Discover how Doctor Squatch balances its brand voice across different platforms and the challenges of implementing AI tools while maintaining top-notch customer experience. Roma discusses the importance of embedding the brand's voice within the support team and ensuring consistent, natural communication with customers.
0:00
(upbeat music)
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- My name is Jess Servion,
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and I'm super excited to bring you my new podcast,
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The Juice With Jess.
0:07
This podcast is gonna be about everything
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in your customer's journey.
0:10
We're talking acquisition, awareness,
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making that purchase, retaining that customer,
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bringing them back around, and everything in between.
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This is gonna be all about delivering dope brand experiences
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and talking to some really amazing people
0:26
who are in the customer experience space,
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marketing space, and everything in between.
0:30
(upbeat music)
0:32
Welcome back to another episode of The Juice With Me Jess.
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This week, I am still in Vegas at Shop Talk,
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and if you are tuning in via the YouTube channel,
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you will see an IV bag behind me in true Vegas style.
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We are doing IV recovery from a suite at the four seasons.
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Don't ask, I'm perfectly fine and not hungover.
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Anyway, this week I also am super excited
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because I have Roma Yumul,
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who is the CX manager for Dr. Squatch.
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And if you're not a familiar with Dr. Squatch,
1:15
Dr. Squatch is a personal skincare brand
1:19
that specializes in soaps,
1:20
and amongst other hygiene products.
1:23
Roma's gonna tell you more about it.
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Roma, why don't you introduce yourself?
1:27
- Hey guys, I'm Roma.
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I'm the CX manager at Dr. Squatch,
1:31
which is a men's concentrated,
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naturally derived personal care brand.
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So we do specialize in bar soaps.
1:41
We're going into skincare lotions.
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You name it, honestly.
1:44
Champoos conditioners, we're really trying to up
1:47
the men's personal care game.
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As our founder Jack does say on a lot of videos,
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I feel like I've had that memorized for a while,
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but it's real and that's what we're doing
1:57
and I'm really excited to be here.
1:59
- Well, I'm super excited to have you on
2:01
because well, we've actually had a member
2:04
of the Dr. Squatch theme on already.
2:06
We talked more about copy,
2:07
but this time we get to talk about CX.
2:10
And I'm so interested to hear about like,
2:14
what the brand voice is like, the audience,
2:16
your process, how you're looking at analytics,
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all of these things.
2:21
And then super fun facts, we'll also dive into Roma,
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worked at anthropology as the omni-channel,
2:28
on the omni-channel ops team,
2:30
which I think is really interesting to even talk about
2:32
from like an omni-channel perspective.
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But let's not go there just yet.
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Let's go here.
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Okay, so tell me about Dr. Squatch.
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Like I see you guys honestly everywhere,
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not just on like D2C,
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but I see you at like random Ace hardware.
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Yes, even.
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It's haunting.
2:52
It's a haunting thing to be a part of.
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I mean, haunting in a good way.
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Like I just feel like our retail team,
2:59
our wholesale team is like always double time.
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Well, there's just like a huge group of them in our office.
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Shout out team, what up.
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But they're just, they're really on top of it.
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They, we have like very good partnerships with these folks,
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like especially at Ace, like,
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and our support team actually does help out with them
3:15
for their business needs.
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And honestly, like I think that
3:20
while personal care is a saturated market,
3:23
it's just so niche that Dr. Squatch,
3:24
like the whole like, the whole purpose,
3:27
in the very beginning,
3:28
if we're gonna go back way back.
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In the very beginning, Jack, our founder,
3:33
he, his selling point was that he would sell
3:36
these naturally derived soaps at a farmer's market.
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And like those farmer's market, you'll go there.
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They have like lavender rose,
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like all of like the really girly pop sense, totally.
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And I love that our customers love coconut castaway,
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but like realistically, do we have like a lumberjack
3:52
who wants to smell like rose was like his thought process?
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He's like, what if we could do this,
3:57
but make very like manly sense for it?
4:00
And that's just kind of where we landed.
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And it resonates with a lot of our customers.
4:03
They want to treat themselves with like a high quality
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product that you're putting on yourself at the end of the day
4:09
after doing all of this like hard labor.
4:11
So like for Ace, it's like, it's a good, it's a good sell,
4:14
you know?
4:15
Like, yeah, if you're like working under someone's car,
4:18
like you're going to want to like treat yourself.
4:20
Like and I don't think that like, you know,
4:23
a guy could really like walk into like lush comfortably,
4:26
even though they should.
4:27
I think that everyone should be able to do that.
4:29
But it was an audience that needed some TLC.
4:33
Yeah.
4:34
I think that's really interesting
4:34
in like just knowing your product market fit, right?
4:39
So, you know, Jack just knew this product market fit,
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but I think you're absolutely right.
4:42
But like think about it like soap brands,
4:44
like when we were growing up our dads using like Irish springs
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and like all these like strong smelling scents,
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but like not really, but then like most women would use like
4:56
the like really pretty sense from like maybe Landcoal.
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And where's the variety?
5:00
Yeah.
5:01
Where's the fun?
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And we want to bring that fun back.
5:03
Yeah.
5:04
Yeah.
5:05
Well, I think you guys definitely do bring a lot of fun back.
5:06
Like let's be real.
5:07
Like Dr. Squatch is the, well, my assumption
5:11
just from like outside looking in is what is it?
5:16
A Sasquatch, right?
5:17
Yes.
5:17
Like that is your, that is the low, what's on the logo is
5:21
a Sasquatch.
5:22
And I think that's like, so Dr. Squatch is right.
5:26
But like what I get from that is very like lumberjack
5:28
and very like manly, right?
5:31
Like, but in a fun way.
5:32
It is so fun.
5:33
And also one of my biggest questions is like,
5:35
is our set and I've never asked anyone in our company
5:38
this question.
5:39
So like you're hearing it here first.
5:41
It's like, is our Sasquatch a doctor?
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Like he does like surgery or is he, does he have a PhD?
5:47
Or is he who knows?
5:48
Exactly.
5:49
Formulating.
5:50
I think that the aloe version.
5:52
Yeah.
5:53
(laughing)
5:54
You know?
5:55
That's him.
5:56
Yeah.
5:57
All of them.
5:57
Yeah.
5:58
I think that's awesome.
5:59
And I think it's awesome to really know your brand voice.
6:03
I'm really interested.
6:04
Like so I know we like dive really into this,
6:06
but you have so many retail locations.
6:09
So that like in turn turns you into an omni-channel, right?
6:13
Brand, right?
6:14
How does the support team support all of like the wholesale
6:18
like outs, all of the other retailers?
6:20
Like what type of inquiries are you getting from that?
6:23
I mean, at the end of the day in CX,
6:26
it's always gonna be like Whizmo.
6:28
Even if you're dealing with another business,
6:30
they need to know where their inventory is.
6:32
And for us, it's really just a matter of not even like
6:36
what the retailer is or like who we're dealing with.
6:39
Just understanding where to find like all of your sources
6:42
of information, whether or not it's in the same place,
6:45
it probably won't be like for like wholesale inquiries.
6:48
We'll have to go on different platforms to see it.
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But at the end of the day, when they're like all,
6:53
when all of these different people are inquiring about stuff,
6:55
the support team really just has to be equipped
6:57
with that information.
6:59
And I think you can really tell the difference in CX
7:02
with the support team that just doesn't know
7:04
and you keep getting passed on to different people.
7:06
Yeah.
7:07
And where it's really centralized, where it's like,
7:09
we have very solid communication with our partners
7:12
and like we can give them that information relatively quickly.
7:15
Yeah.
7:16
What channels are you guys in?
7:17
Like email, do you do SMS?
7:20
Yes.
7:21
So we do email chat, SMS, social media comments and DMs.
7:25
What else do we do?
7:29
We do like Amazon inquiries.
7:30
Like basically like if you're dealing with a marketplace
7:33
like retailer, like we'll have their inquiries coming in
7:35
from like Amazon, Walmart, those places.
7:39
Wow.
7:40
You're like literally everywhere.
7:41
It's like it's everything everywhere,
7:43
once but Dr. Squatch.
7:45
How did the company come up with that though?
7:47
Like, so I know like if I'm looking at like a brand
7:50
that's scaling, right?
7:51
Yeah.
7:52
I see a brand that's out there and they're like scaling,
7:53
they're like brand new, they're thinking like,
7:55
okay, well, I want to support my customer
7:57
and email and social channels.
7:59
But like, do they add channels onto it?
8:04
Or was it like a free for all?
8:06
Like...
8:07
No, we added channels onto it.
8:08
And it was like a gradual kind of like working up to it
8:12
where I know that our teams are like very like not segmented
8:16
but very like specific.
8:17
People are doing very specific things at Dr. Squatch.
8:19
I stay in as much of a lane as I can
8:22
and see I see work with everyone.
8:23
But I do know that when we were expanding
8:26
'cause I did join in that sweet spot where like we're just
8:30
we're just growing like it's like post,
8:33
super, like first, super bowl ad,
8:35
like post like first Star Wars launch
8:37
and we're like super growing and I'm like,
8:38
hey, I'm in the thick of it.
8:40
What's up?
8:40
(laughs)
8:41
But when we thought about adding on new channels,
8:45
it was more so like a, okay, well,
8:47
we reached this milestone.
8:49
Where do we want to grow?
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And the marketing team wants to grow on socials.
8:52
So our support team's obviously going to want to
8:55
like accommodate for that.
8:56
So then, you know, like meta marketplace came along
8:59
and like we wanted to support that.
9:00
But like really our attraction comes from like our community
9:03
engagement as well.
9:04
Like we're a very well engaged brand.
9:06
I think like even with our partners, like our support team,
9:10
like with our platforms, we're so engaged
9:12
with our like platforms that we use.
9:15
We help those companies that we advise them on things.
9:18
But also what I love about Dr. Squatch is that we're so
9:21
engaged with our customers.
9:23
Yeah.
9:23
Like, and if they're like, we want you here
9:26
and we get enough of those inquiries, I'll be like,
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hey guys, I'm gonna raise a flag.
9:30
They want us on Amazon.
9:31
And like whether or not, 'cause that wasn't me.
9:34
But whether or not that comes from like somebody internally,
9:38
they'll detect what our customers want
9:40
and they'll move towards it.
9:41
And we won't want to like do a free for all grab
9:44
'cause like we'll want to like work on it,
9:46
make the base of it, make sure that's good
9:49
and then move on.
9:50
Right, very methodical.
9:51
Yeah.
9:52
And like are you utilizing like analytics and like data?
9:54
I mean, you said that like you, if you see enough people
9:57
on a channel, like you'll be like,
9:59
hey, we need to like add this to our channel.
10:01
Yes.
10:02
I would, so I guess my question to you is like,
10:07
what types of analytics are you looking at?
10:09
Are you looking at like ticket volume?
10:10
Are you looking at like negative or positive feedback
10:13
that you're getting on these places?
10:14
Like what's your decision making process of like,
10:17
no, we need to be in this channel?
10:19
I think that when it comes to any decision,
10:23
we look at ticket volume first.
10:26
And then we'll want to look at whether or not
10:28
it's negative or positive sentiment on that ticket
10:32
and really analyze what our customers are saying,
10:34
what their CSAT scores are for those tickets
10:36
to want to drive change in that direction.
10:39
I think that for a second,
10:42
there was a rocky ground with fulfillment stuff like
10:47
and CTD for a doctor's watch.
10:50
So then there was like a lot of complaints at the time
10:53
where they're like, I could just like get something
10:56
on Amazon like in like two seconds.
10:58
And then we were like, well, that could happen.
11:02
But when it comes to ticket volume,
11:05
I think that we have a really good ticket tagging system
11:08
where we can identify what drove a customer
11:11
to even come to support in the first place.
11:14
So we have like a system that's drivers and solutions
11:17
and they're categorized mostly by teams at doctor's watch.
11:23
So like we'll have like Wismo is its own category
11:26
'cause like we always want to know like
11:27
whether our customers are still out here
11:29
like not being able to find their orders at all.
11:32
And then we'll have things like product launch.
11:34
Like so that'll be like if a product just got launched by us,
11:38
we'll want to know whether or not they're making,
11:41
you know, just like random questions,
11:43
random inquiries about the product,
11:45
like whether or not they're giving positive
11:46
or negative feedback about a partnership.
11:48
But like those drivers really do help us
11:52
get to the right direction with our customers
11:54
because like we'll be able to see like, you know,
11:57
the solutions they do matter because like we'll want to analyze
12:00
what the support team did and whether that led to a better score,
12:04
especially if they started off the interaction kind of fiery.
12:07
But I think that realistically having that feedback loop
12:10
of like having a very clear or identifying a very clear intention
12:14
from the customer is super important
12:16
in driving business decisions across doctor's watch.
12:19
And I think for a while, we were all just like,
12:22
what's this like new tagging system going to do?
12:24
But now it's something that, you know,
12:27
our internal stakeholders like really look at.
12:29
And I really appreciate it when they do
12:30
because I love to nerd out about it.
12:32
- I know, I know.
12:33
I think it's really interesting like as CX people,
12:35
like a lot of times you go in,
12:39
you're supporting the tickets and you're doing the things.
12:40
But if you don't have data behind it
12:42
or if you don't create that feedback loop behind it,
12:45
you're not going to be able to get your point across.
12:48
- Yes.
12:49
- And I think like a hot tip, right?
12:51
I'm a brand new CX team.
12:53
I'm just coming out into the market.
12:55
Make sure you're tagging your conversations,
12:57
even if it's the lowest amount of tags.
13:00
But you need to know what is happening in your channels
13:03
to be able to make decisions for the business
13:06
based off of your customer's feedback.
13:07
- Exactly.
13:08
And I think that some channels have more weight
13:10
than others, like of course, like email and chat.
13:13
Those people are on the website.
13:14
They want to buy something right then and there.
13:16
And of course, like, you know, like emails
13:18
from other platforms like Amazon,
13:19
they're there and they want to buy something
13:21
like we will put more weight onto that
13:24
than like a bunch of people spamming Facebook hate comments.
13:27
That's still important for us to understand
13:29
like why they're spamming hate comments.
13:31
But like with someone who's like,
13:33
I have this thing in my car,
13:34
I'm having so much difficulty.
13:35
I'm about to dip, bro.
13:37
Like that makes a difference.
13:39
It makes a difference for everybody in the brand.
13:41
And I think that like honestly, like I love a good vibe
13:45
but like a vibe with a number really hits different.
13:47
- Oh, yeah.
13:48
- Oh, that's a good one.
13:49
- It does.
13:49
I do.
13:50
- And I am like, the queen of just vibing out.
13:53
I'll just be like, yeah, that sounds good.
13:55
But like honestly, when someone's like,
13:56
I got this percentage right here.
13:59
And honestly, like 70% of our customers
14:02
absolutely hate the vibe right now.
14:04
They're gonna be like, ooh, yeah, that's a lot.
14:06
And we'll be like 70% by the way is like 50,000 inquiries.
14:10
And they're like, oh my God.
14:12
Yeah, that's like serious.
14:13
Like when you have that number, it really just sets in.
14:17
- Yeah.
14:17
- Yeah.
14:18
- Vibe on numbers.
14:19
- Exactly.
14:20
And I was never a woman in STEM.
14:22
I was a comm major.
14:23
So it's just like, I do love nerding out on the numbers.
14:26
- Yeah.
14:27
- And it's just, oh man, there's something about it
14:29
that just is like, you get that, like you get your report
14:32
and you see all those percentages and graphs.
14:36
- It's like a mic drop.
14:37
- I know.
14:38
- 'Cause it's never, well, it's gonna be controversial.
14:42
It's never really a CX problem.
14:44
You know, we're here to help.
14:46
We're here to help.
14:47
So when like we're bringing something to another team
14:50
and like brother, you gotta hop on it.
14:53
And they're like, you know, like maybe not.
14:55
And it comes back in the future.
14:57
We're like, the receipts are here.
14:59
- Yeah.
15:00
- And we're not the ones who are driving this.
15:02
I'm sorry bestie, but you gotta fix it.
15:04
Our customers are really just like, I'm about to dip
15:07
out of this party real soon.
15:09
And we're like, no, it goes to like 2 AM.
15:11
- Oh my God.
15:12
- It's like 11.
15:13
What are you doing?
15:14
- Yeah, absolutely.
15:16
- Man, okay, I have so many more questions.
15:19
Like, and I wanna know though, because like,
15:22
doctors watching, just even like talking to you,
15:25
it is a vibe.
15:26
Like it is a vibe, right?
15:27
Like I can tell the brand has a vibe.
15:30
And so, and I can tell you as like a CX manager,
15:33
like have the vibe.
15:35
So I'm curious as the manager and like the leader of a team,
15:39
how do you set the team up for success
15:43
in terms of like the brand voice?
15:45
Like how are you training the team on the brand voice?
15:48
And then also, this is a loaded question,
15:51
but like do you have different CX personas?
15:54
- Oh, absolutely.
15:55
We can get to that at the end,
15:56
'cause I love that question.
15:57
But in terms of like setting a team up for success,
16:01
we work with an external partner for customer support.
16:03
And I do have a CX associate who reports to me
16:07
on Dr. Squat, shout out Chelsea, love ya.
16:09
But to set them up with the brand voice
16:12
and like make, ensure that they're really leading
16:15
every single interaction with a good vibe
16:18
is so, so important, 'cause when I stepped in,
16:20
and like in general, like the service
16:22
and like the outside contracted service industry
16:26
is so formal.
16:28
Like so like hello, sir, how are you?
16:30
Like how's it going?
16:31
And I understand because that's how, you know,
16:33
bigger brands want it.
16:34
Like you know, your cell phone service is gonna want someone
16:36
to answer an email like hello, sir or madam.
16:40
I'm so sorry this happened to you.
16:41
And we did have our team at some point.
16:44
They were still fun with it,
16:45
but they were still very formal when I stepped in.
16:47
And I wanted them to really step into the brand voice
16:50
because our customers will straight up just reach out
16:52
and be like, I love your ads.
16:53
I bought, you know, back when Cedar Citrus was a thing.
16:56
I bought a bar of Cedar Citrus, you know,
16:58
if we're talking current,
16:59
I bought a bar of coconut cast away and I love it.
17:01
And like if you are stuck in that like,
17:04
thank you very much, I hope you have a good day.
17:06
It's like not very fun.
17:07
- Boring.
17:08
- Right? - Yeah.
17:09
- So like the way that I train them is really just like,
17:11
one, I'm just cookie as is.
17:13
- Like I'm just gonna be honest.
17:14
- This is so cute. - I'm built like this.
17:16
But I think at the same time,
17:18
it was like not shying away from my own personality.
17:21
And I think that if we're gonna draw
17:23
from like my experience at Anthro,
17:26
I was a customer like front facing and back office person
17:30
leading a big team already.
17:31
So stepping into this role was already very like
17:34
sort of natural for me.
17:35
Cause I'm training front facing people again,
17:37
but in a different way.
17:39
And I think that it's really important to have the hype,
17:43
to have the forgiveness, but also to also understand
17:47
like intrinsically what your brand is going for.
17:49
So the tone shift between Anthro to Dr. Squatch
17:53
could seem like a lot for some people.
17:55
It's like, I mean, I probably look like
17:58
the prime Anthro customer, very Dain Tickerly,
18:01
who looks like she's about to like pick corn in a field
18:04
and make an apple pie.
18:05
- If you're viewing in checkout from us, Alfred.
18:09
- It is very Anthro, not a pie, but you know.
18:12
- It's like very cook-head, you know.
18:14
- You are, girl.
18:15
- Exactly.
18:15
And we have like a very like different set of customers.
18:18
At Anthro, it's a women's based brand.
18:22
But like I think that as long as you understand
18:26
who your customer is and give yourself kind of like
18:30
the leeway to really research like who you're working with.
18:34
- Yes.
18:34
- It comes naturally like training your team to do
18:38
that comes naturally.
18:39
- Yes.
18:39
- So, Anthro, it's like, yes, I do have a different customer
18:41
persona and I think my customer persona will always be
18:46
my old Anthro persona where I pick up the phone and I go,
18:49
hi, this is Anthro.
18:51
This is where I'm at, so nice to talk to you.
18:53
Can I help you out with anything specific today?
18:55
My voice immediately changes.
18:56
And at Dr. Squatch, I can't answer a phone like,
18:59
hey, guy, what's up?
19:00
Like, that's not me.
19:01
I'm gonna answer the phone with the same thing,
19:03
but I'm gonna understand the exact same like things
19:05
that I'll need to say to speak to our customer
19:08
where I'll be like, I hope you have a Squatch Tastic Day.
19:10
You know, you're gonna have to like roll with the punches.
19:13
- Yeah.
19:14
- And I think to get your brand voice to that point,
19:17
we did work with Scott, who does copy for us.
19:20
Love you, Scott.
19:21
- Scott, just copy.
19:22
(laughing)
19:23
- But we did work with Scott and our former community manager,
19:27
Johnny, to like really refine that voice
19:30
because like we're drawing from what they're saying online
19:33
and taking it back into our support team.
19:36
So it's like, yeah, I love being a Squatcher.
19:39
It's like, I'm just gonna steal that
19:41
and put it in our email, and you're gonna love us for it.
19:45
And I think that it's good because our support team
19:48
were like relatively young keeps.
19:49
They're like 18, 19 year olds, which again,
19:52
I think Anthro equipped me for that
19:53
'cause I was really young when I was working at Anthro.
19:57
And then when I became everybody's manager,
19:59
I was working with young people.
20:01
It's just really getting that across them.
20:03
It's like, yo, if you're at a store
20:05
and you're not vibing with someone,
20:06
would you buy from that store?
20:08
And they're like, no, I'm like, exactly.
20:09
So when I'm training them, I'm like, you gotta nail the vibe.
20:12
But it can't be a natural.
20:14
What if you're stiff and you're like,
20:16
watch Tastic Day.
20:17
That's not natural.
20:19
And they're not speaking to anyone on the phone,
20:21
but you could definitely tell when it's like,
20:23
it goes from like formal to casual to formal.
20:25
- Three-hundred and they're not.
20:25
Yeah, totally.
20:26
- Yeah, totally.
20:27
But like all in all, it's like, it's kind of a half answer,
20:30
but it's just like, I think that
20:33
brand voice comes top down.
20:34
- Yep.
20:35
- And especially in a support team,
20:37
you have to champion that voice.
20:39
- Yeah.
20:40
- And if you're like, not willing to,
20:43
it's not gonna come across to your customer.
20:45
- Yeah.
20:46
- Yeah.
20:47
- Your CX is great.
20:48
That phrase is so last season.
20:51
We wanna hear your CX is incredible,
20:53
because a customer, we believe in delivering
20:55
incredible customer experiences.
20:57
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20:59
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21:06
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21:08
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21:10
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21:12
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21:14
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21:18
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21:19
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21:22
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21:25
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21:47
(upbeat music)
21:48
Switching gears slightly, but staying on the same subject,
21:51
like how do you think about personalization in CX
21:54
at ACT Doctor Squatch?
21:55
I know we're talking about like, okay, personalization
21:57
in the sense of like having a great Squatch-tastic day, right?
22:02
But like individually for those customers,
22:04
how are you thinking about personalization?
22:06
Are you like, bro?
22:07
- Yeah.
22:08
- Bro.
22:10
- Well, I think that again, it like came with training.
22:13
But our support team has a really good pulse
22:16
on like how long our customer has been with us,
22:19
how much they know.
22:20
We have really specific Shopify tags to denote
22:23
like who someone is.
22:24
Are they like a VIP customer?
22:26
Like did they make X amount of purchases?
22:27
They get auto-tag.
22:28
Are they a scrub club member?
22:30
Like they're also going to be tagged in Shopify.
22:33
So our support team will see them
22:36
and just be like, okay, well,
22:39
now that this customer is reaching out to this,
22:41
they've spent X amount of money.
22:42
They've had this many interactions with us.
22:44
And they look at the history too.
22:46
It's just like, sometimes you got history with someone.
22:49
It's just like, like, oh my God, love you.
22:51
- I know.
22:52
- And you can really just, and you know,
22:55
there's a lot of people involved,
22:56
but if you've worked with this person before,
23:00
or if this specific support agent
23:03
has worked with a customer repeat,
23:04
they'll usually get assigned that person's ticket.
23:06
- Yeah.
23:07
- Yeah.
23:08
- 'Cause then it's like it builds rapport.
23:09
It's like, I love you, Louis.
23:11
It's like, Louis is like, I love you too, Bobby.
23:13
- And we all have-- - That's awesome.
23:15
- Yeah.
23:15
- I like, I, 'cause I think at times you,
23:19
like when you have a support team
23:20
and you have so many tickets, you know, all these things,
23:22
you don't really think about like the personalization
23:24
of that sense of like having an individual customer support agent
23:29
working with an individual customer, right?
23:33
That they're constantly getting.
23:34
So I think that that's a really unique and good idea
23:38
that I wanna implement into like my teams that I manage.
23:40
- It comes, and it also comes from that answer of background.
23:43
It's like, we had women come into the store
23:46
and I told you I'm like, back office and customer facing.
23:50
We had women coming into the store,
23:52
they'd walk in, take their sunglasses off,
23:53
you're like, where's Roma?
23:55
I need Roma right now.
23:56
And it's like, I think that our customers,
23:59
even if it's like, you know, an online interaction,
24:01
there's no, not really a face of the name,
24:03
depending on what platform you're using,
24:04
but there's not really a face of the name.
24:07
But if you keep getting the same person,
24:09
you're like, oh my God, I'm so tight with this person.
24:12
- Yeah.
24:13
- And they just hit it out of the park every time I reach out.
24:16
You're gonna have like more attachment to the brand.
24:18
And also it makes it special,
24:19
'cause then you're not being like passed around
24:21
to like 7,000 people.
24:22
- Yeah.
24:23
- Yeah.
24:24
- Like knowing someone, it's like you're almost like,
24:26
you have an in.
24:27
- How big is your team?
24:28
Like including the outsourced team and internal?
24:31
- Around like right now, like 75,
24:36
it could sometimes go to like 170 low key.
24:38
- Yeah.
24:39
I mean, it depends on holidays, what's happening.
24:42
Wow, that's crazy.
24:44
- And I know them.
24:45
Like I visit their office, like near shore,
24:50
and they constantly say this to me.
24:54
They're like, I'm kind of like, wow, thank you.
24:57
But they're like, you're our sickest client, bro.
24:59
And I'm like, why?
25:00
Like I don't understand.
25:01
They're like, 'cause other companies aren't as tight with us.
25:06
Like in this world of like offshore support,
25:11
you know, our client isn't really interested
25:13
in getting to know us.
25:15
But then you're just like, what up, bro?
25:17
Well, how's soccer going?
25:18
Like, yeah.
25:19
You build that relationship,
25:21
and it's almost like you have an internal team.
25:23
- Yeah.
25:24
- I think it's important regardless of whether or not
25:25
they're internal that like, you know what's going on,
25:27
you care about their wellbeing,
25:29
like, and that'll probably encourage them to be like,
25:34
yeah, maybe I should put like three more seconds of effort
25:36
into this interaction.
25:38
- Well, you're exactly right.
25:40
Like, so a lot of teams are made up in various different ways.
25:43
Like it's internal or it's outsourced.
25:45
And either way, the culture of a CX team
25:48
is so important.
25:50
Whether the, like it's third party or internal,
25:53
like bringing people into the fold
25:55
is the only way you're gonna be able to deliver
25:57
a dope brand experience and a dope brand voice.
26:00
- Yes.
26:01
- Okay?
26:02
And that not applies, like my hot take is like,
26:04
it's not just CX teams.
26:05
Like I know people who like freelance marketing, right?
26:08
If you are going to be freelancing or having it,
26:11
or having any sort of third party outside of your company,
26:15
you have to bring those people into the fold.
26:17
And it's not just about like, okay,
26:19
like I'm gonna give you this SOP, like no,
26:22
build a relationship with them.
26:23
- Yes.
26:24
- Build a relationship of like showing them
26:26
what your brand experience is like,
26:28
'cause then you're gonna get better work out of them.
26:30
- Yes, you are.
26:31
And honestly, like when we have a new SOP,
26:35
I just take the time to walk them through it.
26:37
'Cause you know, you can give them an SOP
26:39
and be like, do this and they will do it.
26:41
But like there'll be like, fucks and like little like things
26:44
to sort out that you won't even know about
26:45
'cause it won't make it up to you.
26:47
But as long as you like have that open communication
26:50
with them and you're like, do you have any questions?
26:52
Is this unclear at all?
26:54
- Yeah.
26:55
- You just nip it in the bud.
26:56
- Yeah.
26:56
- It's just much more efficient that way.
26:58
And also like way more humanistic.
27:00
Like you always want to be like a tangible
27:04
and accessible person to these people.
27:06
There are no CX overlords.
27:08
That's like so played out.
27:09
(laughing)
27:10
That's a weird as out.
27:11
- CX overlords.
27:12
- Yeah.
27:13
- That's sure it's gonna be hilarious.
27:16
Okay, I wanna just dive into like retention a little bit.
27:19
The whole other side of CX, right?
27:21
How does Dr. Squatch think about retention?
27:23
I know obviously you have a subscription program,
27:25
all of these things and like you have these really
27:27
like dope brand experience that you're developing out.
27:29
But like what other tactics are you guys
27:32
utilizing to build loyalty?
27:33
- I think it's like it just also boils down to
27:36
and it's hard to be an every woman, you know?
27:38
You know your whole support team,
27:40
you know all your customers,
27:41
but really just being in the trenches
27:44
with your support team.
27:45
It's just like, yeah, I know Peter reached out
27:48
7,000 times last year about this rash
27:50
that he's developed and like maybe he should try
27:52
a different set, it doesn't seem like it's like no.
27:55
Yeah.
27:56
- The aloes not working for you.
27:57
- Exactly.
27:58
And I think retention is all about like again,
28:00
knowing your customer.
28:01
Like really, really knowing your customer.
28:03
Like sometimes almost on a two personal level,
28:07
we get photos in our inbox that we probably shouldn't get.
28:10
But like we know them, we know when we see them.
28:14
But I think that when we think about retention as a CX team,
28:18
it's just about alleviating all those pain points.
28:22
If we have somebody like yelling about the same issue
28:27
over and over again, and now they have like a mob of people
28:30
with like flames and like torches,
28:34
we're gonna be like, we gotta act on this ASAP.
28:36
It is a huge pain point.
28:38
And this is what people are saying about it.
28:39
And we do use people's messages and show those as examples
28:44
to people who want to understand further in our company.
28:48
And I think for us, like in terms of personalization,
28:52
you know, our support team is very versed and trained
28:55
in understanding again, like those customers,
28:57
they look at their profiles, they look at the tags
28:59
and also their purchase history.
29:01
We want them to encourage our customers to try new things
29:05
and really like not sell it to them,
29:07
but like even just like if we notice that the scent profile
29:11
you go for on our website is all citrus,
29:14
we're gonna be like, maybe you should give great fruit IPA
29:17
a shot.
29:17
- Just once.
29:18
- Like I've just like you've done summer citrus
29:19
and all of your subscriptions for the past two years.
29:22
Buddy, we want you to try something new.
29:25
And if it doesn't work out, that's fine.
29:26
But like we just want, we wanna push the balance
29:29
for you a little bit.
29:30
- Yeah.
29:31
- Yeah.
29:32
- So on your subscription programs, like are you suggesting
29:34
that to them like in the program itself
29:36
or is it a personal email?
29:38
- It's like a, it's, if we're having an interaction
29:41
with the CX team and they notice that you're a subscriber,
29:46
they're gonna do that work.
29:47
They're gonna dig into their subscription
29:49
and really like offer that opportunity
29:52
to do some one-to-one shopping with them.
29:55
And I think that that's the way that I want our team
29:58
to think about personalization.
29:59
- Totally.
30:00
And here's the other thing.
30:02
That also like turns your CX team into a revenue building.
30:07
- Yes.
30:09
- Right?
30:10
It's not just about servicing on them.
30:11
It's actually like the pro activity
30:13
of like servicing this information about the customer,
30:17
all these things like he's going to help,
30:20
he's gonna help your team actually be salespeople in a way.
30:24
- Yes.
30:25
- Right?
30:26
- Yes.
30:27
- And it's like, 'cause at the end of the day,
30:27
like everybody looks at a CX team and they're like,
30:28
"Oh, do you generate revenue for me?"
30:31
- Yeah.
30:32
- Yeah.
30:33
- Look at us.
30:34
So I think that's really like awesome
30:36
that you're like already thinking through those things
30:38
and like you're thinking about how to like
30:41
be revenue generating on your team.
30:43
- Yeah.
30:43
And I just think that there is so much value
30:46
in a CX team in general.
30:48
I think that yes, you want someone like kind of at the door,
30:52
especially if it's like an issue,
30:53
you wanna resolve the issue as soon as possible.
30:55
But it's like creating that lasting impact
30:57
with your customer is going to bring them back in.
31:00
And I think again, it's just something that comes
31:02
from the perspective of me working
31:05
in that position at Anthro.
31:06
We were always so customer centric.
31:09
And like, yes, if an interaction is lasting me
31:12
like an hour and 30, I do know that that customer
31:15
is gonna come back looking for me specifically,
31:17
but even if they don't look for me or if they don't find me,
31:20
they're gonna like still be helped out by like great people.
31:23
- Yeah, and they're gonna have a dope experience, right?
31:24
- Exactly.
31:25
And they're gonna be like the brand experience.
31:27
- And right, and you're looking at, you know,
31:29
and you can also look at this in that perspective,
31:31
where like you're working at one of many locations,
31:36
we're working in a brand of, you know,
31:38
like many varieties online.
31:40
What's stopping that person from going elsewhere?
31:43
The entire interaction you have with them.
31:46
That's what's stopping it.
31:47
Like where they're not just to help out
31:50
and just be available, but we're there
31:52
to turn that frown upside down.
31:54
(laughing)
31:56
- I say that all the time, turn that frown upside down.
31:59
- I love it.
31:59
Okay, so we're talking so much about like personalization
32:05
and like delivering this dope experience,
32:07
but I'm actually really curious,
32:08
'cause I talk about this a lot with other like CX leaders.
32:12
How are you incorporating AI into your tech stack?
32:14
Like are you even doing that?
32:16
- No.
32:16
- Ooh, spicy.
32:18
But like we, it's on the right now.
32:19
- Which I don't assume to actually.
32:20
- We want to, right?
32:22
But like I think that the time,
32:23
at the time when we were really exploring it,
32:26
we were looking at, oh my God,
32:28
looking at it at a deflection standpoint.
32:31
- Yes.
32:32
- How many people can we deflect?
32:32
How much money can we save?
32:34
And like I think that there are operational tactics
32:36
that you can implement for your support team
32:39
to make that happen, you know,
32:40
without having that AI tool.
32:42
And I really don't think you should be asking like
32:45
what AI could, isn't this like a JFK quote?
32:48
Like but you shouldn't be asking what AI could do for you.
32:51
But like how could you could best
32:52
- What can you?
32:53
- utilize it for your business.
32:55
And I think for us, while we're like no longer kind of
32:59
in like the extreme, like we need to deflect everything space,
33:02
it's just like, okay, how could it help us drive our goals
33:07
of having like this elite customer experience?
33:10
Like how could we use AI to like really like start
33:14
to segment like, you know, sentiment for customers?
33:17
Like are they happy in their interactions?
33:18
How do we rate that?
33:19
Like we don't have a rating scale.
33:21
We just literally read the tickets
33:22
and vibe it out right now.
33:24
It's like seems upset and it's like 7,000 customers.
33:27
They seem a little bit angry, but like,
33:29
how do we score that?
33:30
And I do think an AI tool can help you with that.
33:33
I think it could help deflect if that's your goal.
33:35
But you really have to ask yourself like, okay, cool.
33:38
We know our business need, but how could we as a CX team
33:43
work towards that need, but not sacrifice
33:46
the quality of our customer experience?
33:47
- Right. - Yes.
33:48
- Right. Well, I think, I think some people,
33:50
like I think about it in from a deflection standpoint.
33:53
- Yeah.
33:54
- But I, but it again, it all depends on audience, right?
33:57
- Yes.
33:58
- So like I'm thinking about it from a deflection standpoint.
34:00
So if I'm looking at like a creator led branch, right?
34:03
Like I know because I come from that space that like,
34:06
I'm gonna get a lot of inquiries about that person
34:09
being a fan of that individual selling the product, right?
34:12
So those are tickets like, I still want them
34:14
to have a dope experience, but I want them,
34:16
I kind of want them to be deflected, right?
34:18
Like when I worked at Beast Bowls, like the,
34:20
I love Mr. Beast, like those are sick.
34:22
I want you to have a sick experience,
34:24
but at the same time, like I really need my team
34:27
to concentrate on like the human experience
34:29
that like the customers need, right?
34:31
- Yes.
34:32
- So like I think about it from like deflection,
34:33
but I absolutely agree with you that I think we haven't even
34:36
scratched the surface of like sentiment analysis
34:39
and any sort of like data points, right?
34:43
Like I think there's tools out there
34:45
that are definitely doing it, but now it's like,
34:48
we don't need to constantly think about it
34:49
from a deflection standpoint.
34:50
We need to think about it of like,
34:51
how do you analyze thousands upon thousands of tickets
34:54
to understand a feedback loop, a sentiment loop
34:57
to then drive that into the rest of the company?
34:59
- Yes.
35:00
And I think that even from, again, it's like,
35:02
it depends on like who your audience is and our,
35:05
when we, so the T, it's not really T.
35:08
The T is that we tried to implement an AI tool.
35:11
And I think all of it is definitely how well
35:13
you could train that AI.
35:15
- Yeah.
35:16
- Then we realized during that period,
35:18
how complex our interactions were,
35:20
because we were drawing from so many channels.
35:22
Like there's only so many things.
35:24
You can keyword, there's only so many things that like,
35:26
you can predict from our customers.
35:28
Like 'cause someone could say, I love Dr. Squatch,
35:31
but in the same breath, be like,
35:33
my niece used it and got the worst reaction.
35:37
And we're like, oh, and what if like you're working,
35:39
you know, with like one of those tools?
35:41
- Yeah.
35:42
- And it routes that first part of that interaction.
35:43
Like our customers will send us seven paragraph essays.
35:46
And I'm like convinced that all of them
35:48
are like English majors because they're also like,
35:50
smart.
35:51
- Okay, the pros is giving.
35:52
(laughing)
35:54
One of them will make it up to me.
35:55
I'm like, all right.
35:56
Like we know who is an English double major.
35:58
But yeah, like it gets to be very complex
36:03
when you're looking for an AI tool,
36:05
but you don't even know what you want.
36:08
- Yeah.
36:09
- Yeah.
36:09
Right now we're just kind of like,
36:10
okay, let's figure that out guys.
36:12
But I think in terms of, I mean, what brand was it
36:18
and feel free to like, I would be so funny
36:20
if there's like a bleep when I say this.
36:22
I think it was American Airlines
36:23
where their generative AI tool made a policy.
36:27
Was it Ford?
36:29
I for, it was like a.
36:30
- Okay, go ahead.
36:31
- I love, I'm anticipating they're being like bleeps
36:34
when we're saying those things that'd be hilarious.
36:36
But anyway, yeah, their generative AI made up like a policy
36:40
that they had to just like adhere to
36:43
because it was just told to the customer.
36:45
And I think that that is probably great customer experience
36:48
that they even like honored it.
36:49
But like, yeah.
36:50
- Yeah.
36:51
- I think like Ford, there was something like a story
36:52
about Ford did something crazy
36:54
where it's like somebody messed with the AI
36:57
and sold them a vehicle for a dollar.
36:59
- Yeah.
37:01
- Yeah.
37:02
And you will have to think about how much time you can put in
37:06
as a team to train that.
37:08
What like repercussions you're ready for in terms of like,
37:12
what if a generative AI tool like told a customer
37:16
that our soaps contained like this thing
37:20
or like 100% natural, that's, that would be wild.
37:25
Like, because we'd be like, okay, we have testing.
37:28
And like it's 98 to 100% naturally derived.
37:31
But like, we'd hear police sirens, I get swatted.
37:35
Like I'd be like screeching in the background.
37:37
- Yeah.
37:38
- Yeah, you can't have it hallucinating on your clients
37:40
about like your consumer package.
37:42
- But I do trust the process when it comes to AI.
37:45
I think it's so new and everybody's hopping in on it.
37:48
I think that something that we do really well
37:51
is learn from everyone else.
37:52
Like everyone at Dr. Squat, we kick you with everybody.
37:55
We're like, what are you guys doing?
37:57
How's it going?
37:58
- Yeah.
37:59
- And then we make that decision based off of our needs,
38:01
based off of how it helped someone we know really well.
38:04
It's all about rapport.
38:05
- Yeah.
38:06
- Yeah.
38:07
- Absolutely.
38:08
- Well, we've come to the end of the road.
38:09
Like I told you, it goes by so quick.
38:11
- This is what I feel like five minutes.
38:12
I love yapping.
38:14
- I do.
38:15
- I love yapping with Roma.
38:16
- Yes.
38:16
- Roma, tell the crowd where they can find you
38:19
'cause I think you have really valuable insights
38:21
and I want people to talk to you more about this.
38:25
- You can find me on LinkedIn.
38:27
I think it's backslash Roma Aumol.
38:29
And otherwise, yeah, that's really to say.
38:34
- At Dr. Squatch.
38:35
- Oh, at Dr. Squatch.
38:36
If you email the support team
38:37
and you mentioned my name, they might freak out
38:39
and then send it to me.
38:41
So you can do that.
38:42
- I'll put at least Turlinked in in the show notes.
38:45
- Yes.
38:46
I appreciate you coming on.
38:48
- Thank you for having me.
38:49
- So nice seeing you in Vegas.
38:50
- I know.
38:51
- And to everybody out there, we'll see you next week.
38:54
- Hey, wow.
38:58
You made it to the end of the episode.
39:00
That means that you like me and I like you,
39:02
which also means you should subscribe to this show.
39:05
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