Client Success Story:
Hillarys

Services & sector

About Hillarys

Hillarys is a manufacturer and retailer of made-to-measure window coverings: blinds, shutters, curtains, and awnings. Its sales channels include a network of self-employed advisors across Great Britain and Ireland. Hillarys parent company, Hunter Douglas, is the global leader in window coverings with companies across six continents.

Over the years, being the best in the business has brought recognition through wide-ranging accolades, including Nottinghamshire Company of the Year 2014, Top 50 Companies for Customer Service, Callcentre.co.uk and Enterprise Software Project of the Year, Techworld Awards 2013.

The requirement

Hillarys originally approached Key IVR following a successful relationship with a sister company in the Hunter Douglas group which had implemented an Agent Assisted Payment system to improve their security when taking card payments over the phone.

After experiencing unreliability and a lack of flexibility from their previous secure payments suppliers, Hillarys decided to explore alternatives, searching for an organisation that could offer multiple payment options, accommodating both chip and pin transactions within clients’ homes and facilitating over-the-phone payments. Hillarys goal was to minimise the scope of PCI compliance efforts by leveraging solutions that kept as much of their infrastructure out of the compliance scope as possible.

Hillarys aimed to enable customers to save their card information to an account for faster and more convenient repeat orders. This was achieved by tokenizing the card data, which involves replacing sensitive information with unique identifiers that act as substitutes, rendering the data useless to unauthorized users. This measure significantly reduces the scope of PCI compliance, allowing Hillarys to avoid storing or processing sensitive payment information within their own systems.

The solution

Key IVR recognized that Hillarys and their sister company had previously experienced lengthy change processes and high costs with former suppliers. To address this issue, Key IVR implemented an agile payment system designed to be flexible and adaptable over time, ensuring that modifications to the service could be made without incurring significant expenses.

By deploying a range of PCI-DSS v4.0 payment services available to both their customers and employees, such as Agent Assist, IVR, Agent IVR, and Click to Pay, Hillarys achieved PCI compliance while minimising their out-of-scope exposure. This enhanced their flexibility, enabling them to cater to a diverse range of needs more effectively. Key IVR’s platform provided Hillarys with a more tailored and robust solution, emphasising adaptability for their business.

Hillarys also adopted a new multi-service portal, providing their agents with access to a variety of services and resources through a single interface. This feature was crucial for Hillarys, as it reduces the need for their agents to navigate through different interfaces and multiple logins. Users could now log in once and gain access to all integrated services.

Agent Assisted Payments

Hillarys customer service operations were constantly evolving, and because of this, so were the requirements for secure payment processing. Key IVR developed a bespoke Agent Assisted solution to enable agents to process card payments securely while maintaining a live telephone conversation with the customer. By integrating this solution, Hillarys has significantly enhanced both the efficiency and security for over-the-phone payments.

Once a customer is ready to make a payment, the agent can initiate the secure payment process without stopping the flow of the conversation. By allowing payments to be processed without interrupting the call, the solution ensures a smoother and more convenient customer experience.

When tailoring the solution to suit Hillarys requirements, Key IVR understood that building a call-routing IVR system could ensure that customers are promptly connected to the right department and receive the assistance they need. This streamlined the operational workflow for agents, enabling them to handle payments more effectively, reducing the time spent on each transaction.

Automated Payment IVR

The Hillarys Agent IVR is an innovative solution designed to offer slicker and . The IVR solution is specifically designed to handle payment transactions securely and efficiently.

The customer will call the Automated IVR and is provided with the option to make a secure payment. The system then guides them through the payment process using a series of automated prompts. This ensures that the payment is processed accurately and securely, providing a seamless experience for the customer while reducing the manual workload for the agents.

By automating data entry and routine payment only calls, the system significantly reduces the time required for agents to handle each customer interaction, allowing them to manage more calls in less time, and focus on delivering a high quality experience to consumers.

Click-to-Pay

The Hillarys Click-to-pay solution provides field agents with a seamless and flexible way to initiate payment requests during on-site customer sales and installations of blinds, curtains or shutters. Launching the Hillarys Mobile Application on their devices, agents can select the customer’s preferred messaging channel from either SMS or email. By offering various payment messaging, the solution caters to individual customer preferences enhancing satisfaction and convenience.

The service launches a mobile-friendly payment page with as much or as little information pre-filled as required, allowing them to confirm payment details and simply complete the transaction.

Payments are then processed securely, with no sensitive payment data ever reaching Hillarys’ systems, drastically improving their online security when processing transactions. Field agents are notified there and then on Hillarys Mobile Application when payment is successful, so they can begin the installation.

Team leaders and financial stakeholders can monitor real-time transactions on a dedicated dashboard and oversee successful, failed and pending payments against customer accounts.

The outcome

Key IVR and Hillarys have created an in-depth partnership, developing a responsive platform that suits the requirements of each department within the organisation.

The solution allows Hillarys to provide several versatile payment channels to their clients, maintaining cost-effectiveness, even when modifications are required. This intelligent agile platform ensures Hillarys can adapt swiftly to changing demands without incurring prohibitive expenses.

Another key feature of this solution is its seamless integration via API with Hillarys back-office systems, ensuring that all transactions and customer interactions are immediately reflected in their internal records. This real-time updating capability streamlines operations, eliminates data lag, and provides an uninterrupted, efficient workflow. As a result, staff can access up-to-date information at all times, enhancing decision-making and customer service.

This dynamic platform not only meets the current needs of Hillarys but also positions them for future growth and adaptability in an ever-evolving market.

“After facing challenges with our previous suppliers, including outages and limited flexibility, we were searching for a solution that could offer a robust multi-channel payment option. The partnership with Key IVR has resulted in a reliable, PCI complaint platform that adapts swiftly to our changing needs without incurring high costs. We look forward to collaborating with Key IVR to drive further innovation and excellence in our payment processes.”