Seismic digital enablement software pays dividends for OfficeMax’s million-dollar ‘future-of-work’ showroom investment

• 31% increase in seller confidence across the portfolio of OfficeMax’s workplace solutions
• Empowered OfficeMax team providing relevant, timely and tailored experiences to customers – and greater collaboration between sales and marketing teams

Auckland, New Zealand – August 4, 2022 – Seismic has enabled a customer experience revolution for OfficeMax New Zealand’s sales team, with the implementation of Seismic Enablement Cloud, a market-leading, enterprise-grade technology, now an integral part of the company’s $1.5M, industry-first, experiential retail spaces. 

After months of working at home, businesses have been forced to re-think their physical office space for their post-pandemic workforce. In fact, OfficeMax’s State of the Workplace research found that two thirds of Kiwis (62 per cent) who work in an office type environment feel that their job has a positive impact on their wellbeing, but their expectations of the physical workplace have changed*.

Against this backdrop, OfficeMax introduced showroom experiences in 2020, with a unique set-up that demonstrated the future of the workplace to business customers across technology, furniture, hygiene, café and other categories.

Central to the showroom launch was Seismic Interactive Content to help transform the buyer experience, and for OfficeMax to capitalise on its investment by delivering comprehensive digital assets and resources for its sales and marketing team.

“We’re far more than just stationery, but some of our customers are unaware of the full suite of categories we have to underpin work and learning – whether it’s packaging and safety supplies, or furniture and technology products for offices, schools and homes,” said Evan Lawrey, Director, Marketing and Customer, OfficeMax.

“It can be intimidating for our sales teams to retain knowledge on everything we offer, and we previously didn’t have an easily navigable content repository to store all information. That was a key challenge for us.”

With the firm belief that confident sellers improve customer experience (CX), OfficeMax leveraged Seismic to empower employees to deliver more relevant content and guidance to inform customers’ purchasing decisions.

Teams can now create personalised presentations within five minutes of a customer’s request – and also run customers through an interactive microapp on a showroom touchscreen.

“Seismic has made us look more professional and has improved our ability to engage with customers wherever they are located,” said Lawrey.

A survey of OfficeMax workers conducted pre- and post-Seismic uncovered a 31 per cent increase in seller confidence when it comes to finding accurate content, with 86 per cent able to locate and use content easily. Before Seismic, more than 44 per cent of sellers were spending more than one day per week putting together content – such as customised product brochures – for customers. After Seismic, this decreased to just four per cent of sellers.

Seismic also allowed OfficeMax’s marketing team to cut down on time-consuming projects with the help of interactive content and content automation technology, underscored by analytics and insights.

“From a reporting perspective, we finally have the information to help the marketing team understand what we need to prioritise in terms of what we do and don’t do. It has eliminated the need for unnecessary collateral,” said Lawrey. “This has evolved the relationship between our marketers and sales staff, who now work more collaboratively without facing bandwidth limitations.”

Heather Cook, Vice President Asia-Pacific, Seismic, said, “The adjustment to support workers and students in offices, classrooms and at home can be a challenging and costly feat for New Zealand’s businesses and schools. Through its digital innovation, OfficeMax has not only transformed its showroom and ecommerce offerings, but empowered its workers to provide relevant, timely and tailored experiences to the customers that rely on the retailer’s products to keep them running.”

*Data tables available on request.