Arc’teryx has positioned itself at the forefront of innovation and sustainability. At the heart of the brand’s mission is crafting a pinnacle guest experience that transcends the traditional boundaries of retail and brand interaction. Pitsch articulated a bold vision, emphasizing a deep connection with the mountain community that forms the core of Arc’teryx’s identity.

This connection is not just a backdrop but a driving force behind the brand’s commitment to its guests, ensuring that every interaction is rooted in authenticity and shared values. A commitment to circularity and sustainability guides Arc’teryx’s approach to customer experience.

He also highlighted the innovative strategies Arc’teryx employs to embed circularity into its operations, aligning with the brand’s overarching goal to “Leave It Better.” This philosophy is about minimizing impact and actively contributing to a more sustainable future, a message that resonates deeply within the mountain community and beyond.

Empowering Culture

His keynote illuminated the importance of an empowering culture within and outside the organization. Pitsch underscored the symbiotic relationship between the internal and external communities, asserting that “meeting them where they are” is fundamental to crafting genuine and impactful guest experiences. This perspective is a testament to Arc’teryx’s belief in the interconnectedness of people, products, and the planet.

For customer experience leaders, Pitsch’s presentation offers inspirational and actionable takeaways. Arc’teryx’s journey underscores the importance of being deeply rooted in your community, understanding its nuances, and engaging with it in meaningful and transformative ways.

The brand’s commitment to circularity and sustainability is a powerful blueprint for integrating environmental stewardship into the fabric of customer experience.

Key Highlights of Dave Pitsch’s Keynote Address

• Deep Connection with the Mountain Community: Arc’teryx’s unwavering commitment to its roots in the mountain community is the foundation of its guest experience, fostering a sense of authenticity and shared passion.
• Sustainability and Circularity: The presentation underscored Arc’teryx’s innovative approaches to sustainability, particularly its efforts to embed circularity in its operations, aligning with the goal to “Leave It Better.” The brand’s ReBIRD^™ platform is designed for circularity – the home for all of Arc’teryx’s initiatives in care and repair, resale, and upcycling.
• Empowering Internal and External Communities: Emphasizing the importance of empowering culture, Pitsch highlighted the interdependence of internal and external communities, suggesting that fostering a positive internal culture is key to delivering exceptional external guest experiences.
• Authentic Engagement: Arc’teryx’s emphasis on meeting the community “where they are” reflects its commitment to genuine engagement, understanding, and respect for its audience’s nuances.

In summary, Pitsch’s keynote at CRS highlighted Arc’teryx’s pioneering efforts in redefining the guest experience. It inspired leaders to embrace innovation, sustainability, and community engagement as pillars of their strategy. As we look to the future, the lessons from Arc’teryx’s journey are clear: genuine connections, a commitment to the environment, and an empowering culture are the keystones of a remarkable customer experience.

Thank you to Arc’teryx and Dave Pitsch for his leadership, participation, and insights.

Registration for CRS Palm Springs is now open. Join us September 24-26, 2024, for a dynamic in-person Summit tailored for leaders shaping the customer experience landscape in their organizations. This gathering is about fostering learning, sparking inspiration, and forging meaningful connections with your fellow CX visionaries in an inclusive and collaborative setting.

The post Arc’teryx’s Commitment to the Future: Sustainability, Circularity, and Customer Experience appeared first on Execs In The Know.

This new 70+ page report focuses on a specific vertical (Retail/eCommerce) and includes comparisons between consumer and corporate practitioners, as well as comparisons against past research from Execs In The Know and Conduent to uncover insights across all industries.

By comparing the Retail/eCommerce vertical with other industries, several differences emerge. The standout characteristics for Retail/eCommerce brands include channel diversity, the proactive approach to economic uncertainty, and CX leaders’ satisfaction with their tech stacks. Generally, consumers are pleased with the customer care they are receiving from Retail/eCommerce brands, but they still seek faster, simpler transactions, more consistency across channels, and easier access to live support.

A few key insights from this latest research:

• Regardless of loyalty status, most consumers feel the key to an exceptional customer experience is to “Provide Consistent, High-Quality Experiences at Every Touchpoint”
• On a five-point scale, 42% of consumers said Retail/eCommerce brands are providing “Better” or “Much Better” customer care compared to that of three years ago (pre-pandemic)
• “Managing Cost, Including Rising Operational Costs” is expected to be the biggest CX challenge among most (56%) Retail/eCommerce brands in the coming 12 months
• Sixty-nine percent of Retail/eCommerce brands have seen improvement in their critical program KPIs over the past 12 months

“This report opens an exciting and new avenue of research for our community,” said Susan McDaniel, Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Execs In The Know. “Loyalty is an important topic, not just for our friends in the Retail/eCommerce vertical, but across industries. Many of the findings contained in this report translate well on a cross-industry basis, providing a clear picture of what loyalty means to consumers, and how brands can cultivate more loyal customers.”

“This unique research by Execs In The Know and Conduent provides CX leaders with the types of findings and insights to help them shape strategies and focus CX investments,” said Ryan Collins, Vice President and General Manager Customer Experience Management Solutions at Conduent. “A key takeaway from the research is that the fundamentals of customer service must be solid. Emerging technologies and communications channels are only beneficial and further enhance customer experience if they are implemented strategically and complement the work of agents. They must remain focused on people, processes, training and creating exceptional experiences for customers and then integrate new solutions to meet changing expectations.”

About Execs In The Know

Execs In The Know brings together customer experience (CX) leaders from across industries in an effort to advance the conversation and set a new agenda for delivering amazing experiences for consumers. As a global community of the brightest minds in CX, Execs In The Know provides opportunities to learn, share, network, and engage to innovate. Operating under the motto, “Leaders Learning From Leaders,” Execs In The Know facilitates many opportunities for community engagement, such as its bi-annual national Customer Response Summit and private, online community, Know It All “KIA.” There are also exclusive, laser-focused engagements like industry briefings and executive roundtables. Execs In The Know also guides and informs the industry with a rich tapestry of CX-related content that includes CX Insight magazine, industry research, webinars, blogs, and much more.

To learn more about Execs In The Know, visit www.execsintheknow.com.

About Conduent

Conduent delivers digital business solutions and services spanning the commercial, government and transportation spectrum — creating exceptional outcomes for its clients and the millions of people who count on them. The company leverages cloud computing, artificial intelligence, machine learning, automation and advanced analytics to deliver mission-critical solutions. Through a dedicated global team of approximately 60,000 associates, process expertise and advanced technologies, Conduent solutions and services digitally transform its clients’ operations to enhance customer experiences, improve performance, increase efficiencies and reduce costs. Conduent adds momentum to its clients’ missions in many ways, including delivering 43% of nutrition assistance payments in the U.S., enabling 1.3 billion customer service interactions annually, empowering millions of employees through HR services every year and processing nearly 12 million tolling transactions every day.

To learn more about Conduent, visit www.conduent.com.

The post Execs In The Know & Conduent Release New Retail-Focused CX Research Report appeared first on Execs In The Know.

To download the full CXMB Industry Insights: Retail report, click here.

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CXMB Industry Insights: Retail is aimed at providing insights into consumer opinions and behaviors, specific to the retail industry. Topics in this report include comparisons between online and in-store shoppers in the areas of pre-purchase research, shopping, customer care, drivers of mobile device shoppers, and the multi-channel experience.

Findings reveal differences and similarities between online and in-store shoppers when it comes to the customer journey. Among the most popular methods of issue resolution — in-person, phone and email — online shoppers prefer to resolve issues via email, while in-store shoppers strongly prefer to resolve issues in person. However, both groups had low preference for self-serve solutions, including self-help and automated tools.

Additionally, responses between online and in-store shoppers are strikingly consistent when respondents describe what is most important to them when interacting with a retailer to resolve an issue. Customers want agents who provide clear communication, listen patiently, understand the issue, express empathy, and are empowered to break away from the script to get issues resolved.

Survey Insights:

– In the event of a customer care issue, 68 percent of online shoppers and 75 percent of in-store shoppers would rather interact with a human versus a self-help system to resolve the issue.

– Among consumers who frequently shop from their mobile device, 44 percent would choose email as their preferred communication method with a brand compared to just six percent who would choose a phone call as their preferred communication method.

– Thirty-five percent of survey respondents think retail companies do a better job of providing a positive customer experience compared to other industries.

“We know retail brands have a huge opportunity to differentiate themselves by providing an exceptional customer experience. We conducted this survey to show real customer needs and to provide actionable data that all retailers should consider to improve customer satisfaction and increase loyalty,” said Kathleen Jezierski, chief operating officer, COPC Inc.

CXMB Industry Insights: Retail is the second in a series of industry-specific reports and is an extension of the Customer Experience Management Benchmark (CXMB) Series, also published in partnership between COPC Inc. and Execs In The Know. The first industry-specific report examined travel and hospitality and is available here.

“CXMB Industry Insights allows us to dive deeper into various industries and provide relevant insights that our community members in each vertical are seeking,” said Chad McDaniel, president, Execs In The Know. “Our retail survey offers information about consumer perceptions, expectations and behaviors so that our community can have a better understanding of the customer landscape in online and brick-and-mortar retail.”

For more information about the findings of this retail research or the CXMB Industry Insights survey series, contact Judi Brenstein, vice president, COPC Inc., at jbrenstein@copc.com.

 About COPC Inc.

COPC Inc. is an innovative global leader that empowers organizations to manage complex customer journeys.  The company created the COPC Customer Experience (CX) Standard and provides consulting, training and certification for operations that support the customer experience. Founded in 1996, COPC Inc. began by helping call centers improve their performance.  Today, the company works with leading brands worldwide to optimize key customer touchpoints and deliver a seamless experience across channels. COPC Inc. is privately held with headquarters in Winter Park, FL, U.S. and has operations in Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, Latin America, India and Japan.

COPC will also be giving an educational pre-conference seminar at CRS Denver in September, 2019.

To learn more about COPC Inc., visit www.copc.com.

About Execs In The Know

For over 15 years, Execs In The Know has built a reputation of excellence in the Customer Management Industry and a worldwide community of over 50,000 Customer Experience Professionals. Execs In The Know connects people to engaging industry content, thought leadership, current trends, peer-to-peer collaboration, networking and industry employment opportunities. Examples of this can be seen at their Customer Response Summit events, roadshows, webinars, workshops, Blog Talk Radio segments, Industry Benchmarking Series, blogs, thought papers and social communities. For more information, visit www.execsintheknow.com.

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The following is a guest blog written by Sara Wright, Marketing Director, at Dialog Direct.

Last week we shared the first post in this two part series “Uber-Channel Shifts: Lessons Learned From the 2015 Holiday Season.” Get all caught up on the first two “lessons learned” by reading the first post in the series!

At Customer Response Summit Phoenix a one-of-a-kind panel involving customer experience executives from three of retail’s biggest competitors came together on the stage.  The panelists shared their firsthand experience in retail’s hottest trends, innovations, wins and lessons learned.

Here is what we learned:

3. Social Media Brings Delight and In-Store Insight

The speed of growth and change in social media, and the way that it is transforming the expectations of the customer, will continue to revolutionize the way retailers market, sell and communicate with their customers.

The most common way that retailers are engaging with their customers on social media is through two-way social media communication. The debate, however, is about who to prioritize the communication strategy around – influencers, detractors, or do you proactively reach out to all to delight? It depends on who you talk to, but the majority seem to prioritize reactive communication to the detractors or those that have an issue to resolve. One large online retailer, however, spoke up at the Customer Response Summit and stated that they believe in using social media to surprise and delight, not just react. Use vines, photos and video, not just text, to engage with a customer to create an over-the-top experience. Many retailers rely on an outsourced customer engagement partner to help monitor, engage and delight customers, especially during peak times or after hours. It has also been found that social media predictive technology can increase operational efficiencies by nearly 41% by prioritizing the most impactful conversations.

<Read: Going Above and Beyond to WOW on Social Media: Real-Life Case Study>

Other ways that top retailers are using social media is to provide store-level customer experience insights. For example, a brand can capture social media interactions made about particular stores or specific store employees and brings them back to the store. For example, if you love the customer service that Kathy Smith from the Boise, Idaho, store provided you and you tweet about it, there is a good chance that Kathy will see that recognition. If you are upset about the fitting room mess at the Shelby Township, Michigan, store, again, a good chance that the store manager from that location will be aware and take action.

The third way that retailers are using social media is to increase sales through posting about specific products with a link to purchase. It was stated that this strategy is fizzling for them as social sales only contribute to about 1%, significantly down from 2014.

4. Customers Don’t Care About Your Silos

In spite of being recognized as one of the biggest barriers in creating a seamless customer experience, departmental silos haven’t gone away. Brands are working toward breaking the silos by first identifying the silos and understanding how customers interact across them.

In the retail space, there are a growing number of channels and departments that must assume a holistic online-offline perspective; everything from physical store interactions, to marketing and customer service interactives, to departmental credit card initiatives. It was mentioned that to help create a seamless multichannel experience, retailers are integrating a CRM system that houses all departmental and channel interactions. This will give the right team member’s access to the most up-to-date customer data, eliminating some of your customers’ most frustrating experiences such as high-effort engagements and non-personal interactions.

If your brand has not yet completed the journey by tying in a robust CRM system, you may find it beneficial to rely on a customer engagement professional to help. Many outsourced customer engagement professionals have the integrated tools and processes that help bridge the CX and systems gap, helping to create a more seamless experience.

5. Customers Are Still Experiencing RAGE

In conversation over the 2015 “Customer Rage” study, the top conversation was around annoyance with customer service catchphrases. While it was agreed upon by all that the phrase “That is our policy” should never be stated in the call center or on the retail floor, the No. 1 most annoying phrase, as cited by the study, was still being used very frequently. That phrase? “Your call is important to us, please continue to hold.” 50% of all surveyed believe that is the most annoying phrase, while 17% actually want it banned completely.

One of the most controversial topics discussed regarding the Rage Study results? Whether or not to apologize to an unhappy customer. The Rage Study says that 75% of unhappy customers want an apology while only 28% received it. What do the retailers and the attendees of the Customer Response Summit think? Do you apologize or do you not? Well, that is still the debate. Some believe you do own up to the issue and apologize while others believe it comes off very insincere to say that you are sorry. Whether you apologize or not, it is a fact that complainant satisfaction will nearly double (from 37% to 73%) when a non-monetary remedy is applied with a monetary remedy.

It is important to consider that to avoid Customer Rage, it is essential to always be available, personal and effortless. This can be more difficult during high peak-volume times such as holidays and the launch of new programs when your call center is already experiencing a high volume of calls. Consider looking into an outsourced call center partner to help ease the pain of high call volume or to assist with after-hour needs.

Want even more content?

– Join a free webinar on “How to Craft a Strong Customer Service Recovery Program on May 19th. Register Here (expired).

– Interested in what was learned at the Customer Response Summit in Seattle during September 2015? Check out www.dialog-direct.com/media-room/article/crsummit-2015-6-things-we-learned/

The post Uber-Channel Shifts: Lessons Learned From the 2015 Holiday Season – Part 2 appeared first on Execs In The Know.

The following is a guest blog written by Sara Wright, Marketing Director, at Dialog Direct.

The winter Customer Response Summit may have concluded, but the excitement generated by the event still lives on. Of course, when Execs In The Know is involved, we can all expect great connections, thought-provoking panels and lots of laughs, but it’s what we didn’t expect in Phoenix that is generating the most chatter – the convergence of three of retail’s biggest competitors together on one stage. This one-of-a-kind panel involving customer experience executives was full of energy, content and friendly, competitive jabs, as the panelists shared their firsthand experience in retail’s hottest trends, innovations, wins and lessons learned.

Here is what we learned:

1. “Click-and-Collect” Shopping Has Many Challenges and Opportunities

Appealing to the omnichannel shopper who bounces back and forth between online and in-store shopping, “click-and-collect” orders are enjoyed by 42% of online shoppers, according to Forrester Research. While the concept of buying online and picking up in-store seems easy, both retailers and consumers are experiencing both the joys and the pains that go along with this new initiative – especially during the 2015 holiday season.

The introduction of buying online and picking up in-store is very complex operationally, with one major retailer expressing challenges specifically around accuracy of available stock, customers buying the reserved item in-store before it is picked, and order queuing. While challenges are observed and expected, this new fulfillment model brings many exciting revenue growth opportunities. For one, this model brings online shoppers into the stores which, according to a survey by Deloitte, omnichannel shoppers were poised to spend about 75 percent more than store-only shoppers this season on gifts, entertaining and other purchases.

Perhaps the greatest benefit to retailers? The ability to tackle their warehouse out-of-stock issues by using their stores as another fulfillment source. During the 2015 holiday season it was noted that 30% of the items that were purchased online were out of stock at the warehouses, but because of the new ship from store model, brands are now able to save all of those sales. Dubbed “smarter inventory,” retailers can now pull from stores that have higher inventory of a specific product, reducing static shelf life to maximize profits, as well as pull from the store closest to the shipping address to lower shipping costs and decrease ship time. This format greatly benefits those last-minute holiday shoppers, now giving them additional online shopping days while still receiving their packages on time.

As a retailer, be prepared for the pitfalls of not meeting customer expectations when it comes to click-and-collect, or with any new innovation, by adequately staffing your call center, or outsourcing a piece of your contact center for an increase in call volume. A customer service recovery strategy, following data-backed guidelines to deter customer rage, may also be helpful.

2. Geo-Tracking Enhances the In-Store Experience

While dot-com sites have long had the benefit of placing cookies and other tracking tools on computers to track online consumer behavior, 2015 brought a similar benefit to the brick-and-mortar operations. Thanks to cell phones, Wi-Fi and retailer apps, retailers can now personalize the in-store experience by tracking the customer location, as well as real-time store behaviors. One of the retail panelists at the Summit spoke about their use of this new technology, to enhance the customer experience with their booming grocery pickup service. The store can actually receive a ping from your cell phone, alerting them that you are in the parking lot. This then let’s the employee know that it is time to meet you outside to load up the groceries!

Another large retailer represented at the Summit uses mobile tracking to track customer behavior. If a purchase is not made in their store, they can send you a non-purchase survey and then track the competitor stores that you go to instead. The mobile app also tells the brand that you are in the store, so if you are ordering an item via your phone while in-store, the shipping charges will be automatically waived.

Geo-tracking can bring many opportunities for retailers to personalize the customer experience, giving the opportunity to deliver just-in-time ads and coupons, as well as gain a better understanding of how customers move throughout the store, providing helpful insight for store design and product display. Another option for a personalized customer experience is to work with a campaign management partner to strategically use your data, to deliver personalized and relevant digital and traditional communications that drive measurable results in real-time.

Join us next week for part two in this series, to discover three more lessons learned from the 2015 Holiday Season!

Want even more content?

– Join a free webinar on “How to Craft a Strong Customer Service Recovery Program on May 19th. Register Here.

– Interested in what was learned at the Customer Response Summit in Seattle during September 2015? Check out www.dialog-direct.com/media-room/article/crsummit-2015-6-things-we-learned/

The post Uber-Channel Shifts: Lessons Learned from the 2015 Holiday Season – Part 1 appeared first on Execs In The Know.