Home News Case Studies Ocado teams up with Esendex to deliver top quality service
Ocado teams up with Esendex to deliver top quality service Print E-mail
Ocado, the UK’s leading internet based grocer, prides itself on delivering high quality goods along with a high quality service. In the competitive retail environment, Ocado turned to Esendex to help stay one step ahead of the game and become the UK’s first online grocer to implement enhanced text messaging services. Since implementing SMS services from Esendex, Ocado has sent a total of 2.7 million customer and staff text messages and seen numerous benefits including:
·    Increased communication with staff which is quick and easy and strengthens day to day operations
·    An effective tool to use to enhance levels of customer service, adding value to the service delivered
·    Advice and consultancy from a trusted and reliable supplier.

About Ocado
Online grocer, Ocado, launched in partnership with Waitrose in January 2002 and its mission is to change the way people shop for their groceries every week. Ocado was created to offer busy people an alternative to going to the supermarket; the alternative being a shopping experience built on the needs of the customer via the medium of the internet.

With headquarters in Hatfield, Ocado serves 13.5 million households across the South East, the Midlands and the North West and more recently the South Coast of England.

The Communication Challenge
Due to the very nature of the home grocery delivery industry, Ocado has to run a tight ship in terms of resource planning. With a large team of employees working a variety of shift-based patterns in its warehouse and delivery operations, Ocado must be able to contact staff quickly and easily to determine availability for overtime, holiday and shift changes.

Mark Watson, Head Business Planning at Ocado, explains, “Our Customer Service Team Members - involved in deliveries - and Personal Shoppers - involved in warehouse operations - are vital to the success of Ocado. To deliver the best possible service for our customers, we need to be able to draw on our operatives’ skills effectively, sometimes at short notice, especially at peak season, such as Christmas.”
 
Traditionally, managers and resource planners at Ocado had to call each employee individually, explain the details of what was on offer, and take appropriate action depending on the response. This system was both timely and costly to implement and also hard to provide a fair and equal opportunity for employees to respond.

Communicating with customers is equally as important as talking with staff. Ocado was eager to adopt a suitable method that would allow for the grocer to engage with its customers, informing them directly, quickly and easily of delivery details and updates. Watson continues, “We’re driven by our customers’ needs so we’re always looking for ways to enhance our services for them and pride ourselves on innovation. By improving our behind the scenes operations, we can add real value to our offering.”

The SMS Solution
In order for the online grocer to communicate effectively with its two key audiences, Ocado sought an SMS-based service, which would fit with its existing processes. Ocado selected SMS communications specialist, Esendex, for its experience and intuitive application platform.

The Esendex Application Programming Interface (API) enables automated texts to be sent and received with ease. Watson explains, “The Esendex API is very impressive and was an immediate draw for us. It was hassle free to set up and integrated seamlessly with our existing business applications, fitting in easily with our processes. This was an important criteria mark that we set when choosing an SMS service, so it was imperative that Esendex met this. The API works well with our existing time and attendance system, so minimal staff training was required on the system and it is also very intuitive to use on an ongoing basis – a real added bonus with Esendex.”

Ocado has two different Esendex business SMS services. For customer services, Esendex provides an automated service, which involves a one-way text messaging service. This means the Ocado order system texts the customer at the appropriate time with a delivery notification, update or opportunity to change their grocery order. The customer is informed in a direct and timely fashion. This ensures Ocado manages all changes through the appropriate channels to save time and possible inconsistencies.

Example text: "Dear Mrs ........... Here's a little reminder of your 9PM-10PM order. It will be delivered by Tony in Lemon Van LS57SNV. You have no missing items"
 
Example text: "Dear Mrs .......... Don't forget your Ocado delivery is due tomorrow at 9:00pm. You have until 11:00pm today to make any last-minute changes to your order"

Internally at Ocado, the Esendex service guarantees managers can keep a large number of staff well informed of updates quickly and easily and vice-versa. Using a two-way SMS service, resource planners at Ocado have direct access to the application to plan shifts, overtime and holiday cover. For example, planners can text large groups of staff members to ask who wants overtime and staff can then reply on a first-come, first-served basis.

Example text: "Overtime available for your upcoming shift. If you are interested send back your handscan only and we will call you to confirm"

Communicating the Benefits
Since using the Esendex SMS service, Ocado has seen improvements in internal communications and operational planning. Resource planners can now communicate with vital warehouse and delivery department staff effectively and directly, channelling important messages involving staffing changes or cover. Watson comments, “By using the Esendex text messaging system, we can communicate on a fair playing field and with speed and ease. We’ve been able to reduce calling times considerably since implementing the service which has been a real improvement for day to day operations. Previously, resource planners spent hours calling staff about cover notifications, now it can be done in a matter of minutes.”

Ocado has propelled its customer service onto a new level by using Esendex’s enhanced messaging services. With the power of text, Ocado is able to talk to its customers and deliver the reassurance that their goods will be delivered in time as promised. “We’re dedicated to constantly improving what we do. By integrating available, effective technology and by challenging ourselves, we can deliver the highest standard. We strongly believe that we lead the way in terms of innovative services, such as this and we hope that people think of us when they want excellence in online grocery shopping and delivery,” concludes Watson.