Case Study · QIQ Platform
How QiQ identified $4.8M–$7.9M in annual business value for a global drinkware brand
A brand people queue for was quietly turning buyers away on the phone. Customers placing corporate orders, buying replacement parts or redeeming promotions hit barriers that turned buying intent into service calls. QiQ found the causes, and what fixing them was worth.
The Client
A global consumer brand with demand spanning individual, corporate and gift purchases
The client is one of the world's leading drinkware brands, selling tumblers, bottles, mugs, food jars and coolers through direct-to-consumer channels and retail partners worldwide. Its customers include individual shoppers, businesses purchasing products in bulk and people buying or receiving gifts. This diversity creates a complex customer service environment where conversations frequently extend beyond traditional support issues into purchasing, fulfilment, product availability and warranty enquiries.
With a wide product portfolio and multiple purchasing journeys, the brand's customer conversations were an untapped source of intelligence into revenue friction, customer experience and avoidable operating cost.
The Challenge
Agents were following the process. The process wasn't resolving.
The brand's customer service agents were measured against established quality assurance scorecards and standard operating procedures. Most demonstrated strong process adherence, yet customers continued to encounter unresolved issues, repeat contacts and frustrating purchasing experiences.
The disconnect was evident at agent level. One agent scored 100% on process adherence but resolved only 10% of calls on first contact, and eight of ten analysed calls involved the same post-call follow-up dependency. Their best-performing colleague reached 60.9% resolution and 87% positive predicted CSAT, yet still encountered many of the same structural barriers.
“I'm shaking now from the aggravation. I'm physically shaking. I'm trying to find the cup.”
A customer trying to confirm whether one specific bottle was in stock, after repeated attempts to get a straight answer.
The underlying issue wasn't simply agent performance. It was what the process allowed agents to resolve. QiQ valued this friction at $1.2M to $1.8M a year.
Traditional sampled QA measured whether agents followed the process. QiQ connected unresolved demand to its underlying operational causes and revealed commercial opportunities that performance scoring alone did not quantify.
first-contact resolution across a July sample of 913 calls
repeat contacts from customers who had already called about the same issue
of calls where agents followed the prescribed process and the issue remained unresolved
The Solution
QiQ connected customer friction to its root causes, and quantified the commercial opportunity
QiQ analysed 2,438 customer calls between April and July 2026, using the brand's QA scorecard and operating procedures to assess outcomes, identify recurring barriers and uncover commercial demand. It did not stop at scoring agents. The analysis identified recurring root causes behind unresolved interactions. The same four blockers came up again and again:
- Post-call documentation requirements preventing immediate resolution.
- Policy and system restrictions limiting agent discretion.
- Website, upload and email delivery failures interrupting case progression.
- Communication barriers, including language mismatches and call audio problems, and no product information available to agents beyond the website.
More than a quarter of calls were customers trying to buy: a company ordering gifts for 300 staff, a customer wanting a replacement lid, a shopper whose discount code had failed at checkout. QiQ used these findings to identify and prioritise potential revenue recovery and cost-saving opportunities, and recommended a specific fix: from an SMS upload link during the call to a corporate bulk desk that closes orders live, each assigned to the function that owns it.
2,438 calls analysed in full against the brand's own scorecard, service issues and purchase enquiries alike.
Four blockers behind the stalled calls: documents needed after the call, limits on what agents could decide, failed uploads and emails, and communication barriers.
Connects each finding to its revenue impact, so bulk orders were prioritised ahead of higher-volume parts calls.
A fix for each, from live evidence upload to a corporate bulk desk, with the owning team named.
The Findings
$4.8M to $7.9M in potential annual value across four business levers
QiQ's analysis revealed opportunities extending beyond contact centre efficiency into revenue recovery, purchasing experiences, warranty economics and commercial operations.
The estimated annual business opportunity spans four areas.
Of 162 bulk and corporate purchasing enquiries, only 30.9% were resolved during the call.
The analysis identified how fraud controls, bulk-order restrictions and the absence of a clear qualification pathway created obstacles for customers attempting legitimate corporate purchases. Agents were not authorised to place orders by phone, while certain larger purchases could be automatically flagged or cancelled. Customers seeking support often had no straightforward route to complete the transaction.
The commercial opportunity: Introduce a defined bulk-purchase process that enables qualified customers to complete orders without unnecessary restrictions, repeated interactions or prolonged manual review.
QiQ analysed 209 enquiries about replacement parts. In 51.7% of calls, customers were referred to third-party retailers or stores, directing purchasing demand away from the brand's own channels.
In a further 18.2% of cases, agents offered whole-product courtesy or warranty replacements, highlighting potential opportunities to resolve certain issues through lower-cost spare parts instead. The findings revealed a narrow direct-purchase catalogue, gaps in product availability and inconsistent guidance about replacement options.
The commercial opportunity: Expand appropriate direct-to-consumer spare-part availability and simplify the purchasing journey, while reducing unnecessary whole-product replacements where a lower-cost component could resolve the issue. This creates two potential sources of value: retaining replacement-part revenue within the business and lowering warranty fulfilment costs.
Promotional offers: Of 118 discount-code enquiries, only 50.8% were resolved during the call. Customers reported promotional codes failing at checkout, unexpected exclusions and discount rules affecting free-shipping eligibility. These interactions revealed how promotional campaigns could generate purchasing interest without delivering a frictionless path to conversion.
Gift recipients: Of 208 gift-related calls, only 29.3% were resolved during the call. With purchase records typically associated with the original buyer rather than the recipient, agents had limited guidance for handling claims, returns and replacement requests without an order number. Similar enquiries could receive different outcomes depending on individual agent discretion.
The commercial opportunity: Validate promotional codes against live purchasing scenarios before campaigns launch, while establishing a consistent policy for supporting gift recipients. Together, these interventions could help protect conversion opportunities, reduce unnecessary contacts and improve customer confidence.
The July analysis found first-contact resolution at 35.7% and repeat contacts at 13.1%. Many unresolved interactions were linked to policies and systems rather than agent capability. Customers required further communication, additional documentation or repeated contact to achieve an outcome that might otherwise have been addressed earlier.
In one example, a customer contacted the business twice within eight minutes about an incorrect cooler order. The second conversation resulted in a refund, the same potential resolution that could have been offered during the first call.
The operational opportunity: Reduce avoidable repeat handling and release capacity by addressing the causes of unresolved demand. Financial modelling indicates that improving first-contact resolution toward 65% could potentially release more than 14,000 agent hours annually, subject to operating assumptions and implementation.
| Value lever | What QiQ identified | Recommended fix | Estimated annual value opportunity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trapped sales recovery | Only 30.9% of bulk enquiries resolved on the call | Establish a defined bulk qualification and purchasing pathway | $1.8M to $2.9M |
| Replacement parts and warranty | 51.7% of spare parts calls were referred to other retailers | Expand direct spares availability and reduce unnecessary whole-product replacement | $1.1M to $1.8M |
| Campaigns and gifting | 50.8% of discount code calls resolved; 29.3% of gift calls resolved | Improve promotional reliability and standardise gift-recipient support | $850K to $1.4M |
| Operating efficiency | 35.7% first contact resolution; 13.1% repeat contacts | Address policy constraints, evidence collection and follow-up dependencies | $1.05M to $1.8M |
| Total estimated annual business value | $4.8M to $7.9M |
“It makes it really inconvenient for large businesses like this one to be able to purchase gifts for their employees.”
Corporate customer Placing a 300-unit employee gift order
A company buying 300 cups for its staff was flagged as a possible reseller, then had to talk two colleagues into placing orders of their own to get under a 12-unit cap. QiQ traced it to a fraud rule doing the job of a sales process, and recommended a qualification route an agent can complete on the call.
What's Next
Turning identified value into measurable business impact
The diagnostic revealed two complementary opportunities: reducing the operating cost of unresolved demand and recovering commercial value already visible in customer conversations.
Close the resolution gap. The recommended interventions include greater agent discretion, real-time evidence collection and structured follow-up for unresolved interactions. Together, these address the policy and system dependencies driving avoidable repeat demand.
Convert commercial demand. With an estimated $3.0M to $5.3M opportunity, the proposed actions include a defined corporate purchasing route, expanded direct replacement-part availability, standardised gift-recipient policies and more reliable promotional campaigns.
Make intelligence continuous. The proposed next phase would extend QiQ's diagnostic capabilities into ongoing customer-demand monitoring, targeted agent coaching and analysis of customer signals across internal interactions and external feedback.
The opportunity is no longer hidden in individual calls. It has been translated into business priorities that can be owned, measured and acted upon.
FAQ
How QiQ identifies commercial value in customer operations
What is QiQ?
QiQ is Quantanite's AI-powered operational intelligence platform. It analyses customer interactions to reveal the root causes of repeat demand, identify commercial opportunities and prioritise interventions that protect revenue and reduce avoidable costs.
How did QiQ find lost sales in customer service calls?
QiQ analysed 2,438 customer calls between April and July 2026 for both operational performance and commercial intent. It identified 697 calls (28.6%) involving purchasing-related friction across corporate orders, replacement parts, gifting and promotional offers.
What was the value of what QiQ found?
QiQ identified $4.8M to $7.9M a year across revenue and cost: $1.8M to $2.9M in trapped bulk sales, $1.1M to $1.8M in parts revenue and warranty savings, $850K to $1.4M in campaign and gifting value, and $1.05M to $1.8M in avoidable operating cost.
Why weren't calls resolving on first contact?
QiQ traced unresolved calls to four root causes: customers having to send photos or documents after the call before a case could close; policy and system limits such as address changes after processing or unavailable parts; website and email delivery failures, particularly on warranty claims; and communication barriers, including language mismatches, call audio problems and a lack of product information beyond the website. Many of these barriers required policy or system changes beyond the individual agent's control.
How is QiQ different from traditional contact centre QA?
Traditional QA reviews a sample of calls and checks whether agents followed the process. At this brand, most agents did. QiQ showed that following the process often didn't resolve the issue, traced each failure to its cause, and revealed how operational friction was contributing not only to unresolved service demand but also to missed commercial opportunities.
How can customer service conversations reveal revenue opportunities?
Customers often contact service teams when purchases fail, orders are blocked, or products cannot be replaced. By analysing these conversations for commercial intent and recurring root causes, QiQ identifies where existing demand is encountering friction and helps businesses prioritise the changes most likely to improve conversion and reduce service costs.
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