Case study · Country Road Group · 2023 to 2026

Taking 63% out without breaking it.

Five brands, 100+ people and a customer experience function that was selling. The business needed structural cost reduction. The order I did things in is the story.

$5.8m → ~$2.1mannual operating cost

63%reduction

2phases: lean first, then offshore

6months negotiating the contract myself

The situation

Country Road Group runs customer experience across five brands: Country Road, Witchery, Mimco, Trenery and Politix. As Head of Customer Experience I led a function of 100+ people that cost $5.8m a year to run.

It was not a function you could simply cut. I had inherited an underperforming service sales operation and grown it until the function earned more than its operating and capital costs. It converted at 20–25% on customer-initiated contact, against a 1–2% digital benchmark, with $12m in CX-attributed revenue (FY23). I joined partway through that year.

What I did

Made it lean before moving it. The AI CoPilot we built for live chat and SMS cut average handle time by 20–25% within its first six months and enabled a 30% headcount reduction before the transition. We transferred an efficient operation, and kept that saving ourselves.
Built the plan and the contract. I built the business plan, co-authored the Statement of Work and led its development, and negotiated directly with a tier-1 global provider over six months.
Put the improvements in the contract. AI, reporting, data and sales went into the Statement of Work as obligations, which created contractual accountability for ongoing improvement.
Led the team through both waves. First AI-enabled efficiency, then the offshore transition. I redesigned team structure, reporting lines and role mandates for each, held daily office hours and wrote a weekly digest for the team.
Finished it without the consultants. The consulting partner left the project. I completed delivery independently.

The result

Annual operating cost from $5.8m to ~$2.1m, a 63% reduction, delivered in two phases.
Team engagement stayed in the top quartile throughout, on the group's own survey and against an external benchmark, including through significant role reductions.

What I would tell a peer

Placeholder: Daniel's own wordsThree or four sentences from Daniel on what he would tell someone about to do this. Candidates from his own decisions: do the efficiency work before the move, not after; write the improvements into the contract; keep the revenue accountability inside the team; expect to finish without the consulting partner.