Pets at Home uses Tableau to help visualise the 23 million customer records captured in Service Cloud along with VIP Club information and other operational datasets hosted in the Google Cloud. By combining the power of Tableau with its own algorithms, Pets at Home can predict customer preferences and responsiveness to specific campaigns and identify those most at risk of churn.

Consolidating and in-sourcing its CRM data has helped Pets at Home increase the average customer spend, identify new value creation opportunities, and drive 70% growth in subscription plans since 2020. The number of subscription plans across the group, which provide owners with essential pet care at a low, fixed monthly cost, hit 1.6 million at the end of 2022, generating over £135 million in annualised recurring consumer revenue. “Richer insights enable us to identify new ways to better serve our customers,” said Boyd.

Pets at Home also uses Service Cloud’s analytics capabilities to interrogate customer data and generate operational reports. This means customer care team leaders can evaluate agent performance and productivity on a daily basis. “With Service Cloud, we can allocate the right resources at the right time,” explained Dickinson. “It helps us minimise response times for customers and keep track of our SLAs.”

Pets at Home wants to ensure it maintains a balance between the productivity and wellbeing of its 15,000+ plus colleagues and joint venture partners for veterinary services. “For many people, pets are an extension of their family. And that means there can be a lot of emotion attached to customer interactions,” said Boyd. “We need to ensure our people are supported.”

With Service Cloud, Pets at Home can share customer feedback with vet practices at the right time and screen any inappropriate comments. “We receive customer emails 24x7. With Service Cloud, we can send an immediate acknowledgement but only pass the message on to a practice during working hours,” explained Jo Mitchell, Partner Communications and Client Care Manager for Pets at Home.

With the vet group accounting for one third of the company’s overall profits, customer satisfaction and retention are also a big focus. Pets at Home has a dedicated team of veterinary nurses that handle around 2,000 enquiries and complaints per week. Service Cloud has helped automate how these cases are logged and resolved. For example, online chat queries are categorised and routed using a chatbot, while web forms are automatically linked to a customer’s existing record.

Prior to deploying Service Cloud, the team had to enter customer data multiple times in multiple systems – this took around 11 minutes for every email contact. New contacts are now logged almost instantaneously. “With Service Cloud, we can respond to owners more rapidly, which can be critical if a pet’s health is at risk,” said Mitchell. “It helps us achieve more with the same resource.”

The data captured in Service Cloud enables Pets at Home to track trends and case volumes for its veterinary services more efficiently. “Instead of relying on spreadsheets, we now have a dedicated dashboard that enables us to pinpoint and address issues that might impact the wider business,” added Mitchell.

Continuous improvement is embedded in the Pets at Home culture – especially within customer care. “Every case generates around 30 data fields that we use to run reports and identify opportunities for improvement,” explained Boyd. These insights have already prompted Pets at Home to improve how it categorises cases to enable faster resolutions. But this is just the beginning.

With changes released every two weeks, there’s a raft of initiatives in the pipeline – from establishing a stronger link between the in-store and customer care experience to implementing robotic process automation (RPA) to provide customers with real-time order updates via live chat. “With RPA, we will be able to provide customers with a rapid response without needing to involve an agent,” said Boyd. “It will help lower our cost to serve.” Boyd estimates that using RPA for order enquiries could free up between 12 and 18 full-time equivalent team members.

Pets at Home also uses Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, to understand how to better leverage technology within customer care and expand the team’s Salesforce and CRM expertise. When a new initiative goes live, the customer care team is the first to know if it’s been a success. “The data captured in Salesforce enables us to see how a change, such as the introduction of a new delivery partner, impacts the customer experience,” explained Boyd.

To help achieve its continuous improvement objectives, Pets at Home works with Salesforce Professional Services and Salesforce partner CGI. “For us, improving the customer experience never stops,” said Boyd. “Salesforce Professional Services helps us explore new ideas and implement new features. We’re not just a customer; we’re part of a community that adds value and shares best practices.”

By unlocking greater efficiency, Pets at Home will be able to maintain its reputation for quality and affordability. “The UK is a nation of animal lovers, and we want to ensure we continue to make pet care as easy and convenient as possible,” said Boyd. “With Salesforce, we can expand our data and digital capabilities to deliver greater value to millions of pet owners.”