8×8, Inc., a leading integrated cloud communications platform, announced that Halfords, the UK’s leading retailer of motoring and cycling services and products, has expanded the company’s deployment of the 8×8 integrated cloud contact centre and communications product to further enhance communications and customer experience.

As part of the company’s digital transformation efforts to improve efficiency and profitability, Halfords was focused on unifying communications and contact centre operations across their three main business divisions – retail, automotive and mobile services. However, their legacy on-premises communications infrastructure was a barrier to achieving this goal, with multiple systems and dated technology.

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Following a rigorous procurement process, Halfords selected 8×8 due to platform scalability, flexibility and integrations with Salesforce and Calabrio Teleopti Workforce Management. Initially, Halfords deployed the integrated 8×8 contact centre and communications product across more than 700 locations to support 4,700 employees and contact centre agents. Staff productivity and customer engagement have dramatically improved with simplified internal call routing between business divisions, which was often a manual process in the past. Tight CRM integration with 8×8 Contact Centre allows agents to have more informed conversations with customers, and security has been further strengthened as agents can process secure credit card payments using PCI-compliant 8×8 Secure Pay.

As the business environment changed over the past year, Halfords worked closely with 8×8 to rapidly expand global customer engagement efforts, more than doubling the number of contact centre agents using 8×8 to over 750. As part of the expansion, Halfords added a contact centre team in South Africa with more than 200 remote contact centre agents to support the largely digital retail operation. This allowed Halfords to minimise business disruption, while keeping agents safe and productive. South Africa is one of the 42 countries where 8×8 provides full Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) replacement services and global calling plans, allowing organisations to easily scale operations as needs change.

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Gareth Brophy, Head of Customer Support at Halfords said, “It’s so important that we give our customers the experience they expect, whether face-to-face in a retail store, Autocentre or over the phone. Partnering with 8×8 and deploying an integrated cloud contact centre and communications product, enables us to deliver a customer-first strategy, and scale our operations to drive efficiency and profitability.”

“Leading organisations like Halfords understand how communications can transform employee and customer experience, especially when driving productivity and customer retention and loyalty efforts are more important than ever for business success,” said Jamie Snaddon, Managing Director, EMEA at 8×8, Inc. “As we support Halfords on their digital transformation journey to meet and exceed customer expectations, we look forward to helping them manage and optimise all employee and customer interactions across their multiple business divisions.”

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