CX Diaries - with Keith Gait
CX Diaries with Keith Gait is my podcast where I talk to the people at the sharp end of CX and Contact Centres. The Movers and the shakers, the innovators, the disruptors, and the people delivering in the real world who share their personal stories of their journey through our industry
CX Diaries - with Keith Gait
Subscription Luxury: Automating Affordability in Customer Service
Join me for an engaging conversation with Chandni Bhatt, a seasoned expert in customer experience, as we explore the transformative landscape of subscription services. Chandni shares her experiences at Beauty Pie, a pioneering beauty subscription brand, highlighting how innovative strategies can significantly enhance customer engagement while balancing the demands of automation and personalisation.
We dive into the importance of building a strong community around a brand, where passionate customers not only feel connected but also advocate for their favourite products and services. Chandni discusses the rich stories and loyalty fostered within their customer base, illustrating how active community management can contribute to significant business growth.
As the subscription model reshapes the way brands interact with consumers, Chandni reveals the challenges that come with this evolution, such as navigating the impact of economic changes and maintaining customer satisfaction. We also discuss the pivotal role of technology in streamlining operations and improving service delivery without losing the essential human touch that customers expect.
Packed with insights about Chandni's personal journey in the CX field, this episode is perfect for those looking to understand the core of customer service today. From operational strategies to effective leadership styles, you'll find actionable tips and thought-provoking discussions that could help elevate your own customer experience practices. Don’t miss this opportunity to learn from one of the industry's leading voices!
Be sure to check out the YouTube page for the Video version
https://www.youtube.com/@CustomerExperienceFoundation24
Welcome to CX Diaries. Cx Diaries from the Customer Experience Foundation is our podcast where we talk to the people at the sharp end of CX and contact centres, the movers and the shakers, the innovators, the disruptors and the people delivering in the real world who share their personal stories of their journey through our industry. This week, for season two, I'm delighted to be joined by Chanley Batt. Chanley is a veteran in the CX space with a strong history of working with rapid growth businesses in the e-commerce environment, particularly within fashion and beauty industry, also handling multiple complex projects and managing large offshore teams across EMEA and North America. She thrives on creating cost-effective solutions and challenging existing processes to create efficiencies and developing high-performing teams, both in-house and outsource, across both small-scale and large multi-site, multilingual operations. Chandni specializes in subscription models, automation, customer retention, cx and digital services, such as social media, and community, such as social media. Chandni, welcome, it's a pleasure to have you with us today. That's quite a range of skills.
Speaker 1:Hey good morning, Keith. Thanks for having me. So you're at Beauty Pie at the moment. Talk us through the role there and some of the big things you're working on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, of course. So I currently sit within the member happiness team, which is our customer experience department, to tell you a bit more about what Beautify does before I go on to myself. So we buy direct from the consumer sorry, direct from the warehouses so we remove the price tag and we provide you a premium product at a fraction of the price. So my role is ensuring that our members always have an agent to speak to on the other side, giving them skincare advice, making sure that they're topped up on their supplements, not only through any inbound contact, but also through virtual consultations, making sure our community have focused events, as well as making sure that we're getting our amazing member happiness skills out and making sure we're trained up, both in the UK and the US. I wear a lot of different hats. Sometimes I'm a copywriter, one day I'm recording an IVR, some days I have to respond to tickets when it gets too busy. But my main focus right now is automation and making sure that our headcount can remain stable.
Speaker 1:Okay, so what are some of the challenges in the operation at the moment? You mentioned about automation and a headcount. How's that affecting you at the moment?
Speaker 2:So as we grow as a business, which we're enjoying, I guess one of the side effects of that is getting an increased amount of inbound contact. So it's really finding the balancing act of how can we keep giving customers the best service without scaling our team and going through our peaks with ramp ups and ramp downs. So one of the solutions that we founded is automating very simple tickets that did not require that additional human element, such as personalization to skin types, etc. So we found a lot of successes with this, such as automating up to 40 percent of very simple queries. We didn't see a negative for the CSAT, so this was a win-win. Our agents were able to do more enriching work, which really helped them kind of develop themselves at Beauty Pie and not just being the person that handles where is my order.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and how have you automated that? What sort of technologies and processes are you using to help with that?
Speaker 2:A lot of data analysis to see what was our top contact drivers, so understanding. What is it that we should automate and what should we actually keep for a human? So we found that the repetitive queries where customers couldn't find on the help center because it needed an action in-house was most likely to be the best thing to automate. So, being a subscription-based business, a lot of account queries. So we wrote personalized responses because nobody wants to be stuck in the loop of death with a bot, and through that we saw such gains. On week one and it's been a year now on this journey We've automated close to 70,000 interactions, with savings in around six figures amazing and you're very much a subscription business.
Speaker 1:Um, talk to us about the differences you found running a subscription business and compared to other organizations that we might know and that you've worked at before yeah, sure.
Speaker 2:So a lot of loyalty uh comes with subscription businesses, particularly with the type of product that we're selling. It's quite emotive. So we often get customers who have been our day one fans who want to speak to specific agents that they have previously spoken to. They build up a rapport and that's really great to see and it gives our team a great sense of purpose, especially when they're actually seeing really kind emails and kind interactions, which is typically not something I've seen in other businesses, where people are spoiled for choice and they can buy the product anywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and also, how's that? How's the cost of living challenges affecting your subscription model at the moment?
Speaker 2:We've definitely seen an impact here and we are conscious of that. Seen an impact here and we are conscious of that. We have been toying with different membership offerings, from annual, which would be cheaper per month, or having a monthly membership, which in the long run does end up being slightly more expensive but provides a customer flexibility. We've also introduced a free trial so people can kind of try the product without tying themselves into a membership. So we understand that the landscape is changing and we've got to also move with it and you're also very big on community at beauty pie, aren't you?
Speaker 1:so talk to us about how you structure that and organize that yeah.
Speaker 2:So we are very big on community. Being a founder-led business, we had a community before the business was even born. Due to this founder, we've got day one fans on our Facebook who often set up their own meet and greets. We just had one last week from the US who was in London visiting. We brought her into our office and she's actually been meeting with other Beauty Pie fans to share their products and share their passion. So it's so refreshing that it's actually so organic and we step in where we can. But we don't want to kind of manufacture it too much. We almost let the community do what they want to do and give them opportunities to come into the office, hold focus groups and exclusive competitions and what?
Speaker 1:what sort of tools and approaches are you using to both manage and support the community, and what? What can other businesses learn from that, do you think?
Speaker 2:a lot of social listening. So we are not quite there with our journey of social listening yet. We are yet to bring in a tool, um. So it is a lot of manual kind of looking through trends and keywords to see what is a negative sentiment and what is positive, um. But I think when you're going to see a problem spike in in in your queue, you're going to hear it on community first, because they are so quick to see when something has not gone well, and so that is the first place we look when we we could assume something is going to brew within our service centre.
Speaker 1:Okay, and I'd imagine you're doing an awful lot across social media as well as within your own community. Is that quite a high impact area for you?
Speaker 2:Absolutely, with new releases almost week. This is a place where people want to know everything, so we need to not only have our inbound team, but an extension of that is having those skills to respond to a public message with our brand tone of voice, which can be quite a challenge when you have a team of 14 individuals who all write in their own personas to make sure that we're always being consistent and also getting back to customers in a timely manner.
Speaker 1:And thinking now operationally, you run a lot of personal device virtual consultations. You, how do you manage that? How do you organize that? What, what tools are you using for that?
Speaker 2:yeah, so actually we've kept it super simple. Uh, we actually use zoom for our virtual consultations, so we have a um, a calendar where customers can simply come online, pick if they want skincare or makeup consultation. It's free, it's 20 minutes and it's all organized via Zoom. The customer gets a great little form to fill in with what their requirements are and they get to have a face-to-face, a one-on-one, as many as they want with one of our team, which is highly beneficial, especially when we're not in a physical store and they can't touch and feel the products.
Speaker 1:And how do you skill the staff, the agents, to be able to do that?
Speaker 2:Well, that's a great question. We have our product development team in-house. So that's from skincare supplements, hair care, cosmetics, you name it, we've got it. So there's a lot of intensive training with the people who actually develop the products. So everything from the ingredients to what can be used together and what isn't safe for certain people to use together. They also receive every single product. So before every launch, you get to actually touch, feel, experience, smell the product, because the only way you're able to sell it and explain it is a if you've got the passion and b if you understand what the product is yeah, so I'd imagine your employee engagement scores are fairly high absolutely yes yeah, yeah, yeah, and thinking about um the logistics of of that, I I guess you're still, like many online businesses, beholden to delivery networks.
Speaker 2:Sorry, could you repeat that?
Speaker 1:I imagine, like many online businesses, you're still beholden to many delivery networks.
Speaker 2:It can do Last year, when Royal Mail decided to have a strike. That was we had to pivot really fast. We had to go with a provider that we've not worked with before just before Black Friday, so that was interesting for us. One for the operations team and my team were impacted quite heavily. My customers were not happy but you know it wasn't unique to us as a business, it was countrywide.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and do you have a particular peak in the traditional golden quarter for retail or is yours a bit more spread throughout the year?
Speaker 2:We do More so recently, in the last two, three years. You know we've got to keep up with other businesses out there. People are spoilt for choice. So, yes, the golden quarter is is great for gifting and it almost goes through into February when it's all about wellness, fresh new year, how to take care of your skin, how to heal yourself from within with supplements. So yeah, our peak almost carries on into the first quarter.
Speaker 1:Wow, incredible. And thinking more personally, tell us about your journey through the industry. How did you get started in CX?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. So well, I don't want to say like most people. So I'll say like myself. I did a business management degree out of university, was not quite sure what I wanted to do, and e-retail was just emerging at that point. So I started off as an agent for a subscription based business called Shoe Dazzle, which is still thriving in the US. However, it just started in the UK and subscription models hadn't yet taken off, so they were almost too soon to market. So yeah, I was an agent, just kind of understanding the ways of business. Customer service is something that I'd always done face to face throughout university, working on the weekends in retail. So yeah, I really did start from the ground up.
Speaker 1:And how did you arrive at Beauty Pie? What was the journey from university to Beauty Pie?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I guess I remained in customer service. I moved on to another subscription brand called Fabletics there's a theme going here. I definitely favor, uh memberships. Um, and I was put in a really unique position where the business blew up and it was a global business in the US, the UK, um, and some European countries and it was not sustainable to grow our team in the UK so so, as agent number two, I was given the opportunity to work with our US CX team, go to the Philippines and actually hire, train and onboard about 50 agents. So I think I skipped a few steps between agent and managing a BPO, yeah, but I loved every second of it. Just learning about a different culture, being able to provide opportunities to a large group of people in the Philippines was. It was, first of all, just eye-opening at their passion, which I had never seen in the UK, and to this day I will always, um really have a soft spot for those people in my heart.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and talking about BPO there, what's your views on? I guess most of your work is in-house, but you've worked with BPOs. What's your view on that mix and balance and where organisations can be getting it right and better?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think you know it's understanding the why. Yeah, so I think you know it's understanding the why. So if somebody is going into understanding why to outsource is it a cost saving exercise or is it to provide more flexibility and neither one of those are wrong, but it's understanding why is it being done? And often, if it's never been done in a business before, executives can be quite worried because you don't always hear great things about BPOs. So I think it's bringing in other executives into the journey because as CX leaders, most people understand it quite well. But if you're not within CX, it gets a bad rap.
Speaker 1:And I think that's where we really need to change that dialogue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'd agree with that and thinking more. You're more personally now. What are your biggest achievements? What are you most proud of? Yeah, I think actually being responsible for setting up the operations in the Philippines, kind of moving quite rapidly from being a frontline agent to then developing training materials, conducting that to big groups, hiring, putting together career path planning. There are agents that I kind of embedded 10 years ago who are now senior floor managers and they've gone on their journey and to this day they still message me to thank me for showing them the leadership skills. So that's been a big moment for me that I'll always be super proud of and knowing that when put in a situation like that, I was able to thrive and almost make it up as I went along and it still worked out OK.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so where does it go wrong? What can we learn from, obviously, things that always run swimmingly? Where does it go wrong? What can we learn in your view?
Speaker 2:Where does it go wrong? What can we learn in your view? For me, it's in business, not having the executive buy-in and or working in silos, because often you know certain teams are going. You know everyone's got their own goals, but I think it's really important to have a roadmap together and an understanding of what is it that we're trying to achieve, and asking the right questions. Often it's about retention and acquisition and there's great initiatives behind it, but fundamentally it is all about the customer, and it's being that voice in the room to just keep reminding the execs that it is about the customer. What does this mean for the customer?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree with that and, thinking personally as well, what's perhaps the biggest issue you've had to overcome? How did you get through that?
Speaker 2:Great question. I joined a company a very established company, I won't name names here as a manager. I walked into a bit of chaos. I wasn't quite sure what was happening. There was a lot of redundancies happening for people that had been there for 20-25 years, who were the subject matter experts, and I was tasked with almost taking their knowledge and passing it on to the teams in the Philippines. Of course comes a lot of resistance with this, because who was I? And that was what I was asked. Who are you to come in here? You don't know what I've learned in 20-25 years. Why should I help you? And that was a huge challenge for me to almost kind of swallow my ego and and be a person and understand what they're going through, because to get the best out of them I really needed to put everything aside and just really get to understand. What can I do for them in this time to really help with this transition? That was a huge challenge for me. I learned a lot.
Speaker 1:I learned how to listen and close my mouth and just to move things forward yeah, and, and thinking about your leadership style, chanley, where does that come from and what sort of influences have been on your life and career?
Speaker 2:I think, being being able to work in different areas, working with, uh, different cultures so the philippines, uk, poland I've been able to adapt my leadership skills to individuals but also different cultures, because everyone requires a different approach and I actually don't want to toot my own horn, but it's something my own team have said to me that I'm very flexible at changing my approach when it comes to different levels, not only individuals. So I think it's something I've learned along the way and that came with failure, um, to adapt my style, but I think it's landed me in a really in a really good position now where I I know when to adapt my style amazing and and thinking um back.
Speaker 1:As you know, we always like to ask our guests to reflect and help those that are coming up through the industry, as we did. So you can go back to being 25 again. What advice would you give to younger self?
Speaker 2:Grasp the opportunities that come your way. Often it's better to say you've experienced it than not at all. I was very ambitious, maybe a bit too early, knowing that titles are fluid A title in one business is not reflective of a title in a different business. Forget titles and expand your network. I've only very recently started to do that and I have learned so much and I wish I did it sooner. But a part of that probably comes from having some self-confidence.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I would definitely agree with that. And how do you unwind and escape from it all? Tell us a few things about you that we wouldn't know from looking at your LinkedIn profile.
Speaker 2:Well, from my LinkedIn profile, you may assume I'm obsessed with emojis and that I am extroverted. I really am not. It takes a lot for me to put myself out there. So when I'm not putting myself out there, I really enjoy time with a small circle of friends. Simple things, you know going for a walk, enjoying the sunset. I really enjoy cooking, taking that time for myself to recharge, reflect and cooking for other people. I think that's my kind of love language, because I can do it in silence, whilst kind of thinking and marinated what's happening through the week.
Speaker 1:Amazing Chani. Thank you. It's been fascinating having you with us today. Hope our listeners have found this as exciting and insightful as I have. You can find out lots more about the Customer Experience Foundation at cxfoorg and we hope you can join us next time on CX Diaries.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Keith.