Growing through a crisis:
How Crocus slashed first response time by 91% with Freshworks

Quick summary

Gardening retailer, Crocus, thrived during the pandemic thanks to its decision to upgrade its customer service to Freshdesk. Crocus's 14-member customer support team was overwhelmed by queries and requests during the pandemic, prompting the company to switch to Freshdesk. The platform provided increased functionality and allowed the team to capture customer data for a better customer experience, simplify subscription management, optimize support processes, and streamline their workload. The result was a reduction in first response time from 24 hours to 2 hours through automation, 85% CSAT, zero spam tickets, and a 30% reduction in support costs.

About Crocus

Crocus, a major gardening retailer in the UK, aims to be 'the friendly neighbor across the fence,' providing superior customer service and sharing their extensive gardening expertise with customers. The company has also established a strong presence at events, most notably the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show, where they won numerous gold medals.

We spoke with Ben Ford, Customer Service Development Manager at Crocus, who shared how Crocus managed to thrive despite pandemic challenges by upgrading to Freshdesk.

Crocus' pandemic-induced customer service woes

Due to the closure of garden centers during the COVID-19 pandemic, Crocusfaced a surge in demand for its services. However, the platform they were using then could not handle the sudden increase in requests due to its limited functionality and lack of flexibility. The customer service team was forced to seek support from other departments to manage the surge. This prompted Crocus to explore new options for a more efficient and effective solution.

The decision to switch to Freshdesk was driven by the need to bring all contact management in-house and measure customer satisfaction efficiently - aspects lacking in their previous platform. "Freshdesk provided increased functionality, such as using web forms for contact and improved reporting," added Ben.

Turning over a new leaf: how Crocus transformed its customer experience

A streamlined knowledge base improves accessibility and efficiency

Crocus's 14-member customer support team receives 3000-6000 queries per month. The old system made it challenging for agents to access necessary information, but Freshworks’ new, streamlined format has improved efficiency by organizing responses and solutions in accessible folders. The knowledge base now includes both customer-facing and internal solutions, eliminating the need for agents to refer to external resources.

Simplified subscription management with the Chargebee-Freshdesk integration app

Crocus' Mind, Body & Soil subscription service delivers monthly plants and seasonal goods to customers. With the Chargebee-Freshdesk integration app from Freshworks Marketplace, the company can access customer account details using their email address, including their subscription status and specific products subscribed to, all on one screen with their contact details. This integration streamlines everything, eliminating the need to switch between pages. Crocus also uses multiple other apps from Freshworks Marketplace, including Instagrammer Direct, to support customers who contact via Instagram and Hide/Disable ticket fields that help make agents’ view cleaner by hiding and/or disabling selected ticket fields for specified agents.

Optimizing support processes with Freshdesk features

Capturing customer data for better customer experience

Using custom ticket fields, the company could capture why customers were reaching out for support and identify common issues they faced. This helped reduce repetitive questions and address the root causes of customer inquiries, leading to optimized support processes and better customer satisfaction.

Reduced manual effort

"The ticket forwarding feature is often overlooked, but it has proven extremely helpful for the team," said Ben, allowing anyone to view and pick up a ticket immediately without waiting for a specific agent. This streamlines the process, especially in the absence, as all the information is managed within one ticket. Previously, team members would email the ticket to their Gmail account or create a new ticket for order tracking.

Effective workload management

To prioritize customer requests during the peak season of March to June, Ben and the team use a web contact form and keyword automations to prioritize tickets based on request type, such as giving cancellation requests higher priority for a swift resolution. This helps manage workload effectively and has led to a massive reduction in first response time. 

A daily dose of performance insights: 

Through Freshdesk Analytics, the team receives an email at the end of every workday summarizing the day's achievements and highlighting successes like no dropped calls, ensuring immediate visibility into the team's performance. Ben adds, "This report also allows us to identify trends. By grouping ticket and call volume by day over 30 days, we can analyze a line chart to see if the volume is increasing or decreasing. This snapshot of our performance helps us plan and prepare for future trends."

For example, the team classified customer queries regarding order tracking into two types: those for delayed orders and those for additional information. The company worked with other departments to meet distribution KPIs and ensure website timeframes were accurate, reducing delayed orders and customers needing to contact them frequently.

Creating a unified voice with Freshworks:

Since all customer data resides within Freshworks, the team can easily manage customers' inquiries across channels and direct them to the most appropriate communication channel without losing vital information. "We avoid ending a phone call and waiting for an email to come in by adding the email address to the customer's profile. This approach enables us to see when the email arrives and manage it effectively within a single customer account", said Ben.

Ben added, "We write our support documents in a friendly and conversational tone, which reflects the voice we want our customers to hear. We can maintain consistency across all channels and customer interactions by building the knowledge base, canned responses, and ticket templates in the same voice."

Freshworks drives significant improvements in Crocus's customer support

Crocus saw an opportunity during a challenge, resulting in qualitative and quantitative results. By implementing Freshworks, Crocus:

• Achieved 85% CSAT
• Reduced first response time from 24 hours to 2 hours through automation
• Cut down support costs by 30%
• Reduced spam tickets to 0% through automation

As the business is on its path to becoming the best in the field, its progress reflects in the positive feedback from its customers:

“My email query was answered extremely quickly, and the items I ordered were delivered promptly. The experience with Crocus was, as always, exceptionally good - a company I would always be happy to recommend for first-class products and service.” 

- A happy Crocus Customer