With Yext, SFR Delivers Search via Search to Drive More Online-To-Offline Traffic

A historic player in telecommunications, SFR, a French brand with 15 million mobile subscribers, plans to continue gaining market share in the competitive mobile telephone sector. With 650 stores in France, the brand has embarked on an overhaul of its online-to-offline strategy in order to deliver an optimal experience and offer a seamless customer journey.

Since figures show that 90% of in-store customers carry out web research before their visit, the first challenge for SFR was to rethink the relationship between the web and its physical stores, taking into account the specificities of the non-linear customer journey.

The next step for SFR was the launch of a project to improve its SEO strategy. The brand knew it needed a better way to surface in search results at customers' moments of intent, and then drive those customers in-store. Romain Rogister, Director of Signage and Strategic Projects at SFR, turned to Yext to find a solution that would allow the brand to manage all the information for the brands physical stores — across the brand's owned properties as well as third-party platforms — with the goal of improving search performance.

"These third-party platforms are important because they are a critical source of information for customers when they search online," Rogister says. "The challenge for SFR is to be visible on all of these platforms, and to deliver information in real time so that our stores stand out better during searches."

Before working with Yext, SFR struggled with "a lack of maturity in SEO for our stores," explains Romain Rogister. The teams in charge sought a global solution that would allow them to respond to all of their problems at once.

SFR selected Yext as a "turnkey and extremely complete tool," Rogister says. "To support us in our strategy, we needed a solution that was quick to set up, but also incredibly easy to manage on a daily basis. Yext was very simple to integrate."

In working with Yext, SFR saw store locator traffic jump 57% in the month following the implementation and 40% in the next 3 months. The brand has also seen 20% growth on Google My Business, with 4 million impressions per month. Streamlining its brand information to deliver answers everywhere customers search has also made a direct impact on in-store traffic: SFR saw 5% more traffic in its stores in the first 3 months working with Yext. After more than a year, SFR has seen a 32% increase in click through rates to its stores, a 16% increase in "get directions" clicks and a 42% increase in calls.

These benefits demonstrate the importance for brands to have a vision and a global strategy for managing their brand information and meeting customers everywhere they search.

"The global management of our digital information for all of our stores has acted as a catalyst for growth. The results are there to prove it," Rogister says. "Yext is a reliable partner who has been able to support us effectively. What we could barely have done in two years alone has been accomplished all in one go with Yext. We saved a lot of time – not only on implementation, but also on day-to-day execution. It is thanks to Yext that we are more effective today. "