How Hobbycraft Increased Customer Satisfaction by 25% and Resolved 82% of Tickets at First Contact
The Challenge
Hobbycraft, a UK arts and crafts retailer with 2,000+ employees across 90+ stores, faced a customer support infrastructure that had not kept pace with the shift to online channels. Agents operated across a shared Outlook inbox, disconnected phone systems, and separately managed social media profiles — with no unified customer view across any of them. Inquiries were missed when they arrived through channels not actively monitored; tickets were logged inconsistently; and agents spent time on routine craft questions rather than complex issues that genuinely required their expertise. As online interaction volumes grew during and after the pandemic, the fragmented stack became an operational constraint that degraded customer experience and employee engagement simultaneously.
The Solution
Freshdesk, Freshchat, and Freshcaller were deployed together to consolidate all customer contact channels — email, phone, chat, and social media — into a unified agent interface with a single customer view. Freddy AI chatbots handled routine queries across digital channels, deflecting them before they entered the agent queue. Freddy AI Copilot provided agents with response suggestions and knowledge base access, improving consistency and speed for complex queries. The omnichannel platform supported a hybrid working model, enabling agents to operate effectively from home or in-store without losing visibility across contact channels.
The Outcome
Customer satisfaction increased 25% following the implementation. Response times fell 30%, reflecting the elimination of channel-switching overhead and the deflection of routine queries to AI. 82% of tickets are now resolved at first contact — a first contact resolution rate that indicates agents have both the information and the channel consistency to fully resolve issues in a single interaction. AI chatbots handle 30% of incoming questions, routing only complex queries to agents. Employee engagement reached a 90% score after the hybrid working model was enabled by the platform's channel-agnostic architecture. Approximately 250,000 customer inquiries are managed annually across the platform.
Strategic Takeaway
Hobbycraft's support challenge illustrates the compounding effect of channel fragmentation: a shared Outlook inbox works at low volume but fails simultaneously in CSAT, FCR, response time, and agent morale as volume grows. The 82% first contact resolution rate is the most strategically significant metric — it is a measure of information quality and channel consistency, not just speed. Agents who can see the full customer history across all channels in a single view, backed by AI-assisted response suggestions, resolve issues completely in one interaction rather than creating follow-up chains. The 90% employee engagement score is an unexpected benefit: agents in a retail support environment who spend less time on routine bot-deflectable queries and more time on specialist craft advice experience more meaningful work — and the flexibility of hybrid working reinforces that.
- Omnichannel unification is a precondition for meaningful CSAT improvement. A 25% satisfaction gain requires agents to have a unified customer view — channel fragmentation makes that structurally impossible regardless of agent skill.
- 82% first contact resolution is a workforce quality signal, not just a speed metric. It means agents have enough context and knowledge support to resolve issues completely — eliminating the follow-up exchanges that frustrate customers and consume agent time.
- AI deflection enables agent specialisation. When 30% of questions are handled by AI, agents in a specialist retail context (craft expertise) can focus on queries where their knowledge creates real value — improving both outcomes and job satisfaction.
See how Freshdesk can help your business address similar challenges.
Affiliate link — we may earn a commission at no cost to you.