How to Deliver Beautiful Customer Experiences: Advice From the CEO of Caci Clinic.
If you’re in New Zealand and you’re looking for a bit of pampering or a special beauty treatment, it’s likely you’ll head straight to Caci Clinic. Known for its world class service and beautiful customer experiences, the Caci Clinic is one of New Zealand’s most successful and widely recognised skincare and beauty brands.
The leader of our Frontline Magic community, Susanne Axelsson, sat down with AskNicely customer and acting CEO of Caci Clinic, Francesca Caliari-Pearce. With decades of industry experience, Fran delivers her insights on the importance of fulfilling exceptional frontline service.
Across all industries, exceptional frontline service (the ‘magic’ in Frontline Magic) is critical, but in the beauty business, that service is arguably more personal and emotional than anywhere else.
With a frontline team of over 600, and thousands of customers in line for their luxurious treatments, Susanne asked Fran - what’s the secret? Fran puts Caci Clincic’s success down to their focus on beautiful customer experiences, and shares three of her top recommendations for how to achieve that standard.
1. Connect with customers on an emotional level.
Caci Clinics are well-known for its deep sense of nurturing and care for customers right from their first interaction.
“Moving to AskNicely has been key because it's given us visibility in real time, using real life customer feedback and data has been absolutely key.” Fran Caliari-Pearce, Acting CEO.
Fran and the Caci Clinic frontline team go above and beyond to build strong relationships with potential customers before they make any purchase decision. To step beyond a transactional relationship and to make deeper connections with customers, Fran recommends to:
- Put yourself in the customers’ shoes. Never underestimate the power of relationships and building empathy for your customer. As cliche as it sounds, Fran truly believes it’s about listening to your customer, being humble, and having the ability to empathise.
- Understand potential customers’ emotional drivers. Why are they here, and how can you make them feel as comfortable and supported as possible?
“From the very beginning of the customer journey our customers must quite often overcome emotional and social barriers to even enter the building”. Says Fran Caliari-Pearce, Acting CEO.
For Fran and the Caci team, it’s about connecting with their customers as human beings. Having conversations that matter, and giving them the support and empowerment they need. This may not be standard practice in many frontline businesses - as a customer you probably wouldn’t want this level of attention while checking out at the supermarket, but to deliver winning experiences in the beauty industry, this level of connection is critical.
2. Invest in the frontline
The customers and unique situations that Caci deals with everyday can be extremely complex, so looking after the people who look after these customers is more important than ever, explains Fran.
“You can have the best marketing and strategy in the world, but at the end of the day, it's the team that connects with customers every day.”
As customer experiences are determined by the people that deliver them, Fran recommends investing in your frontline team from the get-go. Recruiting people who find joy in what they do, and can pass that sparkle onto customers. Fran stresses that you can coach and train on practical skills, but you can’t teach passion.
The Caci Clinic heavily invests in the onboarding process of their team providing workshops, e-learning modules and branded video content regardless of the potential employees experience.
“A lot of people who join us are really experienced in the industry and provide a great customer experience. But regardless, everyone receives training. It’s great that we’re building on a really strong foundation, but training is how we create consistency.”
3. Focus on feedback
To the Caci Clinic, customer feedback is key. They use AskNicely to collect and analyze customer feedback data and they share this information right across the business, from the frontline to the boardroom.
They use this information to ensure they have measures in place to constantly improve. They never get complacent on customer experience, and as the wants and needs of their customers evolve over time, so do the experiences that their frontline delivers.
“All support offices, franchisee partners and their teams have constant and immediate access to customer feedback data. This has helped us identify where to invest training and coaching resources, including focusing on clinics or staff who need specific support along with scheduled and ongoing coaching sessions.”
Tune in to full episode on Frontline Magic Podcast:
