Why Sweaty Betty Doesn’t Sweat Quality Management

Born and bred in the heart of London, Sweaty Betty, the women’s activewear company, was forced to navigate COVID-19 restrictions on three different continents. Having expanded beyond the UK to New York and Hong Kong, the company had to quickly pivot with pandemic lockdowns in place from brick-and-mortar retail to mostly e-commerce.

The company’s contact center team shifted to a remote workplace just as Sweaty Betty – and the entire athleisure industry – started to see significant market growth. The boost in product demand, fueled by more people working from home, as well as changing consumer lifestyles, meant Sweaty Betty had to grow its team to meet the surge in demand. 

In 2019, the lifestyle brand had 12 customer care agents. But by the end of 2020, there were 150 team members on the Sweaty Betty contact center team. 

The challenge of hiring and training more than 100 remote employees, as well as the operational considerations stemming from increased product demand, meant it wasn’t feasible for contact center leaders to spend hours conducting manual agent quality assessments. But the company felt strongly that this step couldn’t be bypassed either. 

Sweaty Betty wanted to ensure that all contact center team members – regardless of their tenure with the company – were delivering the level of service its devoted customer base has come to expect. The kind of service that’s earned Sweaty Betty a Trustpilot ranking of 4.8 out of 5 from more than 8,400 customer reviews.

A Quality Management Solution with Muscle

It became clear that the company’s old quality management tool simply couldn’t keep pace with the company’s evolving business needs. It was time for Sweaty Betty to switch to an automated solution with some muscle – one that could adapt to the company’s dynamic requirements and nurture its long-standing focus on providing winning customer service. 

Sweaty Betty turned to Playvox to quickly implement, launch, and scale its contact center quality management software. Since going live in 2020, Sweaty Betty leaders have conducted more than 4,000 agent quality assessments, a number the team couldn’t have hit using a manual approach. But with Playvox’s automated scorecards, evaluation, and coaching templates, as well as its workload management tools, contact center leaders have confidence that agents are participating in regular evaluations and receiving timely feedback to ensure they’re delivering the desired customer experience – even when remote. 

In this webinar, we share more about how Playvox’s contact center quality management software benefitted the Sweaty Betty team during the earliest days of the pandemic. Plus, we explore how the quality management solution has strengthened the company in four key areas: 

1.     Community

The Sweaty Betty team finds strength in each other. Company leaders work hard to foster a strong internal community because when agents feel connected and aligned to the broader purpose, employee well-being improves, and ultimately, customer interactions are enhanced.  

The Community hub in the Playvox quality management tool lets Sweaty Betty agents collaborate with their teammates, ask questions, conduct polls, and share comments and ideas. Agents can even give each other virtual high-fives for a job well done. The hub has played a critical role in keeping the Sweaty Betty contact center team connected – especially in a virtual work environment that relies on computer screens rather than in-person interactions.

2.     Coaching 

Company leaders are committed to helping Sweaty Betty agents achieve their professional goals. As part of the company’s core value to stand up, speak up, and shout out, the Sweaty Betty team believes that feedback is fuel and coaching is a springboard that can take employees where they want to go next. 

Using our quality management tool, Sweaty Betty houses its own coaching templates, which ensure consistent standards across its 150-member contact center team. This also fosters an encouraging and collaborative environment that helps customer care team members make progress toward their career goals. 

3.     Empowerment

At Sweaty Betty, contact center leaders strive to provide agents with an open and transparent environment and to give them the tools they need to drive meaningful customer interactions. 

Playvox’s quality management solution does the heavy lifting so the company’s customer service leaders can quickly and easily set up scorecards – templated or custom – for evaluating agent interactions on the phone, in email, or via chat.

Feedback is delivered in real-time, which lets agents immediately apply what they learn and make necessary adjustments. The respectful approach reinforces the Sweaty Betty core value of caring for each other, while also empowering agents to take immediate action.

4.     Learning 

More companies are using gamification to train their employees. It only makes sense that Sweaty Betty, a women’s activewear company, would add a little competition to motivate its agents. 

Sweaty Betty built a training library in the Learning hub that’s part of its quality management solution. The hub complements the company’s core value of being constantly curious, and the cycle of leading, learning, and trying again. Or as some might say, puttin’ in the reps.

It has games designed to help agents learn and remember product information. Videos are also available and have knowledge checks throughout to ensure the viewer stays engaged. Plus, the company created courses, complete with pop quizzes and tests, to ensure agents retain and apply the key takeaways. 

A Partner for Retail to E-Commerce

Sweaty Betty needed a partner to help its shift from physical retail to mostly online retail, without losing the positive customer experience the company is known for delivering. Learn how Playvox’s quality management solution helped the activewear company flex to meet more customer service requests and stretch to train more than 100 new hires – all in a remote setting. Plus, hear how Playvox pumped new life into Sweaty Betty’s community, coaching, feedback, and learning capabilities. Listen here.

See why leading brands trust our all-in-one workforce engagement management solution. Schedule a demo today.