Case Studies - Harveys
Background
Harveys The Furniture Store is the largest furniture specialist in the UK, and is wholly owned by Steinhoff International, which, in the UK, comprises of five major national brands – Harveys, Bensons for Beds, Sleepmasters, The Bed Shed, and Cargo Home Shop.
Harveys is the largest contributor to Steinhoff International in the UK with a turnover of £240 million, generated from over 155 stores. Harveys has undergone dramatic change during the past twelve months, including a complete re-brand, market re-positioning and store development programs.
The result of these investments has placed Harveys in a leading position within the retail furnishing sector. Harveys is also the proud new sponsor of Coronation Street.
Project Requirements
The initial project requirement for Harveys was for a simple and effective means by which top-level daily sales figures could be sent to senior managers at the end of each day’s trading.
Text messaging was chosen for the delivery medium due to its ability to rapidly deliver short messages in to the hands of the recipients through their mobile phones, rather than via email.
Soon after this initial requirement was fulfilled, the use of text messaging was significantly expanded by using it as a means to communicate with Harveys customers. By sending confirmation of the delivery time for a customer’s purchase by text message, Harveys wanted to improve the quality of customer contact, and decrease the number of aborted deliveries.
Project Solution
Following an investigation of suitable providers towards the end of 2004, Harveys chose TextAnywhere as its text messaging partner on the basis of simplicity, reliability and cost effectiveness.
TextAnywhere’s Developer Toolkit enabled Harveys to integrate the sending of text messages within its own, in-house application within minutes.
Within 48 hours of selecting TextAnywhere, the solution to provide senior managers with an automated, SMS-based sales information service was live and seamlessly replacing the original solution without anyone noticing.
Soon after, Harveys began using text-messaging as a means to contact each customer with delivery details for their bought items. This service is used for items purchased at Harveys and Bensons throughout the UK.
Text messages are sent each day to customers confirming when a delivery will be made, providing 48 hours notice of the delivery window. Customers have the ability to reply, with replies routed to the Harveys customer call centre team who can then text back or call the customer directly.
Text messaging is also used internally as a means of communicating with colleagues throughout Harveys.
Project Successes
The use of text-messaging has grown significantly since the initial requirement was identified in late 2004, and is now considered a business-critical tool within Harveys.
Since Harveys has been using text-messaging to contact its customers, inbound customer enquiries have dropped by 90%, first time deliveries are up significantly, and our quality of customer service has improved.
The success of text messaging within Harveys has led other companies within the group to initiate similar services.
One thing is for sure, texting is here to stay at Harveys. And TextAnywhere continues to be Harveys’ partner, providing a robust service that Harveys can reply upon.
About TextAnywhere
TextAnywhere provides commercial and public sector organisations with text messaging services to enable the sending and receiving of SMS messages from individuals’ desktops, through online and email applications, and a developer toolkit.
Since 2002, TextAnywhere has offered a range of text services that focus on reliability, ease of use, security, and good value, backed up by quality support, from a financially viable, profitable organisation.
TextAnywhere has over 11,400+ UK clients. Clients range from single person organisations, through academia, the health sector, and local government, to FTSE 100 companies. Our client community includes CM2000, Debenhams, Dixons, Harveys The Furniture Store, Leeds City College, Pepsico, Totton College, and Virgin Active.
TextAnywhere is a privately owned, limited company, registered in England, with company registration number 04208390, and is VAT registered with number GB 781 7907 88.
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