Interactive – The Power of Communication

Kmart Corporation Success Story

Art of Communication
Kmart Corporation

“We were particularly impressed by the following key strengths of Interactive, which distinguished you from your competitors:

  • Ability to deliver an Email-based CRM solution in an ASP model, since 1995, to large Fortune 500 companies;
  • Web-based integrated platform, which provides a holistic, feature rich solution for managing BOTH inbound and outbound Email relationships;
  • Unique Interactive/BI technology for multi-dimensional Email analysis and classification with guaranteed pay-for-performance business model; and
  • Proven scalability and security.”
– David Easterbrook
Vice President
Kmart Division
 
Client Since: September 2000
 

Products used:
Interactive® Business Intelligence™
Interactive® Customer Care™
Interactive® Lead Management™

Number of Emails Processed:
30,000 a month
 
Service Solutions:
Business Intelligence Support, Workflow Analysis, Direct Mail and Strategic Planning, Data Mining, Training and Consulting, Network Architecture.

Company Overview: Kmart Corporation, a near-$40 billion company, serves America with more than 2,100 Kmart and Kmart supercenter retail outlets. Kmart is the #2 discount retailer in the US that sells name-brand and private-label general merchandise (including its popular Martha Stewart Everyday label and Route 66 clothing). Kmart has stores in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and Guam.

Before Interactive: Before the Interactive deployment, Kmart had:

  • 20 Customer Service Representatives (CSR) reading and routing Email to 2,500 store managers every day;
  • No workflow, automation, or tracking systems; and
  • 20,000 Emails a month and growing rapidly.

Given this problem, Kmart was about to sign a deal with a vendor for system that would take six months to deploy.

The Interactive Deployment: Interactive executed a pilot in five (5) days. Following this pilot, Interactive completed full deployment in three (3) weeks. This rapid deployment was five months shorter than the nearest competitor. Interactive also offered Kmart trial use of Interactive Business Intelligence for 60 days. The viability of Interactive/BI was proven with an accuracy rate of 92 percent within 60 days.

After Interactive: Within two months of deployment, Interactive increased Kmart’s customer service and satisfaction, decreased its CSR staff to five people, allowing Kmart to reassign staff to key strategic positions. Interactive also reduced Kmart’s customer service-related expenses, saving Kmart over $60,000 a month.

Through Interactive, Kmart is able to maintain low CSR headcount despite an increase in Email queries. Kmart currently services their customers within eight hours.

Types of Inquiries Handled

  • Product and pricing assistance requests.
  • Customer complaints, compliments, and suggestions.
  • Corporate- and store-level information requests.
  • Vendor-related issues.