Jyve Partners with SaviLinx to Support Fast Growth and Build Brand Equity  

All businesses need to manage multiple moving parts. But fast-growing companies must be able to do it at hyper-speed and at scale, all while not losing sight of their mission and brand. For Jyve, the leading platform for in-store flexible and skilled labor, a strategic support partnership with SaviLinx has enabled it to accelerate its growth while building brand equity.

Jyve was founded in 2015 to match grocers and retailers with temporary talent for tasks such as stocking, product demos and merchandising, after the co-founders’ own experiences with the persistent staffing issues in the industry. To date, the company has surpassed $400M in bookings. Brands use the company’s technology platform to list jobs in more than 1,200 cities such as unloading trucks, setting up product displays, and stocking shelves. Workers, called Jyvers, log in and claim jobs that can last anywhere from a couple of hours to multiple days. The company’s 6,000 Jyvers can work as much or as little as they like and choose when they want to work.

Russ Gangloff is head of support for Jyve, the team that supports the brands and stores who list jobs and the Jyvers who do the work. Gangloff’s team is responsible for handling tech support as well as questions or problems that arise. About 75% of calls are from Jyvers who need help with everything from finding where in the store they are to stock an item to the ETA of a delivery they signed up to unload.

“Support is critical for Jyve. These are all independent contractors and they need to be able to get answers from us in a timely and efficient manner,” says Gangloff. “We need to be there for them when they need us so that they can service our retailers and brands to the best of their ability.”

Build v. Buy for Support

When Jyve launched, Gangloff and the field managers handled all calls but rapid growth demanded the company build an internal support team. He started with a team of six, but it became obvious fairly quickly that we needed more people and more flexibility,” shares Gangloff. As most grocery stores are 24/7 operations, he needed round-the-clock support.

Gangloff had to make a decision: build or buy. “I believe in sticking to your core competency,” he says. “I don’t want to hire people or build a contact center. The investment just doesn’t pay off unless it is your core. For Jyve, our core is building our talent marketplace.”

He reached out to SaviLinx, a contact center known for delivering personalized service at scale. Jyve started with SaviLinx in the fall of 2018 to help its internal team with overflow calls and manage the overnight shift. Gangloff assigned SaviLinx a limited set of tasks: answering calls, creating tickets, and – if possible – resolving issues. “We wanted Jyvers and our customers to be able to reach a real person on the phone who could escalate their issue,” he says.

After six months, SaviLinx performed so well that Jyve contracted full-time support for tier-one calls. “SaviLinx has done an amazing job,” says Gangloff. “We are very happy.”

Lifting CSAT

Jyve measures SaviLinx’s performance in traditional methods such as volume of calls answered, time to answer, and time to resolution. But Jyve’s key metric is customer satisfaction. Every person who contacts Jyve’s support team is sent a simple up-or-down survey to measure their satisfaction with the support they’ve received. “That is how we really measure SaviLinx’s performance,” says Gangloff. “Their CSAT has been impressive from the get-go.”

Prior to SaviLinx, Jyve’s support CSAT was in the mid-80s; now the company is well over 90%. The SaviLinx team has never dipped below 90% for its CSAT score, including during its first 90 days when it was not obligated to meet the metric. “In our first review, we said, ‘Ok, you nailed it,’” says Gangloff.

Strategic Support for Growth

Jyve plans to continue the growth of its SaviLinx team to help it scale to meet the demands of its fast-growing business. While SaviLinx offers the services that Jyve needs, it also offers the partnership that is crucial for executives of fast-growing firms.

“SaviLinx is a very strategic part of our growth and we partner very closely. We can speak freely with each other,” says Gangloff. “They have capacity, they are a good resource, and they can help us grow and support us in the ways we need without having to add headcount.”

Gangloff visits the SaviLinx facility as frequently as he can to talk with SaviLinx leadership and agents and likes that everyone is genuinely excited to see him. While some outsourcing firms discourage vendors from visiting on site, SaviLinx welcomes him at any time. “If an outsourcer won’t welcome you to drop in, walk away,” he says.

The depth of Jyve’s relationship with SaviLinx is key to supporting Jyve’s growth. “SaviLinx is talking to our customers – it’s not some random third-party service,” says Gangloff. “We are building brand equity with SaviLinx, they are integrated with our business, and we are lucky to have SaviLinx as a partner.”