The Mission
BBQGuys is a barbecue grill retailer headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more than 20 years, the company has strived to be the most trusted resource for grilling and outdoor living. Not only do they offer the largest online selection of premium grills, BBQ smokers, and backyard essentials, but they also connect customers with experts who are well-versed in their products. Being Born to Grill™ means more than just hosting a great BBQ — it’s about helping others realize and live out that same calling.
The Challenge
Though BBQGuys is an online retailer, phone calls play a key role in the buying journey — consumers often call to speak with one of the company’s expert sales reps and get their barbecuing questions answered. These phone calls are a key part of the sales strategy for BBQGuys because they create an opportunity for genuine human interaction. When a customer visits website, they make a purchase less than 1% of the time. But when a customer calls the sales center, that number jumps to over 50%.
Because sales calls are such an important touchpoint for BBQGuys, it wanted to ensure its agents had the right coaching and conversation insights to succeed.
The Resolution
Using Invoca to Measure Sales Center Agent Performance
To deliver outstanding customer experiences, the BBQGuys team needs to keep a pulse on what’s happening in phone conversations at the sales center. For example, they need to see if agents are sticking to the right scripts, and if there are common customer issues coming in that the company needs to address. In the past, BBQGuys didn’t have the right analytics in place to do this.
To solve this problem, BBQGuys uses Invoca to create AI-powered signals to automatically detect when keywords and phrases are spoken. This allows them to set up scorecards for their agents, where they can automatically track if they’re greeting the customer correctly, asking the right questions, mentioning protection plans, and closing the sale. They also have a signal set up that detects order cancellation calls, so they can see what the common causes for cancellations are. This visibility helps BBQGuys ensure that its sales center is providing the best possible customer experience.
We were amazed at how hungry our sales center agents were to get feedback from Invoca. They loved that we could listen to calls and help them prepare responses for common issues that customers were having.
CHRIS ERCKERT, CHANNEL DIRECTOR AT BBQGUYS
Searching Call Transcripts for Trends and Customer Feedback
With Invoca, the BBQGuys team receives a transcript of every phone call — they can then use the search features to automatically find transcripts where customers mention keywords or phrases. This has allowed them to get ahead of issues that are impacting their customers. For example, Invoca recently helped the team identify that there was an issue with one of its manufacturers’ grill knobs. Customers were calling in after spending $5,000 on their grill, only to have the knob break within a month. Thanks to Invoca’s insights, the team was able to quickly get in contact with the manufacturer to correct the issue before it affected more customers.
BBQGuys also uses Invoca’s global transcript search feature to get feedback on new product lines. Category managers will often ask the marketing team to run a search about their latest product so they can see what customers are saying about it. They can then use this feedback to tweak how it’s presented on the website and to update FAQs on product pages. For example, if people consistently ask how many burners a grill has, the team can add that information to the product page.
Invoca’s global transcript search feature has been a game-changer for us. It helps us quickly identify issues and understand, ‘What is the impact this will have on our sales center staff?’ It’s also spurred collaboration with other departments, especially the R&D and category management teams. We can now give them feedback straight from the voice of our customers.
BRIAN TODD, SENIOR BUSINESS ANALYST AT BBQGUYS
The Results
- 16% Increase in phone call conversion rate
- 11% Increase in average revenue per sales call
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