Customer Story – 
Czech & Speake

Agile and dynamic

The biggest challenge was that Czech & Speake already had systems in place to manage some elements of its digital marketing activity. With that in mind, the management team were reticent to adopt a ‘rip and replace’ approach to the problem, not least because of the costs – both financial and from a resource perspective – associated with a set of completely new systems. It was vitally important that any new implementation was able to integrate seamlessly with the existing digital solution.

The right partner

In addition to its existing marketing tools, the speed with which the retail landscape changed in early 2020 presented a challenge in its own right. Czech & Speake knew that to capitalise on opportunities, it needed to move fast.

Key to all of this was simplicity – giving Czech & Speake the ability to easily manage customer communications and, most importantly, to ensure a consistent tone of voice across all marketing channels was mission critical, so the new systems needed to be easy-to-use. Equally, having cloud-based solutions was crucial to ensure seamless integration without the need to spend time and energy installing software across multiple devices.

Director Freddie Sawkins was keen to find a partner that was agile enough to handle the challenges presented by Czech & Speake’s reliance on its existing tools and agile enough to create a bespoke solution perfectly suited to the business’s unique set of requirements. He found that in CM.com.

New technology, new business

CM.com set about integrating WhatsApp Business and SMS into Czech & Speake’s existing solutions to enable them to keep the lines of communication with their customers open, many of whom were unable to visit them in person due to lockdown restrictions.

Enabling Czech & Speake to communicate directly with consumers on the platforms they were used to using was hugely beneficial and reduced call wait times and reliance on traditional communication channels. With that, efficiency also increased, allowing the business to create more sales opportunities without significantly more investment.

Ultimately, Czech & Speake’s new marketing tools needed to create new business rather than distract from it and that’s what’s happened. A more mobile-focused approach to marketing has opened up new opportunities for the brand that wouldn’t have been possible without a proper integrated mobile marketing solution. International sales, for one, have blossomed during the pandemic, with Czech & Speake now better placed than ever to communicate with customers throughout the world on the channels they’re familiar with.

International growth

Brand affinity and advocacy have also grown as customers use the new customer contact channels and are able to get the information they need quickly and efficiently. So not only have CM.com’s digital marketing solutions helped Czech & Speake to increase international market share, it’s also allowed the business to focus on retention and to provide bespoke customer service at a time and place the customer finds convenient for them. 

So, even after COVID restrictions begin to relax and life returns to some semblance of normality, Czech & Speake is better placed than ever to take advantage of new opportunities in the digital space. More international, more available, more open and, ultimately, more profitable.