Maxi Sport case study: how to create customer service excellence

How can quality customer service become an important asset for a company?

The case described here analyzes how a long-standing INGO service has effectively supported the customer service of Maxi Sport, a prominent company in the fashion and sports industry, to the point of achieving a major recognition in the customer service arena.

About Maxi Sport

Maxi Sport, a Moda & Sport retail sign, was founded in 1989 with the opening of its first store in Merate: more than 2,500 sq. m. where you can buy the latest trendy casual clothing and technical, quality sports equipment from the best brands.
In over 35 years of history, Maxi Sport has 6 stores in Lombardy to its credit, designed and constantly updated to be as welcoming and functional as possible, and the online shop www.maxisport.com, a national reference point thanks to simple and secure purchases with fast shipping throughout Italy.
Also headed within Maxi Sport SpA are the brands: Frisco, Special, Space23 and Athletic, which are present with stores in Milan, Brescia, Turin, Perugia, Bologna and Rome.

Maxi Sport is the destination for those looking for stylish and sophisticated products. Our goal is to satisfy the customers who choose us by offering a personalized shopping experience. From the first touch point by phone or digital to the direct in-store interaction with our staff, at the center is customer satisfaction at every stage of their customer journey. A 360-degree high-level service that starts from the product research and selection phase, continues with the shopping experience, and continues with post-purchase support.

ESTER SALA – BRAND MANAGER OF MAXI SPORT SPA

What were the client’s needs

Maxi Sport’s business model is an omnichannel model: as a result, as the number of contacts from customers from all over Italy increased, the internal voice channel of customer care had increasing demands.
It had therefore become necessary to extend the service coverage with respect to the number of days, but also to increase the time slot for handling, thus ensuring higher quality.

What were his needs?

Maxi Sport needed to create a telephone service that would be active 7 days a week to respond to its customers’ inquiries quickly and on time. Although an internal voice channel was already in place, it was strategically decided to strengthen this service by extending the manning hours and the number of operators active at the same time.

What services did he need and what were the goals set?

It was important to implement an external voice channel, to give omnichannel telephone support to customers, at a time of strong expansion of both the e-commerce and retail channels, with the goal of ensuring quality and personalized service.

What has been achieved by INGO

In 2012 INGO implemented a voice service, to respond 7 days a week to customer inquiries. An IVR was then added in November 2015 to give basic information, such as store hours and addresses, as well as any extraordinary openings and closings, especially for peak periods in telephone traffic resulting from seasonal sales.

Through operators dedicated to the Maxi Sport service, it is possible to get clarification regarding products and actual availability in physical stores, request reservations for pickup, and get information regarding online orders, returns, and transfers. If necessary, INGO first-level operators have escalation on operators within the stores, or can fill out a contact form with user request specifications.

Maxi Sport’s customer service awards.

Maxi Sport’s customer service – consisting of the integration of first-level external service, the company’s internal second-level team and customer support during the purchasing phase – was recently awarded, for the third year in a row, in the “Italy’s Best Customer Service 2025/2026” research for the multi-brand footwear category, an area in which Maxi Sport SpA is a leader in the Sport & Life Style sector.
The recognition, obtained once again, demonstrates how Maxi Sport Customer Service is an excellence, topping the rankings of this important survey.

Italy’s Best Customer Service

Italy’s Best Customer Service is a study conducted by L’Economia del Corriere della Sera in collaboration with Statista, an international research and analysis agency, which ranks companies based on the effectiveness of their customer service.
The ratings were provided by more than 15,000 consumers, who considered willingness to recommend the service and five other criteria: availability of service, customer orientation, professional competence, quality of communication and variety of solutions offered

Conclusion

This use case demonstrates how excellent customer service is based on the consistency and quality of the customer experience and that customer loyalty thus becomes the best vehicle for increasing a company’s reputation.