You may remember that just a few years ago, Under Armour was considered one of the biggest sportswear brands in the world, valued at over $5 billion and equivalent to frontrunners like Nike and Adidas. Now, the company is facing exceptionally weak sales, a valuation sliced in half since its peak, paired with a single-digit stock price that’s been on the decline for the past decade. But why?
This week, we sat down with Jordan Hooker, the founder of Tavolo Consulting, a firm specializing in helping early to mid-stage startups build world-class customer support programs. Our conversation delved into the key pillars of an effective support operation, the importance of data-driven decision making, and how to future-proof your customer experience as you scale. Here are the key takeaways from our discussion:
Sephora shattered glass ceilings by surpassing a record of $10 billion in sales in 2023. And it’s no surprise when we think about just how well Sephora has been building out their omnichannel experience over the years. When it comes to customer experience, there’s no doubt that Sephora is a clear leader in the industry. Sephora doesn’t just meet customer expectations — they go above and beyond to connect with their customers and make every touchpoint personable in a unique, exciting way.
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Everyone is talking about Netflix — and for good reason. Just a year ago, Netflix began to really crack down on password-sharing. And while users were infuriated and threatened to cancel their subscriptions, the opposite ensued. This quarter, Netflix ended up adding 9.33 million new subscribers to their customer base — 5x their results from last year. And while there are lots of reasons it played out this way, one underlying reason this decision didn’t negatively affect their CX journey too badly was because this decision actually aligns very well with their overall value proposition.
This week, we had the pleasure of speaking with Courtney LeBlanc, Senior Customer Support Manager at Willful, a Canadian online platform that enables users to create powers of attorney and last will and testament documents without the need for a lawyer. Our conversation delved into how Willful leverages a small but mighty support team to deliver empathetic, efficient service to customers navigating a complex and often emotionally charged process. Here are the key insights from our discussion:
It’s majorly impressive how smoothly UNIQLO has adapted to the overseas market — global expansion is a task most brands tend to struggle with. And while their products are great, their product line isn’t necessarily the main reason for their success. The truth is — UNIQLO does a fantastic job of utilizing data to fuel its customer experience strategy — so much so that it’s allowed them to connect their physical and digital touch points in a seamless way. BUT there’s always room to improve, and here’s how.
If you’re an avid Pinterest user, you might have noticed that over the years, their algorithm for personalizing users’ feeds has become more and more precise, making it all the more addicting. You probably wouldn’t have guessed that you have THE YES, an AI-powered shopping app, to thank for these improvements. In 2022, Pinterest acquired THE YES, but before this acquisition, THE YES was on its way to revolutionizing the average shopper’s customer journey and experience. But turns out — making a perfectly personalized shopping experience for every single user was no easy feat. So let’s break down one particular challenge they faced getting their platform off the ground.
When competing in the same industry as Shein and Temu, a brand like H&M must do one of two things to survive: 1) match these competitors’ prices (which is near impossible) or 2) justify higher prices. And in order to justify higher prices, H&M has had to do a lot more than simply improve the quality of their clothing. For them, it’s all about customer experience. And while H&M’s customer experience initiatives have been receiving tons of hype from investors and shareholders, there’s a bit of disconnect between the opinions of customers and investors.
Last week we had the opportunity to chat with Steve Davenport, who leads Voice of the Customer (VoC) initiatives at PTC. PTC is an enterprise software company that provides solutions for digital transformation across engineering, manufacturing, and service operations. Given their focus on enabling customer success, it's no surprise that VoC plays a critical role. Here's what we learned.
Have you ever waited for a dashboard to load for so long that you forgot what you were even looking for? I think we all have. It can be incredibly frustrating (especially if your organization is using Redshift…).
Outdoor Voices, a loved outdoor apparel company, recently made the decision to close ALL physical retail stores, all while barreling toward bankruptcy. Unfortunately, their reckless spending decisions caught up to them this year, and a once very successful apparel brand suddenly ran fresh out of cash. So let’s look at how their marketing efforts contributed to this unfortunate turn of events and what they can try to do to make a comeback.