Chalhoub Group Uses Salesforce to Turn Customer Service into a Revenue Engine
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How Service Cloud and Slack deliver the detail that enables Chalhoub Group to choreograph every customer contact.
We all know that sinking feeling when that extra special gift, for that extra special person, fails to arrive. At Chalhoub Group they understand that in life, timing is everything.
So, if that means delivering that extra special gift within two hours of receiving an order, Chalhoub will make it happen. In the world of luxury, fashion, and beauty products, going the extra mile takes on new meaning. There’s no business that understands this dynamic and fast-moving marketplace better.
Through its extensive retail, distribution, franchising, and joint venture operations across 14 countries, Chalhoub partners with more than 300 of the world’s most prestigious luxury brands, including Gucci, Dolce & Gabbana, Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, Givenchy, and L’Oreal.
To continue to achieve outstanding success for itself and its partners, Chalhoub has been investing in digital technologies to deliver consistently high-quality services, in-store and online. The motivation behind its digital transformation is the company’s laser focus on curating unique and memorable experiences for customers. Because in luxury retailing, the browsing and the choosing is just as important as the buying.
But that’s not all. Chalhoub hasn’t just focused on creating those ‘wow’ customer moments. It’s also embarked on a project to turn customer care into a reliable revenue-generating part of the business – and drive better ROI.
We spoke to Head of Customer Experience Operations, Bernadette Geagea, to find out how Salesforce is helping Chalhoub innovate and be creative, putting customers at the front and centre of everything it does.
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1. Embrace data to drive consistent customer service
For many businesses, providing a great product, supported by good service, remains a reliable formula for success. But in the world of luxury goods, fashion, and beauty, customers with refined tastes and endless choices – customers who are paying premium prices – expect more.
Chalhoub knows that everything it does must have a single purpose: meeting its customers’ every need, want, and desire. And this translates into choreographing each aspect of the customer’s experience, before, during, and after the sale itself.
And in Bernadette Geagea, Head of Customer Experience Operations, Chalhoub has a passionate customer champion, whose positive, innovative, can-do personality has earned her the informal title of “Chief Energy Officer”!
Geagea understands that Chalhoub’s digital transformation doesn’t just open up new opportunities to develop immersive customer experiences across multiple touchpoints. It also empowers its people to build relationships and win the trust and confidence of customers, and to demonstrate the human touch.
“When I joined Chalhoub in 2019, we were already using Salesforce, which in my opinion is the best platform in the world for customer experience. But we were only using it in a very limited way. It was like having a Ferrari and leaving it in the garage!
“My challenge was to take my colleagues on a journey to embrace all of the platform’s great capabilities and unlock the vast amount of customer behaviour data and insights that Salesforce delivers. And then to use it to build a new set of customer experiences.”
2. Turn a cost centre into a revenue engine
Geagea began by establishing the firm foundations that are essential to creating great experiences. “First, people need to be empowered with knowledge and to use it to make their own decisions. They should use technology to free them from basic admin tasks, so they can focus on providing great personal service,” she explained.
Because the best experiences are individually tailored and personalised, she invested time to understand the needs and objectives of internal customers within the group’s many brand partners. Geagea demonstrated how Service Cloud could create great experiences for each customer, in each channel, for each brand – and for those experiences to be eye-catching and distinctive when compared to the competition.
“By creating bespoke working relationships with each brand, I demonstrated that, by using Service Cloud to its full potential, great customer experiences can be a revenue generator, not a cost centre.”
And its these capabilities that have enabled Geagea to make good on her commitment to turn great customer experience into new revenue streams. Now, agents have so much information at their fingertips in Service Cloud that if products are temporarily unavailable or out of stock, they can confidently recommend alternatives.
As a result, 47% of potentially lost sales caused by product unavailability are now revived by skilful customer service agents, who identify an alternative that the customer then purchases. In less than a year, personalised customer service like this has unlocked new revenues exceeding $3 million.
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3. Balance great technology with the human touch
Geagea explained that Service Cloud has empowered her customer service teams with knowledge. “The knowledge base in Service Cloud is an amazing tool: everyone is in the same place, with a complete picture collected from every touchpoint. The 360-degree view that’s created in Service Cloud – including rich data from Marketing Cloud and Commerce Cloud – gives us everything we need to know about every customer.
“We know exactly where they are on their journey with us, what their preferences are, where they spend, how they spend, and how much they spend. Which lets us respond in a way that’s completely personal to each customer. That’s very, very powerful.”
The accumulation of data and insight within Service Cloud means customer service can reach new levels of sophistication. Agents can now see which customers prefer short, transactional conversations, and which prefer longer, more engaged discussions. With intelligent recommendations like this – and the ability to humanise every interaction – Chalhoub’s customer care team are building loyal customers (which in turn generates more revenue).
“In the luxury market, having a deep understanding of how each customer wishes to be served is priceless,” said Geagea. “Service Cloud gives us the confidence to respond instantly, taking the initiative, and really adding value for them, which we know they appreciate. The days of four-hour standard response times is over, now customers want great service immediately and we want to provide it immediately too!”
Geagea used the analysis within Service Cloud to launch a concierge service for customers with specific delivery requirements. Now, customers can receive their order just two hours after placing it. Chalhoub demonstrates that the personal, human touch is alive and well, working harmoniously with great technology. And ultimately, it’s using Service Cloud to become more efficient – and accelerate time to market.
Salesforce helped deliver:
$3M
in new revenue streams
47%
conversion of previously lost sales opportunities
66%
customer satisfaction and rising **
4. Integrate with Slack for instant communication and coordination
Maintaining the highest standards of customer service and experience requires sophisticated internal communications, to make sure each stage of the customer’s journey is delivered to precise specifications.
To help achieve this, Chalhoub uses Slack, integrated with Salesforce, to instantly connect the extended internal supply chain, sharing information and updates, resolving issues, and meeting deadlines.
And in a first for the Middle East, Geagea is launching Slack Swarming to boost efficiency and productivity throughout her customer care teams. Swarming connects the in-store team, the operations team, plus the last mile team – as well as customer care – so everyone can get hands-on and help provide a fast, luxury experience.
Geagea and the brand partner team decided to engage with Slack Professional Services to build a custom, state-of-the-art bot that would let them open, monitor, and swarm on cases – natively in Slack.
After conducting several workshops with Professional Services, Geagea and the team formalised the best process for case swarming for each role, bringing more clarity to their business operations and empowering more team members with new standards. The teams became laser focused and worked in unison to create better experiences for their customers.
For example, if a customer calls up and wants to know if a product is in stock in the Dubai Mall store, multiple teams can swarm on the case – and make sure that customer purchases the item from them.
“With Slack Swarming, customers get their answer at the speed of light,” explained Geagea. “And internal teams can ‘pamper’ our customers in the way they expect.”
5. Focus on efficiency gains
Like all retailers, Chalhoub is a results-driven business and Geagea is a results-driven executive. She’s proud that her Service Cloud-empowered customer experience programmes are driving steady improvements in key metrics.
For example, in under one year, overall customer satisfaction – including both online and offline activities – has risen to 66%, well on its way to her target of 80%. First time resolution is at 68%, close to her 70% goal. And claims for refunds is another key measure - almost three quarters of claims are resolved within three days, close to the 80% target.
“We’re moving from predominantly operational performance indicators to measures around customer satisfaction. These memorable experiences will keep customers coming back and spending more. And this all results in revenues growing overall, which is testament to the efforts of everyone throughout the business.
“Every time I want to innovate or try new things, the Salesforce team is there to support me and our IT team. The platform and capabilities that Salesforce has given us is also a key selling point in our external conversations with our commercial partners. Everyone is so excited about what we’re trying to do, and everyone wants to be part of it. They share our vision.”
In the luxury goods, beauty, and fashion world, customers know what great service looks like.
But they love to be surprised by service that goes even further – service that’s even more personal and exclusive. In Geagea, Chalhoub has a customer advocate with a passion for making her business stand out, against some of the stiffest competition in the retail world.
“We’re striving to give our customers something extra special – and Salesforce is the perfect platform to help us achieve our goals.”
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