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Supporting a 50% increase in Customer Service Calls During Christmas Peak Period

This client is a well-established, leading British retailer and has circa 76,000 employees. They are recognised for their high-quality products, bringing great value food, clothing, and homeware to millions of customers in the UK and worldwide. With a unique heritage, communicating the company’s core values appropriately and maintaining quality customer service is at the heart of the company’s brand.

Supporting a 50% increase in Customer Service Calls During Christmas Peak Period

Client

Food and General Retailer

Contact

Head of Client Services

Sector

Food Retail

Staffing Type

Customer Service
335
Call centre operatives placed
2M
Customers assisted
2000
Shifts filled weekly

Recruitment Challenge

A significant percentage of the retailer’s business is online, with just over 50% of the clothing and home sales completed digitally. But as customer demand for online retail increased, with a 34% surge in digital sales compared to previous years, our client needed assistance to bolster their customer service teams. 

The Blue Arrow Account Management Team were asked to recruit 241 temporary call centre staff to support the additional service demand expected during the Christmas season. Individuals needed experience in both customer service and remote working, who could act as ambassadors of the brand. 

 

Recruitment Challenge

Recruitment Solution

Our Account Manager created a dedicated team of recruitment consultants to identify suitable candidates and to manage the selection, interviewing, and onboarding process. As an established recruitment partner with over eight years’ experience across a range of call centre requirements, our staffing specialists were able to call upon a local pool of candidates.

The team constructed a multi-channel campaign to attract potential employees including database marketing and promoting positions through local retail outlets. Utilising our technology platform, we were able to automate our talent-matching capabilities, which enabled swift targeting of prospects. To support the change to remote working, we undertook consultations with our client to develop a potential hybrid-working solution to satisfy candidates’ expectancy for increased flexibility in the future.


Recruitment Solution

Recruitment Journey

With the requirements changing weekly, our Account Team developed a proactive approach through regular reporting and intelligence-led recommendations, to deliver a fast response to demand. This gave our client a clear competitive advantage in securing the best available talent. 

The nature of the demands meant our recruiters had to extend the candidate search outside those with retail experience to fulfil staffing requirements. Recruiters were able to identify suitable candidates in its database through auto-matching, finding a local network of catering and hospitality employees. 


 

Recruitment Journey

The Results

By finding staff to fill the roles quickly, we ensured that our client could continue providing exceptional customer service during their ramp period.

We:

  • Placed 335 additional call centre employees
  • Filled nearly 2,000 call centre shifts weekly
  • Assisted over 1.5 million customers through these services

The successful scheduling and management of the candidate attraction campaign ensured all recruitment and onboarding was completed in time for this traditionally busy period. 

 

The Results
Being able to draw on an established network of candidates, using database matching plus intelligent interview techniques was crucial in meeting recruitment targets and ensuring the best possible match for the client.
Blue Arrow Account Manager
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