Case Study
From Supplier to Strategic Partner
Transforming Customer Service Through Technology
Listen
The Challenge
Kura’s engagement began with a shared best-practice exchange: learning first-hand how the client operated day-to-day, while showing the client what a mature, technology-led operation could look like, setting expectations on both sides from day one.
The client had experienced significant business growth, but its customer service infrastructure had not developed at the same pace. High contact volumes were managed across multiple channels without a dedicated workforce planning capability, operational reporting relied heavily on manually maintained spreadsheets, and outbound activity ran on legacy dialling technology with limited visibility. An email backlog of more than 5,000 customer contacts had built up, against approximately 2,000 new emails arriving every week.
The client needed more than a traditional outsourcer, or a switchboard supplier simply answering calls: it needed a key strategic partner able to lead the delivery of new and emerging customer service technology, replace established legacy processes and build a platform for future growth. This is part of the client’s ongoing progress towards its long-term vision, a journey expected to continue for years rather than months.
Email backlog inherited
Weekly email volume
Shape & Bring to Life
What We Did
Resource planning
Dedicated forecasting and workforce planning, introduced for the first time
Technology
Modern dialler, WFM and reporting replacing legacy tools
Operational efficiency
Automation and process redesign cutting manual effort
Continuous improvement
The roadmap reviewed and adapted as the partnership matures
Kura’s role was not simply to answer customer contacts as a switchboard supplier: it became an extension of the client’s leadership team, taking on the role of strategic partner to lead delivery. A joint governance board of leaders, technology specialists and client directors met monthly to agree priorities and sign off each phase. The roadmap runs in three phases: stabilise and clear the backlog, modernise the technology estate, then extend Kura’s insight capability to wider business planning. The client sits midway through phase two today, a long-term journey Kura remains committed to for years to come.
The transition itself was managed against a proven implementation methodology aligned to Prince2 principles, to ensure a seamless transition: dedicated time was spent understanding the client’s business and services before a single legacy process changed, and each change was phased, tested and signed off before moving into live service, protecting continuity throughout. Kura draws on equivalent experience leading technology and legacy-replacement transformations for other clients, at this scale.
Workforce planning was introduced for the first time across all in-scope services, before NICE IEX Workforce Management brought forecasting, scheduling, adherence and workload planning into one solution. Outbound activity moved from an internally managed dialler to NICE CXone Personal Connection, alongside a wider roadmap of omnichannel routing, interaction analytics and quality management. Reporting shifted from manually maintained spreadsheets to Power BI, an estimated saving of around 45 minutes of manual reporting effort per day across roughly 15 managers, and giving leaders a single, real-time operational view for the first time. The capability built extends beyond the teams Kura directly manages: workforce planning, MI and reporting now support the client’s wider business planning too.
The email backlog was the sharpest early test: more than 5,000 historic contacts had to be cleared while roughly 2,000 new emails continued arriving each week within SLA. The backlog was eliminated within six weeks without breaching live service, and webchat was transformed through automation and approved response snippets, freeing advisors to focus on contacts requiring greater judgement.
transform customer service from a collection of operational activities into a strategic capability underpinned by technology, insight and continuous improvement.
Deliver
The Results
Reporting that had relied on Excel spreadsheets was replaced with structured data capture and Power BI, giving leaders a single operational view across channels for the first time. For the client, this meant managers spent less time compiling reports and more time coaching, customers on the specialist retentions service waited up to four times less to be answered, and outbound activity delivered stronger sales conversion.
Email backlog
Overall ASA
Overall abandonment
Specialist retentions ASA
Specialist retentions abandonment
Sales and revenue
Nurture
Key Learnings
Kura remains a strategic partner to the client today. As with all Kura partnerships, a dedicated one to two day strategic planning session is held each year following initial implementation, stepping back from day-to-day delivery to review broader goals and shape the next phase of the roadmap together, so Kura helps influence future direction rather than only implementing agreed fixes.
Three lessons stood out: the complexity of legacy systems is easy to underestimate, and dedicated IT scoping support was critical to avoid delay; providing dedicated resource for data extraction and migration made the single biggest difference to pace; and more transition time, not less, protects service continuity, a lesson now built into how every future rollout is planned.
Let’s build a customer experience around your business.
Every organisation is different. That’s why every solution we design is different too.
