How Rajani’s Saves 8 Hours per Month on Customer Messaging (+ More)

Rajani’s Superstore Company Profile

• Selling on: Rajanis.co.uk, Amazon, eBay, Fruugo, OnBuy
• Annual sales: £4.65M (£850K annual turnover online + £3.8M annual turnover for the brick-and-mortar Superstore)
• Previous helpdesk: None
• Messages per month: 180 to 360 (fluctuates)
• Support team: 2

In order to be successful, eCommerce sellers must deftly manage customer messaging, inventory and a huge range of additional factors. And if you can save time on these facets while streamlining efforts, you free yourself and your staff up to focus on the crux of your business: selling products. 

However, taking care of every area of your eCommerce business both efficiently and effectively while avoiding mistakes is easier said than done. That’s why we were so excited to sit down with Rakesh Rajani, who manages the eCommerce side of Rajani’s Superstore, to learn more about how he recently began saving 8 hours or more each month on customer messaging. 

Rakesh also shared his strategies for staying on top of product stock, reducing spelling and grammatical errors in customer communications and much more. Keep reading to discover how Rajanis.co.uk uses both Replyco and Linnworks as a sort of software dream team to slay multiple aspects of running an eCommerce business.

About Rajani’s Superstore

Rajani’s Superstore was started by Rakesh Rajani’s parents Mrs. Gita-Devi Rajani and Mr. Rajendra Rajani as a wholesale business in 1977. The company’s beginnings came about as the result of a very unique situation. 

Rakesh explains: “As East African Indians, we were members of the community that was part of Uganda and were asked to leave by Idi Amin. So, we were forced out of Uganda and into England. [Wholesaling] was the trade that my grandfather was in. My father was a factory worker Monday to Friday, and on weekends was a market trader.”

Rakesh went on to say, “He then decided to move full-time into this industry. My father could see that there was a demand based on all the outdoor market stalls that were in and around South Wales and the Southwest of England and the Midlands. So he went into wholesaling in 1977 and carried that on.”

Later, during the 1980s and 1990s, Rakesh says that the company realized they were being squeezed out by importers into the industry by overstepping the wholesaler and going direct to the retailer.

“We saw a lot of our suppliers that were traditionally supplying wholesalers volumes of 288 pieces of an item, or 144 pieces of an item, or 512 pieces of an item, were now approaching our customers, the retailers, and selling them 12 pieces of an item or 24 pieces of an item.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

From Wholesaling to Retailing to eCommerce

At this point, Rakesh says the company adapted itself to the changing trends and went from wholesaling to retailing. This happened around the 1990s. 

Later, during the early 2000s, internet shopping really began to pick up steam. So, in 2008, Rakesh worked at the forefront of bringing Rajani’s online as an eCommerce shop. Today, Rakesh’s father still runs the company (primarily on the brick-and-mortar side of the still-thriving Superstore), while Rakesh focuses on the eCommerce business. 

According to Rakesh, starting an online shop was the logical thing to do. He explains: 

“So that was the logical thing to do. Because we have the warehouse which is next door to our store, and so if I’m away, it can be run by the boss going across to the warehouse and organizing the guys. The ease and convenience of working together were there, and also the warehouse was there. It just made more sense; the cost space would be less for setting up an internet business rather than opening another store.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

As a true superstore that responds to customer demand, Rajani’s offers a wide range of products. You can find everything from household items and furniture to commercial kitchen products and gardening supplies to toys and pet accessories on their website. 

Using Linnworks to Streamline Stock

In addition to selling on Rajanis.co.uk, Rajani’s also sells on Amazon, eBay and a range of other marketplaces. That means keeping up with inventory for various platforms and listings. 

Rakesh says that once he realized Rajani’s needed to open up on several marketplaces, he saw that there was going to be an issue with having the right quantity being displayed to different customers on different platforms. 

He also says that trying to update the stock levels on each marketplace manually was far too difficult, because you then have to depend on a worker in the warehouse to make a note of what’s been sold or understand the quantity that’s on the shelf. They would then need to come back to Rakesh or whoever is updating the stock and give them that information on a daily basis so that the systems can be updated manually. 

Rakesh went on to explain, “I realized that we were going to have a problem at some point, and that’s when I started looking for a platform that could help us with that because I knew that it wouldn’t only be us that had this issue of incorrect quantities being displayed across all platforms. I knew there would be other eCommerce sellers like ourselves in that same position. That’s when I went online and found Linnworks.”

At this point, Rakesh says:

“Once we found Linnworks and we got everything connected, they saved us a lot of headaches in terms of having the correct quantities displayed to all of our customers. And that meant I could then reduce my stock levels, and didn’t have to compensate for any over-selling, which helps for cash flow purposes.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

Evolving to Remain Competitive & Adapt to Industry Changes

Rajani’s has seen a lot of challenges over recent years, but has managed to come out on top by adapting to customer demands and evolving as a company. For example, from 2011 to 2015, Rakesh says much of the company’s success came from seeing and responding to a demand for flat-packed furniture (such as bookcases and children’s furniture). 

Then, from 2016 to 2019, like many other businesses, Rajani’s experienced a dip in sales during and immediately following Brexit. Rakesh attributes this to shoppers being unsure what Brexit might mean for the local economy, and therefore being hesitant to spend any money. 

And recently, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a massive jump in online sales due to people needing to stay at home in order to remain safe. However, this rise in sales also meant an influx of customer messages. 

Finding a Better Way to Handle Customer Service

As stated, when the pandemic hit, Rajani’s online sales spiked. According to Rakesh, the company went from receiving 500 orders per day to 800 orders per day. At one point during the height of this sales peak, the Rajani’s team was answering 180 customer messages per day. 

There was one day in particular during this busy time that one of the individuals who works for the company couldn’t come in, which left Rakesh to handle all of the messages on his own. This led to the realization that Rajani’s needed to find a way to better organize customer messaging without having to cut corners or let anyone slip through the cracks. 

With just a bit of research, Rakesh discovered Replyco. And he says it was the relationship with Linnworks (Replyco’s CEO Artem Verovenko was a founding member of Linnworks) that convinced him that this was the right helpdesk solution for Rajani’s Superstore’s needs. 

Once he decided to join Replyco, Rakesh says onboarding was a breeze. He states that, just like with any other eCommerce seller, getting up and running without missing a beat was of paramount importance. Thankfully, the team got him set up in no time. 

“Time is of the essence, because you have to keep on top of the existing operation as it’s running and ensure that you’re still buying products that shoppers want. But Alex worked very quickly to get our Rajani’s email integrated into Replyco, as well as putting our POP mail server IDs in place so that everything would work properly.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

And whether it’s Alex over the phone, or Herman via live chat, Rakesh says the customer support team at Replyco is always honest, knowledgeable and happy to help. 

Using Replyco to Save Time on Customer Messaging

Upon joining Replyco, Rakesh says he began saving loads of time on customer messaging. This was thanks to a range of factors. 

First of all, Replyco enables sellers to centralize the customer messaging from all of their selling channels and platforms into one inbox. No more having to share login info or passwords with staff. According to Rakesh: 

“The Replyco system allows us to see all the information that we need to see about a customer and their order, without having to open up Amazon or eBay. And it also allows my colleagues to see what I’ve written regarding any particular interaction. Rather than having to take up my time or theirs asking me about an issue, they can see all the information quite clearly about that customer and any notes that I’ve made.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

Rakesh also raves about Replyco’s templates. He says the company currently handles around 180 to 360 messages per month with seasonal fluctuations, and explains:

“Every day, we use templates for 3 or 4 out of the 12 to 15 emails that we get. So what would take 10 minutes now only takes 2. Then if you consider 180 messages per month, that’s around 56 emails handled through these templates. That equates to a time savings of a days’ worth of work every month.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

Additionally, Rakesh says he employs a few individuals for whom English is not a first language, which has previously resulted in spelling and grammatical mistakes in customer messaging. But thanks to templates, Rakesh can create a message for any given situation, proof it and then save it to be used over and over by the whole team for relevant customer inquiries. 

According to Rakesh: 

“Templates just standardize the email and content, because grammar can have an impact on the customer’s impression of your organization.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

Ready to Grow with Replyco

Finally, Rakesh says the Replyco platform is an ideal fit as his company continues to grow. 

“There are some really positive benefits of having this helpdesk system, so that if we do need to add additional customer service employees in the future, the infrastructure is there for us to have good cohesion amongst all individuals who are handling emails without there being any miscommunication, lack of communication or misunderstanding.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

He also says he is happy to have such useful software systems as Linnworks and Replyco in place in order to deal with anything that might happen down the road. 

“I don’t know what might happen in the next 6 months to a year, or whether something like this [pandemic] might happen again. But if it does, I’ve got the systems and processes in place which are working well and have been tried and tested, that can help us get through that or any other situation.”
– Rakesh Rajani, Rajani’s Superstore

It’s clear that Rajani’s Superstore is laser-focused on taking care of customer needs now and long into the future, while offering high quality products at great prices. If you want to browse their vast selection of items, click here to visit the Rajani’s website. 

Interested in exploring how Linnworks connects, manages and automates commerce operations, powering businesses to sell wherever their customers are and capture every revenue opportunity? Click here. Or learn more about how Linnworks and Replyco work together here. 

Ready to start saving time, reducing errors and slashing manual efforts on your customer messaging with Replyco? Start your 7-day free trial now (there’s no credit card required) or book a live demo to see our software in action!