Key Ingredient for Success at Ecommerce firm Talabat: Omnichannel Contact Center

Growing Dotcom Company Serves Up Convenience for Hungry Customers

Hungry? You can call a local restaurant and order food for delivery. Or, using today’s mobile technology, you can order from a restaurant online with a few taps on your mobile phone. In this age, the second option appeals to many as faster, more seamless and more efficient.

In 2004, a group of young entrepreneurs decided to take aim at the online food ordering industry in the Kuwait market, setting up their business initially with five phones using a single land line. The owners named the new company Talabat.com—which means “orders” in English. A decade later, the company has over 4,100 restaurants on its platform, which operates across all six countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Jordan.

From its humble early days of a non-stop ringing phone, Talabat.com has worked to ensure a positive customer experience, from the moment a hungry patron places an order, to their last, satisfying bite. With no signs of business slowing, Talabat needed a solution to support expanding demand and to provide seamless customer engagement across all channels, including phone, website and mobile app.

Enhanced User Experience with Innovative Digital Technology

Following a search for a solution that could integrate with existing infrastructure and support business growth, Talabat focused on Avaya to transform its contact center and move it to a digital customer experience. “Avaya is a well known and trusted name in the Middle East. We selected them with the assurance that over the next 5 to 10 years we would be happy with our decision,” said Chasan Mochament, Talabat.com Chief Operations Officer.

Avaya is current and innovative,” added Mochament. “And most important to me, Avaya’s presence in Kuwait is very strong.”

Talabat.com sees spikes in customer orders during weekends and holidays. With the Avaya solution, the company was able to build an engagement environment for their digital customers and a sustainable working model for their employees. The new capabilities also help to improve agent efficiency to reduce overheads.

To implement the system, Talabat worked with Middle East Telecommunications Company (METCO), the leading ICT Integrator in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. “METCO and Avaya presented a fresh approach to achieving Talabat’s business goals,” said Mohammed Areff, Avaya’s vice president for Middle East, Africa and Turkey. “With innovative engagement solutions, delivered via cutting-edge technology, we were able to transform and revolutionize Talabat’s customer experience.”

Contact Center Solution Supports Business Growth and Enhances Efficiency

Avaya’s engagement solutions helped Talabat simplify its existing operations. For example, instead of Talabat agents answering the phone each time a customer called to check on the status of their order, an automated message could alert the caller. “Hello, your order should arrive at 10:30 pm. Please hold tight, your order is on the way.” Automating this task reduced call volumes by half, returning 50% of the day to each agent, allowing them to spend more quality time with the customer instead of having to rush to get to the next call in the queue.

It has also helped Talabat leverage the latest best practices and technologies to identify customer trends and streamline contact handling. “Before implementing Avaya’s Contact Center Select, we had little insight into operations because we had no reporting,” said Mochament. “I can’t tell you how many calls we were handling on those four lines, but once we started using the Avaya solution, our volume was exploding. We added 50 lines and 50 agents in Kuwait alone.” Talabat now has more than 200 agents across their locations supported by the Avaya solution.

Impact on Customers

“Augmenting efficiency of internal processes will amplify the entire customer experience by making it easier, faster for Talabat’s customers,” Areff said. “Customers are highly impressed and satisfied with the streamlining and the further ease that Talabat has been able to provide since partnering with METCO and Avaya.”

For example, if a customer misses a call from a restaurant but the customer says there was no call, with the new system, Talabat is alerted and can join the call to facilitate between the two parties and come to a solution faster. Before, it would have simply ended in a frustrated restaurant and dissatisfied customer.

Not only have complaints decreased, but the number of customers has increased. “In December 2015, we had 50,000 orders per day. Over one year later, we have around 100,000 orders a day,” says Mochament.

“That’s an impressive 100% increase,” marvels Mochament. “With the proper support, we were able to meet and exceed our objectives.”

Impact on Staff and Business

Avaya Contact Center Select gives Talabat key operational insights that were not available with its prior infrastructure. “Previously we were not accurately measuring agent performance or tracking essential key performance indicators like transitioning or waiting time, number of calls, call distribution,” says Mochament. “Without this information, we could not forecast call volumes – meaning we could not have proper workforce management.”

Now, Talabat can access real-time management tools letting the company easily react to unexpected changes in forecasts. Mochament says even the agents themselves feel more professional. “Since we started using Avaya Contact Center Select, it has positively changed the atmosphere of our operations, across all countries.”

Areff added that e-commerce business in the GCC and MENA region has a potential for massive growth due to the high relevance of the online food delivery business, as well as high internet and smartphone penetration. With this innovative digital solution upgrade, Talabat can further enhance the efficiency of its internal processes, cater to increasing demand from customers, and better tend to high-volume calls and orders.

The popularity of delivery will only continue to increase as more and more customers seek the convenience it provides. Talabat is mindful of the need to maintain service quality and build relationships with its customers. “In fact,” says Mochament, “a diminishing call center issue rate is the KPI I have my eye on.”

"Avaya and METCO have been on board with us since the inception of this project as trusted partners, and from the beginning they worked closely with us to understand our business and technology needs. We required a scalable solution that would streamline and standardize our operations across all six GCC countries, deliver an efficient service that would meet customers’ enhanced expectations, and cement our position as the region’s leading online food ordering and delivery portal. I am delighted to say that we have achieved all of these goals, while boosting operational efficiency," concludes Chasan Mochament, Talabat.com Chief Operations Officer.