How BUT divided its support calls by 4 with an alerting solution?

BUT has democratized access to furniture, equipment and interior decoration. Nowadays, it is the first home furnishing network, with more than 320 stores all over France. BUT is a point of sale less than 20 minutes away from 80% of the French population, and nearly 9,000 employees committed to their customers on a daily basis, with a single watchword: customer satisfaction. To achieve this, priority is given to operational efficiency. Thus, it is essential to be able to communicate quickly to all teams in order to distribute to them, instantly, the key information that can influence the customer journey.

Need to communicate quickly and effectively about production incidents

When managing hundreds of stores, it is not unusual to face a so-called "crisis" situation, requiring the immediate distribution of information. A mistake in pricing, a product recall, a business application unavailable for a given time, or simply a maintenance operation, are all reasons for an emergency communication need.

The BUT Group is no exception to this rule. And if each point of sale is looking for information, the central office receives a very large number of calls at the same time, saturating the switchboard and impacting the speed of execution and the efficiency of the teams.

For BUT, the observation was quick: despite the numerous tools available (emails, intranet, phone, ...) no channel was responding to this problem.

However, solutions do exist! And this is what the BUT Group has implemented in all its stores.

A real-time alerting and notification solution

Thanks to Telelogos' Channels software, BUT was able to equip 4,500 computer stations in the store (checkout stations and sales area stations) with a simple and effective solution in order to:

• Notify its personnel in advance, for example, to warn them of a scheduled maintenance operation so that they can anticipate it
• Alert teams in real time when a technical incident occurs, confirm that it has been properly handled and communicate on its resolution

BUT has chosen to personalize its communication "agent" to make the information received even more impactful. The staff in store now receives messages from Alix, who informs them in case of difficulties on the networks, their business applications, or with a product in store, ...

Targeting workstations, not individuals

One of the key differentiating points of Channels is the fact that it communicates directly to a workstation, and not to a specific user. For BUT, there is no need to know the identity of the person at the cash desk when an incident is detected. The message will automatically reach the person in charge on the workstation in question.
Moreover, as we know, emails are not read in real time. This channel is therefore not ideal for distributing urgent information and did not meet the needs of the BUT Group, which was often overloaded with calls to support in the event of a problem.

100% visible communications

Whether we are talking about alerts, which are displayed on the entire screen and require an acknowledgement (click on the cross) to be able to return to its initial activity, or notifications (using the pop-up notification of the Windows system, enriched with images and a clickable link to refer to more information if necessary), the visibility of the message is ensured in real time. Indeed, unlike an email or an intranet system, there is no need to open one's messaging system or to connect to a web page. With Channels, the information comes to the user and can take – if necessary – over an action in progress, directly on the workstation.
At BUT, alerts are reserved for the most important information that must be known at the moment. Since the installation of the Channels solution, the technical teams can use this communication channel 2 to 3 times a month.

Time saving and fluidity in the flow of information

In the past, the BUT Group had few ways to notify its in-store teams of an identified problem that affected them all. As a result, each person confronted with the problem tried to contact the support department in order to report the problem/check the progress of its resolution. Gilles Gaillardon, deployment service technician at BUT, confided to us that he frequently received more than 300 calls in a day for the same problem. A service which is then saturated, and it's difficult to reach them.

Since the implementation of the Channels solution, the number of calls has been divided by 4 when a problem occurs.

Finally, beyond providing the right information to the store teams to allow them to react as required, Channels also helps avoid too many requests to the support service, which can then focus on the problem itself.

The return on investment was quick thanks to the time saved for everyone and the fluidity in the resolution of problems!

Towards a better internal communication, for all the BUT staff

Further to the successful implementation of the Channels solution within his stores, Gilles Gaillardon already sees a communication potential going beyond "crisis communication". The wider deployment is discussed for the head office staff, whether it be the HR department or to serve the needs of internal communication in general. Channels' simple, clear interface, accessible in just a few clicks, makes it possible to delegate administrator rights to several people at the same time, allowing them to communicate fully via all the channels offered, or limiting access to certain channels, depending on the department for instance, in order to avoid using a channel that is inappropriate for the information being broadcast. It is possible, for example, to restrict the use of the "alert" format to a single person or a single service in order to ensure a more relevant use.