M&S deploys smart customer contact system from Twilio

Cloud communications platform Twilio announced on Thursday that Marks & Spencer has selected it to power its customer communications across 640 locations and 13 UK-based contact centre hubs.

The company said the project to automate M&S’s legacy switchboard operation took less than six months from concept to launch, and would allow the retailer to analyse customer intent in real time for more than 12 million interactions with customers annually.

It said that today, when a customer calls an M&S store, the company’s intelligent system immediately established what the customer was calling about and then routed it to the correct destination via Twilio.

M&S was also rolling out delivery status updates via text message for its e-commerce customers, powered by Twilio Programmable SMS.

“Twilio’s flexible cloud communications platform has enabled Marks & Spencer to experiment like a startup, while executing like an enterprise,” said Marks & Spencer’s IT programme manager Chris McGrath.

“We were able to prototype a solution in just four weeks and put it to the test during our busiest retail days of the year.

“The new solution has given Marks & Spencer an improved ability to have more direct and meaningful conversations with our customers, which also helps us reallocate valuable staff time.”

Prior to partnering with Twilio, M&S’s infrastructure was reportedly built on a mixture of legacy phone systems that could not support its digital strategy going forward.

As a result, the retailer was said to have been unable to centralise customer information, and could not connect customers across its stores nationwide.

As a part of the company’s digital transformation initiative, it began looking for a solution it could deploy across the entire business to enhance the customer experience.

In four weeks, M&S apparently designed a Twilio-powered prototype that would automate the company’s existing switchboard and then put Twilio to test during a trial run on the company’s two busiest days of the year - Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day - where it handled more than 20,000 customer calls.

After a successful trial, M&S, in collaboration with DVELP, deployed its intelligent natural language routing solution nationwide.

“Today’s consumers have come to expect a great customer experience from the companies they buy from and communications are increasingly central to this,” said Twilio director of product management Rob Brazier.

“We are thrilled to be working with such an iconic retailer as it transforms its communications in order to deliver the best possible experience for its 32 million customers worldwide.”