Customer Service
What’s next in retail CX: 3 top takeaways
Gabe Larsen, VP of growth at Kustomer, shares insight from experts on delivering consultative, personalized experience in the new digital world of retail.
September 24, 2021 by Gabe Larsen — VP Growth, Kustomer
The retail landscape has changed for good. The past year forced consumers to shop in a whole new way while drastically accelerating digital transformation. McKinsey calls it "the quickening" — 10 years of e-commerce growth in just three months.
Brands and consumers alike, who may have been hesitant to buy and sell online, are now embracing digital customer experiences like never before.
But one thing hasn't changed: consumers still want consultative, personalized experiences throughout the buyer journey. So how do you deliver in this new digital world?
Recently, the best and brightest gathered [virtually] to explore what the future of CX looks like for e-commerce, what consumers expect from a modern customer experience and how to transform service organizations into a full blown revenue driver through consultative, full-funnel support.
Here are the three biggest takeaways on what's next in retail CX:
1. Stand out experiences = Standing out from the competition
Delivering stand out experiences — personalized and human experiences that can surprise and delight a customer — is one of the most successful ways to stand out from the competition. In fact, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides personalized experiences and 72% of consumers say they only engage with personalized messaging. While many smaller brands may not be able to compete with the Amazons and Walmarts of the world, by building personalized relationships, DTC brands can win big.
According to Kristen LaFrance, host of resilient retail and senior content marketer at Shopify, "Everyone knows that we can't beat Amazon on price or convenience. So as long as these two metrics continue to be the primary selling point for customers, we'll always be playing catch up and that's a pretty rough place to be. That personal, human experience that differentiates smaller brands from the existing industry giants, now that's the key to building an engaged community that chooses you and your brand every single time."
It's exceedingly challenging for behemoth brands to fake community. Brands should only optimize and digitize so long as they can continue to personalize the experience for the customer, for the person who wants to invest in the brand story. There's a reason that surprising and delighting customers can go a long way.
Caroline Nolan, customer experience manager at Brooklinen, explains with this example: "We're trying to bring ourselves into the world of sort of the unexpected, that sort of surprise and delight for customers. Maybe someone reached out to us over Twitter to say, you know, I love your sheets. I wish you still had this specific color. It was my favorite and my cat scratched it. We might know that in the back of the warehouse there's actually a brand new set of that color. We can send it to customers and just sort of make their day… I think that is what everyone's looking for, that personalized experience."
2. Happy agents mean happy customers
Building trust with your consumers can be challenging, but it's critical to long-term relationship success. By empowering customer service agents to address problems with empathy and humanity, and training them to truly listen and act on customer concerns, brands are able to communicate how much a customer truly means to them. Happy agents often do directly translate to happy customers.
Chance Riley, director of growth at Cuts Clothing, remarked, "It only takes one bad experience to completely destroy [trust]. So to us, we try to remember that and put our best foot forward. Every product we put out, every marketing message, every customer service interaction. And we're always trying to keep that in the back of our mind because if we can consistently do that, then brand loyalty follows."
Lauren Panken, senior systems manager, UNTUCKit, also understands that building trust starts with the agent, and she tries to do all she can to ensure they feel empowered. "Let's say you start your day off super happy and excited. And then you get thrown off because you have a bad customer experience… we'll give you the tools to kind of resolve that within yourself so that you have those tools that you can take from your toolbox to know how to manage an interaction like that. I want to make sure that all of the agents are an extension of our team… and I want them to recognize that they're not secondary."
Technology also plays an integral role in helping agents fulfill their responsibilities seamlessly and effectively. Platforms and tools that can provide a full picture of the customer experience in one timeline are especially helpful to agents.
3. Customer service channels are changing
According to recent Kustomer research, preferred communication channels are changing. While older generations still prefer more traditional channels like phone and email, younger generations lean more heavily on digital-first channels like chat and SMS.
For example, Dan Brady, customer success manager at Pura Vida Bracelets, and Laura Gramlich, customer experience manager at SKIMS, both shared that their brands are moving away from phones. During the pandemic, SKIMS launched SMS messaging, a "sweet spot between phones and live chat," which other experts predict will continue to increase. And for good reason since statistics show that 98% of all text messages are opened and 95% are responded to within three minutes of being delivered.
While it can be difficult to keep pace with the rapid changes in the digital retail world, the path to creating consultative, personalized customer experiences is clear.
The key to success is ensuring that the entire customer journey, across all channels, is consistent and exceptional. By enabling a unified customer experience, brands can meet customers where they're at and remain nimble throughout the process.
Gabe Larsen is VP of growth at Kustomer
