares that the partnership with FairPrice Group is a special one. “As a managed service provider, it is always in our best interest to look out for our clients. We work with them to seek out the best avenues to resolve their pain points, and propose strategies on how to fully maximise their operations.”
To further enhance the reach of their customer service operations, FairPrice Group created a 24-hour IVR menu with specific time conditions. This level of transparency opened up clear, personalised, and flexible touch points between them and their customers.
The IVR was set up to also play custom announcements to reflect the seasonal and circumstantial changes in retail. A notable example of which came during the Trust Bank launch. When FairPrice Group’s call centre faced an influx of over a thousand calls on the first day, the abandonment rate surged to 19%.
To resolve this, FairPrice Group promptly activated their business continuity plan (BCP) announcement; this let customers know that agents were busy handling their higher-than-usual call volume, requesting them to stay on the line until one becomes available. This allowed them to lower their abandonment rate within two weeks.
“We accomplished this by setting up helpful dashboards using real-time data from Nautilus. These dashboards allowed us to better monitor our call performance during that period,” says Rachel.
Secure Validations for Customer Safety
As FairPrice Group continued to evolve alongside their customers, they have taken to integrating their different programs into their IVR. Their goal was to improve their Online Grocery, Supermarket and Retail, Membership, and Rewards programs by making them more accessible without compromising the personal data of customers.
To achieve this goal, FairPrice Group developed strict IVR validations for everyday customer requests like changing delivery order details, checking LinkPoints, and requesting replacement NTUC Link Rewards cards, for example.
Boosts in Agent Performance
FairPrice Group currently utilises data gathered from the Reporting Portal to extract insights on how to better manage agent punctuality, talk time, and improve overall productivity.
“We use Nautilus as our telephony system. But more notably, they have significantly improved our ability to track the health of our contact centre. Especially regarding agent performance,” says Rachel.
The Reporting Portal tracks and records every call, providing FairPrice Group detailed metrics such as talk time, After-Call Work (ACW) time, and handling time to name a few. They also utilised data on call distribution to forecast staffing needs and accurately plan out agent schedules.
Earlier in the year, FairPrice Group endeavoured to improve efficiencies in call handling, especially regarding their relatively-high ACW. They addressed this by using speech-to-text (STT) technology to summarise call recordings, allowing agents to pick out pertinent details without skipping a beat.
As a result, they saw a significant reduction of their ACW time from 120 seconds to 100 seconds within a few short months.
Winning Together
FairPrice Group’s partnership with Nautilus has delivered outstanding results, from successfully automating a portion of their customer tickets to improving data analysis and agent performance. With an effective IVR setup and management in place, FairPrice Group is well-positioned for continued growth in the modern retail landscape it currently dominates.
The remarkable transformation of FairPrice Group’s contact centre operations not only demonstrates the power of strategic partnerships but also sets the standard for customer service excellence in the retail industry. As both companies continue to innovate, their collaborative efforts promise to drive even greater advancements.
“FairPrice Group will always be a priority,” says Natalie. “Their show of trust is foundational to who we are as a brand. Their patronage of Nautilus Talk proves that there is space for us and our solutions in a market driven by change. The fact that we share the same goals centred around the customer experience allows us to see – to believe in– a productive future together.”
Rachel adds, in closing: “We’re happy to be partnered with Nautilus. We love that they are committed to continuously improving their services. And we highly appreciate the strong support we have received since day one. We are confident that today, FairPrice Group is at a position of strength to offer customers –and our agents– memorable experiences.“