This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Justin Crosbie, the Head of Customer Experience at TULA Skincare, a leading doctor-founded clinically effective skincare brand. Our conversation delved into Justin's journey building out TULA’s CX function from scratch, his approach to balancing automation with human connection, and the critical role that customer insights play in driving both retention and revenue growth. Here are the key takeaways from our discussion:
Q: Can you give us an overview of your background and what drew you to your current role at Tula?
Justin: I've been in customer experience or adjacent roles at NYC-based high-growth startups for the better part of a decade now. Prior to TULA, I was at Handy, a two-sided marketplace for home services, where I worked across many teams and roles – but found myself most intrigued by my work on scaling up in-home-service partnerships with some of the biggest retailers in the space. It was the act of building that got me most excited, seeing something come from nothing but an idea and a hunch that we were onto something.
Fast forward, I found myself looking to be more connected personally to my work and was craving a shift into an industry that aligned more with my personal interests and passions. When the opportunity at TULA came up, it felt like the perfect fit. What really excited me was that they were at an inflection point where they were growing rapidly but hadn't yet built out a formal CX function. Immediately after joining, I hit the ground running and began to shape the strategy for the team from the ground up.
That journey of building the customer experience ecosystem while the business was skyrocketing was challenging but also incredibly rewarding. There were a lot of quick wins in the beginning as we onboarded new tech and integrated those systems crossfunctionally. That tech helped us to unlock data and ask ourselves more questions which helped us discover invaluable insights into the brand and our customers - we continue to build on that foundation today. Being able to establish that foundation and see the impact on the customer experience seemingly at every touchpoint was truly special and I feel fortunate to have been a part of it.
Q: What were some of the key pillars you focused on as you were standing up the CX function?
Justin: I think the most critical thing, especially early on, was really having a point-of-view of who you are as a brand and using the CX functional as an extension of that focus, and that wasn't something I could do alone, it required buy-in and partnership from everyone on every team in one way or another.
We needed to be clear on what made us unique, what we stood for, and how we wanted to make our customers feel. In the beauty industry especially, so much of the customer relationship is about emotional connection. People are trusting us with something that's so personal and too often a source of insecurity – so it was important to be equal parts important to be approachable and authoritative. It was essential to keep that in mind for each touchpoint in the customer’s journey.
Beyond that, it was about investing in the right people. You can have all the best tools and processes in place, but if you don't have people who genuinely care about the customer, the product and the brand and are empowered to do the right thing for the customer it wont work. It’s about flexibility within a framework.
We were very intentional about onboarding the right people who shared similar passions and could build those authentic relationships. We then made sure they had the flexibility and the trust from leadership to go above and beyond.
I think the combination of that strong brand alignment, that focus on emotional resonance, and the ability to prioritize the long-term relationship over short-term metrics is what allowed us to build such a high-performing and impactful team.
Q: As TULA has scaled, how have you approached the balance between automation and human touch in your CX strategy?
Justin: It's a constant balancing act, and I think the key is being intentional about where and how you deploy automation. Our philosophy is that we shouldn't automate just for the sake of efficiency, but rather in the places where it adds value to the customer’s experience.
A good chunk of our inbound volume tends to be fairly straightforward questions - things like "Where's my order?" or "How do I make a return?". For those types of queries, we've seen great success with chatbots and auto-responders. We can get the customer what they need quickly, and it frees up our agents to focus on the more complex tickets requiring a higher touch and where personalization really comes into play as a critical piece of the puzzle.
We’ve been able to increase the share of fully-automated tickets pretty significantly over the last few quarters which is a testament to the work we've done in understanding our customers' most common pain points and needs. With any shift in personal touch, a decrease in CSAT was a concern. We're always closely monitoring the qualitative feedback to make sure we're not over-automating or losing that personal touch. In fact, we’ve seen CSAT increase as we’ve expanded our automation capabilities – a reassurance that being strategic about where and when to automate is the key to not making automation a pain point for customers.
At the end of the day, our goal is to make every interaction authentic and one that will resonate with our customers, regardless of the channel. We want it to feel like you’re talking to skincare-obsessed-BFF. Whether it's a proactive chat message letting a customer know their favorite product is back in stock, or a heartfelt response to a customer who's shared a personal skincare struggle or skincare success - your technology should always be in service of deepening that emotional connection and trust.
Q: One of the things we're always keen to dig into is how CX can drive measurable business impact. What are some of the ways you've been able to tie your team's efforts back to growth and retention?
Justin: I think that's the holy grail for any CX leader - being able to draw that straight line between what we do every day and the outcomes the business cares about.
One area where we've seen a lot of success is in translating the high-touch, consultative approach our field sales team takes in-store to our digital channels. We’ve even brought some of those field reps in to run chat sessions, just to observe how they engaged customers, what questions they asked, how they guided them to the right products. From there, we were able to build out a much more targeted and effective approach to our on-site chat that mirrored that in-person interaction. So if a customer is spending a lot of time on a particular product page, we might proactively reach out and say "I see you're checking out our best-selling cleanser! Have you tried pairing it with our hydrating serum for an extra boost of moisture?"
By trying to mimic the brick and mortar cross sell-oriented approach, we saw a lift in basket size for those who were engaging with the digital beauty consultants. It's a win-win, the customer gets a more personalized, hands-on shopping experience, and we're able to drive incremental revenue. We’re also able to tie back total revenue generated from those who engaged with our support team, which is a powerful insight to have, especially when thinking about your CX function as a potential revenue driver.
More broadly, I think one of the most important things we can do as a CX team is to constantly be amplifying the voice of the customer and ensure it gets to the right stakeholders who can use that to take action. We're the ones on the front lines hearing the friction points, the frustrations, and the unmet needs. It's on us to synthesize those insights and advocate for the changes that will move the needle on satisfaction and loyalty.
This shows up in many ways, it could be anything from component and formula feedback for our R&D team to address, to pushing for more customer-friendly shipping and return policies, to identifying opportunities for more proactive communication and education.
We've had multiple instances where we've been able to identify specific customer pain points using data, rallying the right cross-functional partners, and implementing a fix that had a measurable impact on retention. It's not always the flashiest work, but it's some of the most vital in terms of keeping customers happy and coming back. It also goes a long way to your customers to show that not only are you listening to them, but you’re turning that into action and reassuring them that their feedback is taken seriously.
At the end of the day, I think the real power of CX lies in our ability to be the customer's ultimate advocate. To take all of that rich qualitative and quantitative feedback they share with us everyday and use it to shape a better end-to-end experience. When we do that consistently and effectively, the results (and supporting data) speak for themselves.
In Conclusion
Our conversation with Justin underscored the immense value that a customer-centric, brand-aligned CX function can deliver, particularly in a high-growth environment. A few key themes emerged:
- Establishing a clear and compelling brand identity, and infusing that identity into every customer interaction.
- Balancing automation and human touch requires a deep understanding of customer needs and a commitment to deploying technology in service of the customer relationship, not just efficiency.
- CX can and should be a driver of revenue growth, both through direct touch points like consultative selling and through advocating for product and policy changes that boost retention.
- The most impactful CX leaders see themselves not just as problem-solvers, but as the voice of the customer and a catalyst for cross-functional alignment around customer needs.
Justin's passion for customer advocacy and his ability to tie CX initiatives directly to business outcomes will undoubtedly be a significant competitive advantage. His journey offers a powerful case study in what it takes to build a world-class CX organization from the ground up.
The key takeaway? Put the brand and the customer at the center of everything you do. Hire people who embody your values, and empower them to build authentic relationships. Lean into technology where it enhances the experience, but never at the expense of what’s best for the customer. And always, always be listening to your customers - they'll tell you everything you need to know to keep them coming back for more.
