Leading digital retailer of personalized products expands into Saint Lucia with 92% CSAT scores and record-low attrition

When the global pandemic hit, business instantly became unpredictable for the leading digital retailer and manufacturer of high-quality personalized products and services. They leaned on itel to provide the flexibility needed to manage drastic changes to their seasonal customer support volumes and to roll out work-from-home operations for the first time in the company’s 20-year history.  

The company also saw the opportunity to further diversify its CX footprint. Having had success in the Caribbean for a number of years, the online retailer chose to expand with itel into Saint Lucia during the height of the pandemic; a time when the client would not be able to travel to provide on-site product training. They trusted itel, their top performing customer experience partner in Jamaica, to take the lead on training the new workforce in Saint Lucia to have in-depth product knowledge and empathy for the customer.  

The Goals 

• To manage unpredictability and changes in service volumes  
• To roll out the company’s first-ever work-from-home operations in Saint Lucia 
• To diversify its footprint in the Caribbean and launch at full force 
• To equip new agents with in-depth product knowledge, procedures and empathy for the customer 

The Approach 

• We introduced later shifts to provide chat and voice support during peak hours in the evening. We provided the client with the flexibility needed to manage unpredictability by increasing and decreasing staffing numbers to match volumes. We leveraged our diverse client mix to move agents intra-company which helped to retain the knowledge for redeployment, as necessary, back to the program. 
• Saint Lucia was chosen as a destination for its high level of workforce capability and stable business environment. The young, tech-savvy talent in Saint Lucia comes with valuable transferable skills from careers in hospitality, as well as an eagerness to develop higher degrees of specialized expertise.   
• Unlike other retailers where there is no emotional attachment to the product, this online retailer manages major life events and memories by providing personalized photo books, gifts, cards and stationery. Empathy for the customer is of the utmost importance, and the Saint Lucian workforce excels in this area.  
• Due to the hands-on client training on all the products and procedures the previous year, the client was able to work remotely with our Operations Manager on-site to successfully lead training virtually in Saint Lucia via a compacted roll-out.  

“This was the first 100% remote onboarding of a new team, in a new location. Everything was done virtually and we did amazing,” Senior Manager of Outsource Partner Operations, E-Commerce.  

The Results 

• itel’s exceptional reputation as an employer of choice in the Caribbean and our ability to offer a new experience and better earnings to hospitality sector workers and recent grads, made recruitment in the area easy. We were able to launch a fully operational team of 30 agents providing voice and chat services within six weeks. 
• The Saint Lucia team consistently outperforms by delivering 92% Customer Satisfaction scores and exceptionally low turnover rates of just 5-7%.  
• The online retailer has improved risk management by diversifying in the Caribbean. Saint Lucia presents minimal to no hurricane risk and has robust modern technological infrastructure, world-class uptime, and bandwidth. 
  

The leading digital retailer is now prepared for upcoming seasonal ramps with strong teams in both Jamaica and Saint Lucia who have in-depth product knowledge, and consistently deliver exceptional performance in voice and chat services.  

“My first response is always: Let’s ask itel and see what they can do,” Senior Manager of Outsource Partner Operations, E-Commerce.