Case Study: CURO Financial
Retail Financial Services Provider Customizes ServiceChannel to Advance FM Program ‘Light Years’ Ahead
ServiceChannel
Highlights
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CUSTOMIZABLE PLATFORM targeted to company’s FM goals and strategies
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REAL-TIME AND HISTORIC DATA for ongoing vendor performance and consolidation
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WORK ORDER TIERING by priority through enhanced visibility and data
Quantifiable Results
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INCREASE IN WORK ORDER VOLUME WITHOUT ADDITIONAL STAFF
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INCREASE IN VENDOR FEEDBACK FROM NON-FM CORPORATE STAKEHOLDERS
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INCREASE IN PROVIDER FIRST-TIME COMPLETION RATE
“It is amazing to me how much data is available through ServiceChannel. There isn’t a data point that I could think of that isn’t in the software already.“
Joel Elsea
Director of Facilities, CURO Financial Technologies Corp
The contractor scorecard is a very important part of our vendor management plan and we don't go into a review without it.
Joel Elsea Curo Financial
Customer
CURO Financial operates more than 400 stores across the US and Canada as well as online services in each country. As a leading short-term consumer lending company, CURO operates under a number of brands including Speedy/Rapid in the US and Cash Money in Canada. CURO’s facilities management department is a team of five responsible for centralized maintenance and repairs of the company’s more than 400 retail and 10 corporate buildings.
Challenges
Prior to deploying ServiceChannel, CURO operated a phone /pen & paper FM program that provided little to no visibility into the state of operations. Issues with this legacy model included:
- Inability to address all repair & maintenance requests in a timely manner, forcing the FM team to tackle only the most urgent issues
- No tracking of even basic FM metrics such as total volume of open and closed work orders
“ServiceChannel is basically the foundation of our facilities management department. We wouldn’t be nearly as effective without it. We’re light years ahead of other departments because none of them has a tool like this.”
Joel Elsea
Director of Facilities, CURO Financial Technologies Corp
Goals
CURO’s goals for deploying a service automation system evolved in scope and sophistication as the FM team became more familiar with the platform. This evolution mirrored the growth and advancements of the CURO FM organization itself.
- Initial goal was to deploy a basic work order dispatching system to “take the FM staff out of the loop for routine work orders”
- More recent goals were to help the FM team make better decisions through data analytics, with the focus on becoming a fully data-driven organization
- Other goals included using the platform to solicit feedback on contractor performance from non-FM personnel including store managers
Solutions
CURO has deployed a wide array of ServiceChannel solutions. Further, CURO has been highly innovative in its use of these solutions through customization and system-to-system integration in order to maximize the benefits. Examples include:
- Using FixxBook and Compliance Manager as a way to shortlist potential new vendors based on their familiarity with ServiceChannel. All vendors are now mandated to be on ServiceChannel in order to do business with CURO.
- Adapting Invoice Manager as a way to safeguard the FM organization from invoicing and payment anomalies such as double payment. Also, integrating ServiceChannel into the company’s accounting system of record to streamline and expedite invoicing and payment.
- Implementing a tiered work order-response system based on issue priority, from P1 (most urgent) to P5. CURO took the additional step of automating many non-urgent and routine work orders through Planned Maintenance Manager.
- Deploying the Mobile App enterprise-wide; described by CURO as “life-changing” in terms of ease-of-use and flexibility for the FM staff as well as other company employees.
- Leveraging data generated from Analytics Custom into the Contractor Scorecard for formalizing vendor performance according to industry best practices. CURO now can capture real-time feedback and track key performance indicators to “get on the same page” with its vendors.
Benefits
Deploying ServiceChannel has benefited the CURO FM organization through operational efficiency, improved internal and external communications, and risk mitigation through better compliance – all without having to invest in staff headcount. Specifically, ServiceChannel has enabled:
- The small team to address the high and growing volume of work order requests in all three countries of operations, a benefit the FM teams says is “not possible without a tool like ServiceChannel”
- Establish and enforce strict NTE (not to exceed) cost controls with the enhanced ability to detect pricing anomalies/outliers using real-time and historic analytics
- Streamline the vendor onboarding process as well as consolidate existing vendors to a more manageable number using data-based vendor performance management tools
Results
Through ServiceChannel, the CURO FM organization has now established and tracks/measures a number of KPIs to manage vendors as well as determine its own department’s effectiveness. Highlights include:
- Work order volume processed through ServiceChannel increased 64% with constant FM staffing levels
- Vendor rating feedback rate increased 5X since implementation
- Strong improvements in Contractor Scorecard KPIs:First time completion rate increased 100%
- Check-in compliance rate increased 83%
- Dispatch confirmation rate increased 35%
