Chalhoub Group Uses Salesforce to Turn Customer Service into a Revenue Engine

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.

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.”

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.”