Greeneville, NC-based water sports products merchant Overton’s wanted to stop losing money on UPS surcharges for inaccurately addressed packages while reducing time per call in the call center.
Overton’s was being charged $5 for incorrectly addressed ground mail and $10 for air mail, at a clip of more than $26,000 per year, as a result of inaccurate address data being keyed directly into the customer database. Mistakes were being made because there was no verification of spellings, apartment numbers, and suites, and customers themselves on occasion made errors in their own addresses – even though they were being read back to the customers.
On top of that, time was being wasted in the call center as addresses were read back over the phone to customers. And errors were still slipping through the cracks.
Overton’s implemented QAS’s QuickAddress Pro for Ecometry to validate addresses during entry into company’s database. The product verifies addresses against the U.S. Postal Service records as they are being entered into the database. A full address can also be entered in as few as 12 keystrokes, which Overton’s says helps to reduce address correction charges and call times.
For instance, Overton’s saw a productivity gain of 20-23 seconds per call by using QuickAddress, which automatically adds street descriptions such as “Avenue” as the address is being typed, said Tim Manns, manager of operations and development at Overton’s.
Once Overton’s began using QuickAddress, it saw an almost immediate 29% decrease in delivery surcharges, according to Manns.