Saje Natural Wellness boosts growth by reinventing the customer experience with Salesforce

Saje Natural Wellness has a vision – to offer natural wellness that’s accessible to everyone. It’s a vision that began in 1992, when co-founder Jean-Pierre LeBlanc was involved in a motorcycle accident, which left him in constant pain. Keen to leverage natural remedies to aid his recovery, Jean-Pierre drew on his chemistry expertise to explore healing with essential oils.

Following his success at self-treatment, Jean-Pierre partnered with his wife, and now CEO, Kate Ross Leblanc, to bring her natural flair for retail and community building to create what is now Saje Natural Wellness. The company sells a vast range of products – all made from 100% natural, plant-derived ingredients and essential oils – to help people feel better naturally without artificial fragrances, parabens, silicone, or sodium lauryl sulphate; just nature.

With a large customer base, Saje has come a long way since Jean-Pierre formulated his first product in his lab in Toronto. The company now has 55 stores across Canada and another 19 in the US.

With Salesforce, Saje can continue to grow its business and community base, while retaining the nurturing, one-to-one experience that its customers have come to expect. “We offer our community a single experience, regardless of whether they choose to connect with us online or in person at one of our stores or events,” explained Charles Loui-King, VP of IT at Saje. “Keeping this culture of personal community connections is vital as we grow.”

Every Saje store offers a warm and welcoming environment, where customers can feel comfortable and relaxed. “We use all five senses to draw our customers in, and support them with friendly, expert staff,” said Kellie Sawkins, Director of Digital at Saje. “To us, they’re not just customers, but our community. They are part of the Saje family.”

To bring this family feel to its digital channels, Sawkins needed to find a way to mimic the intimacy of the in-store experience online. A labor-intensive website meant the team spent more time on maintenance than on innovation. “Launching new features was a massive challenge,” explained Sawkins. “We wanted a new platform that would ensure a seamless and compelling online experience, and support global expansion.”

Sawkins and her team launched the new website in 2016 just 24 weeks after selecting Commerce Cloud. “We're no longer a start-up; we wanted a platform that could grow with us,” she explained. “Commerce Cloud is scalable and easy to use and develop; it was the perfect fit.”

Saje has launched two sites on Commerce Cloud – one for the US and one for Canada – which are managed by a small but talented web team. “As the team’s time is not taken up with day-to-day site maintenance, we focus our energy on building awesome experiences and building connections with our community through the site,” said Loui-Ying. “With Commerce Cloud, we can launch new features without extensive investment in development; it’s made us more dynamic.”

And the new features keep coming. One of the latest enhancements involves using Einstein Analytics to enable predictive product recommendations for customers, based on the previous purchases and browsing history.

To ensure it takes advantage of Einstein and other new features, Saje works closely with its Salesforce Customer Success Manager. “Our success manager has spent lots of time onsite helping us out with hands-on training and advice,” said Loui-Ying. “It’s a real differentiator, and has provided us with tremendous value.”

For Sawkins, developing educational customer journeys with Marketing Cloud is the next step on the innovation journey. For example, if a customer buys a diffuser – instore or online - they automatically receive an email that not only explains how to use and maintain the product but also recommends complementary items.

Sawkins has also introduced a welcome journey, which is triggered when a customer becomes part of the Saje family and ensures they stay updated with product news and promotions.

With many of its products registered with Health Canada and the FDA, Saje can support the health claims behind its remedial blends. Customer reviews, however, are still important - especially for online buyers. “With Salesforce, we’ll be able to request feedback after every purchase so we can continually improve our services and product ranges,” said Sawkins.

As Saje breaks into new territories, a compelling loyalty program will be key to attracting and keeping customers. “We want to create a unified profile for every member of the community, so they can return products and gain and spend loyalty points across digital and physical channels in exactly the same way,” said Sawkins. “It’s all about making it as convenient as possible for them.”

By transforming its website, Saje has also transformed is business and the customer experience, which will help it expand not just within the US but new geographies.

“Salesforce provides the platform we need to take our brand global,” said Sawkins. “We can bring together physical and digital channels and keep enriching the shopping experience for current and future customers.”

“With Salesforce, I can bring greater agility and energy to my work and my team and ensure we keep pace with business demand.”

Kellie Sawkins, Director of Digital, Saje