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MFI - one of the best known retail brands in the UK - was acquired in 2006 by private equity firm, Merchant Equity Partners. Since then the new management has been focused on upgrading many aspects of the business to ensure that it can meet and exceed the expectations of the 21st century consumer. This has included placing a greater emphasis on customer service, modernizing the product range, and investing in logistics, IT, and supply chain management.
MFI has over 190 stores across the UK of between 15,000 & 30,000 square feet. It is also fast becoming a major online retailer. Home deliveries, driven through their web presence, now account for over 50 million items a year going to 2.5 million households in the UK & Northern Ireland.
The management team at MFI was conscious that the Internet presented great opportunities for the business, but that with these opportunities came certain threats.
With the rise of social networks and blogs, customers now had the opportunity to immediately vent their spleen online and voice any dissatisfaction that they had with the service or a product, fairly or unfairly and without the business being able to make its case.
According to MFI’s Marketing Director,Michael Greenhalgh: “As consumers increasingly research, make purchasing decisions and buy online, we recognized that we had to be at the top of our game in this environment. We understood that the internet exposed us to incredible scrutiny, and that negative comment could have an immediate impact on how our brand was perceived by potential customers. We therefore engaged WRS to help protect our brand online, by making sure that negative comments were properly moderated, and that how we work to ensure customer satisfaction is better understood and recognized.”
WRS has deployed its 'Brand Guardian' service to help MFI manage its brand reputation online.
The service firstly monitors comment and activity around key words that MFI wants to protect, and reports these back to the management. It then optimizes initiatives that MFI has developed to resolve customer complaints around any negative comments that have been found.
For example, MFI has been a key player in the development of a Payment Protection Scheme in association with the Furniture Ombudsman, and a key part of WRS's task has been to ensure that this initiative is properly optimized across the brand's search landscape.
According to Michael Greenhalgh:”Buying a new kitchen or bathroom is a significant purchasing decision. We need to give our customers the confidence that any problems they might have with a purchase are quickly and fairly resolved. It's a very important part of what we do.”
“However, there will always be a tiny minority of customers who are not 100% satisfied with a purchase, and this minority also tends to be the disproportionately vocal. We therefore need to make sure our voice is properly heard, and that it is not drowned out by an unhappy few. WRS are helping us to achieve this.”
