Company: Michael Kors, New York, NY
Company Description: Michael Kors is a world-renowned, award-winning designer of luxury accessories and ready-to-wear. His namesake company, established in 1981, produces a range of products under his signature Michael Kors Collection and MICHAEL Michael Kors labels. These products include accessories, footwear, watches, jewelry, men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, eyewear and a full line of fragrance products.
Nomination Category: Customer Service & Call Center Awards Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Contact Center of the Year (Over 100 Seats) - Other Service Industries
 Nomination Title: Overcoming Shutdown to Becoming a Profit Center
- Which will you submit for your nomination in this category, a video of up to five (5) minutes, explaining the achievements since July 1, 2020 of the nominated team, OR written answers to the questions? (Choose one):
Written answers to the questions
- If you are submitting a video of up to five (5) minutes in length, provide the URL of the video here, OR attach it to your entry via the "Add Attachments, Videos, or Links to This Entry" link above, through which you may also upload a copy of your video. If you are submitting written answers to the questions for this category, provide them in the spaces below.
- Briefly describe the nominated team: its history and past performance (up to 200 words):
Total 199 words used.
The MICHAEL KORS Contact Center was established in 2014 to provide real-time support to a growing customer base who shopped online via our website. Our primary goal is to support the online channel and generate sales to offset the annual Contact Center operating costs. Trained Style Consultants (CSR's) provide product information, styling advice, accessorizing tips, and convert inquiries into sales. We use a white-glove, consultative selling approach, internally referred to as "clienteling," to create lifelong customers and loyal fans of the brand.
To ensure our Style Consultants deliver on the brand promise, we fashioned a bespoke Contact Center experience with showrooms, mannequins, and streaming music to create an energetic and immersive environment that feels like a seamless extension of the retail store experience. Within one year of startup, the contact center became a profit center and generated more sales than several Michael Kors brick-and-mortar stores.
Past Successes:
- 2017 Increased the sales conversion rate by 62% by creating and providing targeted Sales training
- 2018 Accomplished over 200%+ Return on Cost from phone and chat-assisted sales
- 2019 Exceeded sales goal by over 150%
- 2020 Profitable by 4% despite COVID closure for five months
- 2021 Exceeded $1M in Call Center profitability
- Outline the team's achievements since July 1 2020 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 250 words):
Total 199 words used.
Challenge: COVID affected our retail business, resulting in the closure of all US stores. We were forced to shut down phone and chat, leaving email as the only communication channel. Customers had no real-time support or opportunity to reach a Style Consultant – resulting in no opportunities to generate sales via the phone channel.
Approach: We developed an opening roadmap to ensure a return to pre-COVID sales levels. To assist us in driving incremental sales, we partnered with Korn Ferry, a consulting organization, to provide our agents with their proprietary Professional Sales and Service® training. We customized the training roleplays to mimic real-life Michal Kors customer interactions. We also certified two trainers to ensure future new hires received the same level of sales training. Coupled with this, we also developed a rewards and recognition program focused on increasing conversion rate, helping keep Style Consultants focused and enthused about making sales. These two initiatives catapulted us towards a successful sales year.
Outcome: At the end of 2022, we were able to train 100% of agents, beat our sales goal by 20%, exceed the previous year's sales by 34%, improve conversion rate from 37% to 39%, and reduce attrition by 5%.
- Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 250 words):
Total 49 words used.
We provided a deck that supports the achievemenst in the entry attached as MICHAEL KORS STEVIE ENTRY #69. It includes KPI tracking slides to quantify the performance, examples of $100K Sellers Club award, screenshots of the digital training catalog, and excerpts from Korn Ferry's Professional Selling Skills ® training.
- Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the team's past performance (up to 250 words):
Total 196 words used.
Some challenges we overcame to achieve our goal:
- Reduced workforce by 77%
- Closed phone lines with no opportunity to sell
Action Plan to reopen included
- Rehiring tenured Style Consultants
- Providing all Style Consultants with Korn Ferry's Professional Sales and Service® training that helped with:
- Discovering customer needs
- Identifying buying signals
- Asking for the sale
- Creating defining moments
- Introduced a commission-based incentive that rewarded more agents
- Launched a top sellers program to recognize sellers with +$100K in sales
- Provided product training using hi-tech digital catalogs and video tutorials
- Offered “Retention Bonus” to reduce attrition
Operations Approach
We launched a comprehensive commission-based incentive program, while top sellers with +$100K in sales were recognized with a plaque, MK products, and money. This approach allowed for a quick recovery from being nearly shut down into a sales powerhouse that exceeded all goals.
Results
- Sales exceeded target by 20%
- Sales Conversion Rate increased from 37% to 39% by fiscal year-end (+5.4%)
- Average Order Value increased 4% [REDACTED FOR PUBLICATION]
- Attrition reduced by 5%
- FCR improved from 89% to 90%
- 100% Style Consultants trained in Korn Ferry's Professional Sales and Service®
- MK Insider virtual sales training to 100% Style Consultants
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