CUSTOMER SUCCESS Davinci Virtual Office Solutions Digital Engagement Forms the Foundation of a Virtual Business 2014
Davinci Virtual Office Solutions was an early adopter of several marketing technologies, including live chat from LivePerson. Over time, the company expanded its internal use of live chat, developed a retail live chat product powered by LivePerson, and upgraded to the LiveEngage platform. Impressive results include a 26 percent conversion rate for the live chat channel, with 15 percent of all transactions occurring solely through live chat. Digital engagement through LivePerson is also a key factor in steady increases in the company s overall conversion rate, and increases in average order values of 25 percent for virtual office solutions and almost 40 percent for meeting room rentals. In 2005, two business partners came together to address an emerging trend: the need for a global platform for small businesses to work virtually. Bill Grodnik had a wealth of experience in commercial real estate, and Martin Senn had long been involved in call center operations and telecom services, so their skills were a perfect fit to launch such a business. But the concept was untested. This was a true startup, recalls Grodnik, president and CEO of Davinci Virtual Office Solutions. It was bootstrapped. We built it from the ground up and it took a couple years of market education to get our products out there. The company grew quickly after that slow start, and now serves more than 15,000 small businesses with a variety of services. Our telephony service allows businesses to have local phone numbers in major cities around the world, as well as toll-free numbers, explains Senn, Davinci s chief operations officer. We also provide a unified messaging solution along with concierge-level live receptionist services. And we have created an online reservation platform through which our customers can reserve any of 3,000 meeting and work spaces around the world by the hour, half day, or full day. An important decision that Grodnik and Senn made when they launched the company was for all business with the company whether marketing or transactional to happen online. That obviously requires a website and aggressive online marketing, Grodnik observes. As an example, we were one of the very first adopters of Google search engine marketing. Pioneering Digital Engagement Davinci was also an early mover to embrace digital engagement technology from LivePerson. Senn s team deployed a live chat solution for the inside sales team when the company s first website was launched in 2006. We were convinced that we needed to deploy every method possible to interact with the customer, Senn relates. One of the key features that Live Person offered us was the ability to monitor traffic in real time and proactively approach the customer with an offer at the right time. We look back and feel that it s one of the key tools that helped us to grow. 1
The LivePerson Customer Success manager assigned to the Davinci account worked closely with Senn and his team from the beginning, sharing best practices gleaned from users around the world. Our Customer Success manager has been stellar, Senn says enthusiastically. He helped Davinci set up rules-based targeting to select high-value customers for both well-timed marketing offers and specialized assistance through proactive live chat, and a library of canned answers to speed the time to resolution. Over the years, he has helped DaVinci tweak its targeting rules for an optimal customer experience. I am always amazed at the analytics that he can generate for us, Senn adds. Offering Live Chat as a Service Live chat was so successful for inside sales that the channel was added for the customer care team in 2009. Shortly thereafter, our customers started to ask if we could provide a service like this on their behalf, Senn recalls. Initially, we were tentative about developing such a product, but my call center background convinced me that we should move forward. In March of 2010, live chat powered by LivePerson was added to the menu of the company s live receptionist services, enabling Davinci receptionists to communicate with visitors to their customers websites via this new channel. It s a product that is cobranded as Davinci and LivePerson, Senn notes. Our Customer Success manager was intimately involved in getting it set up, and because of his support, there was no question for Davinci as to what product to choose for the retail offering. Live chat fits perfectly into the business model of Davinci s live receptionist services. We call it the anti-call center model, as every customer is assigned to a team of four individual receptionists, Grodnik explains. They are thoroughly trained on the customer s business and can answer almost any question that someone might have. So it s natural that they could staff live chat lines for the customer as well. Moving to the Next Level About a year ago, Senn began to look seriously at upgrading its entire LivePerson environment for sales, customer care, and the retail live chat product to the LiveEngage platform. We were stretching the capabilities of the old product and wanted to see what the LiveEngage platform could offer us, Senn remembers. After speaking with our Customer Success manager, we decided to evaluate the product. Senn and his team liked what they saw in the testing. It enabled us to be more specific about the invitation rules and scenarios, and we felt that we would get a much better reporting and intelligence set, he says. We realized that we could optimize our marketing and engagement strategy to give us the highest return on our traffic. Davinci deployed the LiveEngage platform for inside sales and customer service in June 2013, and extended the deployment to the retail live chat product in September. Continual Innovation Since deploying the LiveEngage platform, Davinci has seen chat conversations increase by almost 10 percent, and its count of concurrent agent licenses grow from 25 to 30. We re investing a lot of time and resources right now to develop innovative ways to present our live chat product at the right time, in the right fashion, with the right offer, Grodnik explains. Company Profile Founded in 2006, Davinci Virtual Office Solutions provides global business addresses, live receptionist services, and office and meeting space rentals for small and midsize businesses. The company serves more than 15,000 small business customers from its headquarters in Salt Lake City, Utah, and at more than 900 partner locations in nearly 30 countries. The Solution Challenges Launch a company that conducts all marketing and transactions online, while maintaining a human touch Grow conversion rates and average order values through digital engagement Develop a retail live chat product in response to requests from customers LiveEngage Solution Engagement Model: Sales and services deployment of live chat; retail live chat solution for customers Under the Hood: LiveEngage platform with rules-based targeting, Click to Call for mobile users; future deployment of mobile live chat and predictive targeting LivePerson Customer Success: Ongoing deep involvement with deployment and optimization of live chat and Click-to-Call, and development of retail live chat product 2
We re investing a lot of time and resources right now to develop innovative ways to present our live chat product at the right time, in the right fashion, with the right offer. One recent innovation launched by Senn s team is skills-based routing. Through pre-chat surveys and rules-based targeting, we re delivering the right point of contact for the customer, based on what they re looking for, Senn explains. At the same time, we made small refinements to our canned responses to deliver more precise and targeted information to our customers. We also just deployed the enhanced screen overlays and the expanded marketing and promotional abilities of the LiveEngage platform on a couple of our sites, Senn adds. We have seen very good response so far, and it has been fun to put together the campaigns. Connecting with Mobile Users The Davinci team is also refining the digital engagement experience for visitors who access the company s web properties from mobile devices. About a year ago, Senn s team launched its first mobile-specific website, specifically configured for smartphones. Our mobile traffic has been growing by 20 or 30 percent annually in recent years, so this is a critical initiative, Senn relates. We now have three mobile sites, and all are equipped with Click to Call through the LiveEngage platform. And we re embedding mobile live chat from LivePerson in the next versions of the sites, to be launched in 2014. Martin Senn, Chief Operations Officer, Davinci Virtual Office Solutions Business Results Conversion Rates 26% conversion rate for live chat channel, up from 16% two years ago via better targeting and streamlined processes 30% overall conversion rate, up from 24% two years ago, partly due to digital engagement Average Order Values 25% increase in AOV for virtual office solutions, partly due to digital engagement 40% increase in AOV for Davinci Meeting Rooms, partly due to digital engagement Operational Efficiency 15% of transactions deflected to live chat 10% increase in live chat conversations after upgrading to LiveEngage platform Davinci has also released mobile apps for its communication and workspace reservation services, and an app for the company s live receptionist services is under development. We re working on integrating LivePerson digital engagement, including mobile live chat and Click to Call, into these apps in future releases, Senn reports. Our customers are mobile and are connecting with us through a variety of devices, and we need to serve them where they are. 30% annual increase in mobile users served via Click to Call and future deployment of mobile live chat Digital Engagement Drives Success Today, 15 percent of Davinci s transactions are conducted entirely via live chat, and the conversion rate for live chat is just over 26 percent. Live chat conversions were at 15 or 16 percent two years ago, so we have seen good improvement, Senn says. Some of the factors in this success include better customer targeting, skillsbased routing, refinements in canned responses, and a better overall use of live chat by our sales force. And when live chat is compared with other digital engagement channels, Senn reports that its conversion rates are higher than everything but direct contact by phone. However, Davinci s team does not look at it as a competition between channels. In our world, 90 percent of our traffic is being touched by either live chat or 3
Over the past two years, average order values have grown by about 25 percent on the virtual office solutions side, and almost 40 percent on the Davinci Meeting Rooms side. Live chat is a key factor in these results. Martin Senn, Chief Operations Officer, Davinci Virtual Office Solutions phone, and many customers engage us through both channels, Senn notes. This has helped our overall conversion rate to grow every single year, and it is now just under 30 percent. And that is lower than it would be otherwise because of the sluggish economy. Digital engagement has not only been a factor in a continual growth in conversion rates, but it has also helped Davinci to earn more revenue from those customers through cross-sell and upsell opportunities. Over the past two years, average order values have grown by about 25 percent on the virtual office solutions side, and almost 40 percent on the Davinci Meeting Rooms side, Senn reports. Live chat is a key factor in these results. Great Future Potential Senn has big plans for expanding Davinci s use of the LiveEngage platform over the next few years. We re currently testing Predictive Targeting as a better way of pushing out offers and proactive live chat invitations, Senn relates. We want our highest value potential customers to get the VIP treatment, and we want to cross-sell and upsell to them. His team also plans to expand its use of the advanced marketing campaigns that the LiveEngage platform can deliver. Although it is further in the future, the concept of video live chat is also intriguing to Senn. We use video extensively already for our interactive web properties, he explains. We have a fairly large presence on YouTube. So video live chat will be important in the future, especially as mobile devices get higher bandwidths. Whatever technologies might be in Davinci s future, the key to success in its business is a personal connection. I have to engage customers early, Senn emphasizes. I have a very short time to get them interested in continuing the online experience with us. Live chat from my perspective is the primary tool in my toolbox that enables me to do so. Without live chat from LivePerson, we would not be the company we are today. About LivePerson LivePerson, Inc. (NASDAQ: LPSN) offers a cloud-based platform that enables businesses to proactively connect in real-time with their customers via chat, voice, and content delivery at the right time, through the right channel, including websites, social media, and mobile devices. This intelligent engagement is driven by real-time behavioral analytics, producing connections based on a true understanding of business objectives and customer needs. LivePerson is headquartered in New York City with offices in Atlanta, San Francisco, Santa Monica, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, and Melbourne. Contact LivePerson, Inc. T: 212.991.1794 475 Tenth Ave F: 212.609.4233 5th Floor info@liveperson.com New York, NY 10018 www.liveperson.com 4