How Online Plastics Group
Scales Customer Service
Across 10 Webshops
Online Plastics Group made ordering plastic sheeting simple and grew to 10 webshops in 6 countries. In-house customer service could not cover peaks and sick leave. With Salesupply's scalable customer service, the group grows market by market, and when orders surged, the team grew with them.
- Industry
- Home & garden, plastic sheeting
- Services
- Customer service
- Footprint
- 10 webshops in 6 countries
- Model
- Scalable, shared customer care team
- Result
- Growth without growing headcount at the same pace
The Challenge: Peaks and Sick Leave in Every Market
The founders of Online Plastics Group found that ordering plastic sheeting online was far harder than it should be, and set out to make it simple. Their Dutch webshop lets customers pick the right material and order the exact size they need. A German webshop followed, then more markets.
Customer service for the Dutch and German shops was still in-house, and keeping it covered was hard.
“Covering peak periods and sick leaves was a challenge for the German customer service department in particular.”
The Approach: Built to Scale, on Both Sides
Online Plastics Group chose Salesupply for the scalability of its international customer care. To get the most out of it, the group also took a critical look at its own model. Sheeting in any size and shape was not scalable for the growth it had in mind, so it standardized its range first. Today a plate configurator makes custom shapes easy again, down to customers' own DXF designs.
“We came into contact with Salesupply and we were impressed by the scalability of their international customer care solution.”
Product knowledge still matters, so the agents are trained like an in-house team. Besides the introductory training, Online Plastics Group and Salesupply built a shared wiki and a dedicated e-learning course with everything agents need, so new agents are productive fast.
“Just like an internal customer service department, external agents also need to be trained.”
Tested Under Pressure: A Sudden Surge in Orders
That speed proved itself when Online Plastics Group launched protective screens and orders rose far beyond normal. Customer requests could no longer be handled at normal staffing levels, so the team was expanded together with Salesupply, quickly.
“The number of orders kept on rising. At that point, the amount of customer requests could no longer be kept up with under the normal staffing levels. So, together with Salesupply, we quickly responded to this unexpected development by expanding the team.”
The Result: Growth Without the Headcount
- 10 webshops, 6 countriesCustomer service that grows with every new market.
- Peaks and sick leave coveredNo more gaps in the German team, or anywhere else.
- Fast onboardingA shared wiki and e-learning get new agents productive quickly.
- Scaled in a surgeThe team expanded quickly when orders rose far beyond normal.
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