Inside Foodbuy PT4: The world of Customer Experience with Karen Money

There are many benefits to outsourcing your procurement and contrary to popular belief, they’re far wider reaching than just cost savings.

At Foodbuy, we believe ‘great pricing’ is just the beginning of a good procurement strategy. And just as important as pricing is the experience provided throughout every facet of the procurement journey.

So, we caught up with our Customer Experience Manager, Karen Money, to give you a sneak peek into the world of her Customer Experience Team and the fantastic work they do for our clients.

1. Tell us about the Customer Experience Team.

“Our Customer Experience team helps hundreds of customers up and down the country to receive the very best experience from our products, systems and services. In any given week, the team can be speaking with clients across more than 17,000 sites – meaning we’re an incredibly energetic and diverse bunch; responsible for receiving, resolving and owning all queries raised by our clients.

Whether it’s dealing with queries, supporting new site mobilisations, sharing advice or aiding execution, the team keep our clients happy by managing all queries through our online helpdesk system. It’s integrated within Epsys, our market-leading system, and enables us to identify trends and act promptly to resolve wider issues.”

2. Tell us about your role.

“As the Customer Experience Manager, I am responsible for managing our team of customer experience agents. My job is to make sure everything is running smoothly for our clients - across both our systems and our supply chain. Using our systems, we use data to spot trends and analyse query types in order to be proactive with our resolutions and escalation processes.

The data we use is instant and live - ensuring we can stay ahead of the curve by flattening and resolving potential issues before they become problematic.”

3. What innovation is your team currently working on?

“Well, currently we’re working on an exciting system development – Live Chat. This new feature will mean that our clients can chat directly to a member of the Customer Experience Team instead of raising a ticket via Helpdesk, calling us or even emailing.

Naturally, this will be a much more efficient way of communication, allowing clients to specify exactly the problem they are experiencing, as opposed to picking from a selection of pre-determined options.

This is really exciting for us as a team, as it allows us to add another layer to our existing Customer Experience offer”.

4. What does Customer Experience mean for you?

“Quite simply, we are the voice of our customers.

Everything we do is all about ensuring our customers and clients receive the very best procurement and system experience. Unlike other system providers, where you may be charged an additional fee for access to ongoing training and support, this is part of the core service here at Foodbuy. So, a partnership with Foodbuy means you’ll get a guaranteed support network thanks to our Customer Experience team.

For us, customer experience is much more than solving a problem. It’s making use of great data and providing support above and beyond the expected – all of which maximises operating efficiencies for our clients”.

5. What has it been like for your team throughout the pandemic?

“Certainly different! Although we’re working remotely at the moment, we strive to make every touchpoint between our customers and ourselves an engaging and personal experience. We have a great culture, a fast-paced but rewarding one.

Excitingly, we’ve recently onboarded new members to the Customer Experience team, thanks to the government Kick-Start scheme. The scheme provides funding to create new job placements for 16-24-year-olds on Universal Credit who are at risk of long-term unemployment. It’s great to be able to help shape the careers of young people, and we’re excited to see them grow with our business”.

Procurement expertise, market-leading systems and a team dedicated to supporting YOU and your business.

Get in touch today

If you’re interested in learning more about Foodbuy and the benefits of working with a group procurement organisation, contact us here