Valvoline’s Increased Service ROI Pleased Two Very Diverse Constituents — Its CFO and Its Customers

Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) are notoriously tough customers when it comes to approving expenditures for new initiatives. They expect to see a solid business case with a strong, defensible return on investment (ROI).

When Valvoline looked into centralizing the inbound calls that its 1,300 retail locations were handling, the business case almost wrote itself. The effort was expected to yield lower costs, greater retail staff productivity, increased customer retention, and even a bump in client acquisition. What CFO wouldn't get behind these business results?

These anticipated benefits were driven by a focus on greatly improving the customer experience across multiple channels. This illustrates, once again, that when you give customers the experience they deserve, the financial benefits usually follow.

Valvoline is a leading worldwide marketer and supplier of premium branded automotive lubricants and automotive services. With 1,300 company-run and franchise retail locations, it’s the second largest quick-lube chain in the U.S.

Valvoline was facing a challenge that is common to companies with a significant number of retail locations — what to do with the high number of calls to its individual stores.

Customers were calling to ask about everything from the best oil to use to the next available appointment time. These customers were receiving an inconsistent experience, and it was causing inefficiencies at the stores. Additionally, the company believed it was missing sales opportunities.

Recognizing an opportunity to improve the customer experience as well as the bottom line, Valvoline embarked on an effort to redirect calls from its company-owned service centers to a centralized contact center.

The project team followed a six-step methodology to ensure the success of the project, which included getting their ducks in a row before they approached the CFO for funding. This structured approach enabled Valvoline to successfully divert these calls to its best in class contact center — now staffed with 180 agents who handle 2.5 million contacts annually.

And the CFO must be happy with the actual results, which include an increase in ROI, increased customer satisfaction and acquisition, and greater bandwidth in the stores.

According to Shawn Castle, Valvoline's director of Customer Support, the organization learned some valuable lessons from the initiative. For example, it's critical to stay focused on the problem you're trying to solve. In this case, solving the company's customer experience problems. The result was a win for the company and for its customers.

Shawn Castle will be sharing more details about lessons learned, Valvoline’s six-step project methodology, and how to secure CFO support at the upcoming ICMI CCExpo in Hollywood, Florida.

His session, Getting CFO Buy-In for KPIs Your Customers Deserve, promises to be rich in practical and insightful solutions to problems many organizations face. Please join us on May 14 at 7:15 a.m. ET in Regency Ballroom 2 to learn more about this remarkable success story.