The Book People

The Book People has been using Maginus software for several years to run most aspects of its business. When the company needed to improve its query and complaint management processes, it was logical to handle this within the Maginus system.

“We ask a lot of our Maginus solution, but it just keeps delivering results,” says Carol Cade, The Book People’s Managing Director. “Maginus lets us concentrate on the business and get on with the job, and it adapts to new business initiatives very easily. For example, since using Maginus we opened new business streams including fulfilling orders for Associated Newspapers, handling Corporate Book Events and distributing for Red House. We have other new business initiatives planned which will also be handled within Maginus.

Improving the management of customer queries and complaints has been a recent challenge and once again Maginus has proved very successful in this area.”

Less than 1% of despatches made by The Book People generate queries and complaints. However, with order volumes as high as 30,000 per day at the busiest times of the year, that can still represent a significant volume of incoming calls
and emails.

Previously, these queries were handled by staff whose main responsibility was taking orders. As the business grew this was creating call backlogs, which had a knock-on effect not just on customer service but on the volume of orders the
company could process. Queries and complaints tend to take longer to deal with, and staff were spending as much as a third of their time solving customer problems instead of dealing with sales.

“We had to find a way to address these issues,” Carol Cade says. “We needed a way to accelerate our handling of queries and complaints, but also to improve our visibility of just what was happening when things did go wrong. Was it a problem with a particular carrier depot? Was it something we could improve in the warehouse, or in the sales process? We work with very tight margins, and order problems – no matter where they occur, or how infrequently – can turn a profitable sale into a cost, and a loyal customer into a lost customer.”

The company turned to Maginus, and the Maginus Helpdesk solution, to solve this problem.

The Book People has a specialist team to handle incoming queries and complaints using a workflow system that’s fast, flexible and accurate. One group of staff is responsible for the initial customer contact, logging each incoming query and giving customers a reference number. Where calls cannot be easily resolved, another team of senior staff take decisions about each query and responds to the customer, usually the same day.

The entire process is much more streamlined because of the flexibility enabled by Maginus Helpdesk. Maginus Helpdesk lets The Book People set up workflows for each type of query, such as problem with a carrier or a credit enquiry. The workflow controls exactly how each type of query is handled, and this has brought new levels of consistency to customer service.

Managers can track the progress of each query, see who’s handling it, and reassign tasks to cope with peaks and troughs. They can also measure the performance of each member of staff – and, because Maginus Helpdesk is so easy to use, they can bring in temporary staff to help without impacting service levels.

Maginus Helpdesk is also invaluable in detecting recurring problems – for example, if there’s an issue with a particular carrier depot. Maginus provides easy-to-use reporting tools to drill down into each query and identify problem areas. For the first time, The Book People’s customer service teams can provide solid evidence to the management team to enable them to iron out issues that impact customer service and the efficiency of the business.

“Maginus Helpdesk is just fantastic,” says Kath Reid, who supervises The Book People’s customer service department. “This time last year we had a call backlog at the end of each day. Using Maginus Helpdesk we can respond the same day, even during the busiest times of the year. The accessibility to information within Maginus is great – literally a couple of clicks and we can find the relevant information. We also have access to the carrier’s web sites so we can see exactly where parcels are in the delivery process. We can see when staff are overloaded with enquiries and reassign tasks to other people. We can explain exactly what’s going on to our customers.

“Maginus Helpdesk actually makes my job a lot more enjoyable as I can identify areas where we’re getting a recurring problems and bring them to the attention of the management team so the problem can be resolved. But the really important thing is that our customers are telling us how pleased they are with the new levels of service,” she continues.

Because Maginus Helpdesk is a multichannel system, The Book People can deal with email or web queries in just the same way as phone calls. This gives customers more choice in how they contact the company and helps reduce the burden on the query team at the same time: by encouraging customers to send queries via the Internet, they can reduce the time it takes to process each enquiry. In the future, The Book People plan to extend the use of Maginus Helpdesk by introducing email parsing so that the content of emails can be automatically brought into the HelpDesk system and a new query generated. Another area being considered is for Parcel Carriers to have secure access to Maginus to update the system as to the whereabouts of parcels.

“We pride ourselves on the quality of service we provide, and it’s one of the key things our customers appreciate,” Managing Director Carol Cade concludes. “Maginus Helpdesk has really helped us take control of customer service and monitor what’s going on. The fact that we can analyse and find potential causes of problems and rectify them has really improved the efficiency of the business.”

“Maginus is easy to use. It’s very reliable. Maginus handles our busiest time of the year with no problems whatsoever –and that means it’s been a stress-free time for our management team. That’s why Maginus is a key part of our business.”