Company: Office Depot, Delray Beach Florida
Company Description: Office Depot, Global Retailer of Office Supplies
Nomination Category: Customer Service Team Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Customer Service Team of the Year - Recovery Situation

Nomination Title: Office Depot Deploys Closed Loop System

1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since the beginning of July last year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Office Depot defines its value of Customer Focus as fueling its customer's
dreams by anticipating and listening to their needs and passionately delivering
on promises. Failure is not an option as we promise to "wow" on recover. The
implementation of the Office Depot Closed Loop System is one example of how
Office Depot is helping customers take care of business and "wow" on recovery.

Office Depot customer service department developed and implemented a web based
application for working and tracking escalated customer service issues. Upon
complete implementation customer satisfaction levels have increased to an high
time high of 96%, an increase of 34%. While initiated by customer service,
this was accomplished through great teamwork between the customer service,
supply chain, and transportation departments.

Customer service issues that could not be handled by the upfront representative
were sent to a back office research team via email. These cases were
individually worked and closed by the back office teams with limited visibility
to timely handling of the case and successful recovery at the customer end.
The team realized an innovative solution needed to be quickly implemented to
improve overall customer satisfaction with the recovery process. The team
decided to focus on reporting and analysis to drive process improvement, and
increased individual accountability within the members of the back office team.

With the support of executive management, the team connected with all leaders
and key stakeholders related to the customer recovery process to formulate a
strategy and implementation plan. In the discovery phase of the initiative,
the team realized they had the ability to capture information, analyze, and
report in order to improve processes. The team quickly developed, tested, and
deployed, and online application allowing the capture of detail information
related to the initial customer case, as well as the activities and promise
made to the customer during the recovery work performed by the back office
team. This allowed improved reporting and analysis in regards to productivity
and timelines in response to the customer.

The team realized the next logical step in the project would be to track and
proactively act on the recovery promise made to the customer. Therefore, the
team deployed a true "closed loop" application. Working with transportation
and supply chain, the team was able gain access to systemic data related to
order delivery and status. With this information the team was able to analyze,
measure, and report on the customer recovery experience from the initiation to
completion. The team was also able to systemically identify cases in jeopardy
of successful recovery, and empower the supply chain team to proactively close
the case.

With this new system, new processes such as proactive customer notification,
and delivery prioritization by supply chain were implemented. Existing
processes were redesigned and improved.

Office Depot customer service department now has a system that allows the
company to more effectively service it's customers during the recovery
process. Empowerment and reporting at the individual employee level has
fostered a sense of responsibility and accomplishment, driving improved
customer service. New Kepi’s and goals have been set by both the customer
service and supply chain departments. This winning solution delivered and
implemented by the customer service department has generated a 34% increase in
customer satisfaction in the first 6 months of activity.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

This project was lead by a collaborative team consisting of Reporting,
Analytics, and Process team members.

Daniel Cruceana - Manager, Reporting and Analysis
Cody Newton - Manager, Financial Analysis and Reporting
Rue Tallarino - Sr. Analyst, Decision Support Systems
Bonnie Bander - Sr. Process Manager
Carolyn Stoller - Sr. Process Manager

The overall success of the project can be attributed to the innovative ideas,
cross functional efforts, department collaboration, and passion to "wow" on
recovery exhibited by these team members.