FINAL WORD
Describe your current job role
I am an Omnichannel Customer Experience Manager working within the customer experience team at our store support centre . This was a newly created role post-pandemic with the aim of developing customer journeys and propositions to allow our customers to shop seamlessly across our website and in our stores .
What has your career journey looked like so far ?
I began my career with M & S as a Commercial Manager in stores and have worked in the customer experience team for three years now . My role in the team originally focused on our clothing , home and beauty departments and improving our in-store journeys there , but this has changed to reflect the changing habits and demands of our customers – so now my remit is all things omnichannel .
Can you tell us a bit more about M & S , how it started and its mission ?
What have been the benefits realised from this implementation ?
In addition to the commercial return on investment , our video-powered retail service has helped transform our online customer experience – allowing customers to benefit from the same trusted M & S service whether they ’ re at home or in-store .
It ’ s already facilitated more than 42,000 oneto-one consultations , with an average customer satisfaction score of 4.5 / 5 – which shows how popular it is with our customers . Customers tell us it ’ s a brilliant addition to our online experience and makes perfect sense to extend the reach of our in-store service to online too .
OUR VIDEO-POWERED RETAIL SERVICE ALLOWED US TO STAY CONNECTED TO OUR CUSTOMERS WHEN MANY OF OUR STORES WERE CLOSED DUE TO COVID-19 .
Everyone knows M & S . It ’ s a historic brand that ’ s been around for over 138 years , with over 1,000 UK stores and 500 international stores . We ’ re an own-brand retailer known for our trusted quality , service and value – and it ’ s a great privilege to play my part in the M & S story and help maintain our high standards for our customers .
What is Go-Instore and what appealed to M & S about their retail solutions ?
What we ’ re most proud of is our online bra-fit service and how it ’ s created a safe space where customers can attend their appointment from the comfort of their home . This has made a huge difference to several customer sub-groups including transgender customers , first bra fits and new mums who have been able to get a bra fit from the comfort of their own home .
Can you tell us more about your video-powered retail service ?
We were really keen to launch a video consultation service and spoke with a number of providers to see who could help us launch this for our customers . With many of our stores forced to temporarily close due to COVID-19 , we wanted something we could have up and running quickly and something that could offer instant , prebooked and two-way video consultations .
Go-Instore offered the most compelling solution , so we kicked off a three-month proof of concept with them to launch this for our customers – and we were really pleased with the results .
The feedback from both customers and colleagues was great : our colleagues loved how easy it was to use and how it allowed us to extend the reach of our famous in-store service to those at home too ; while for customers , they told us it was a useful addition to our online experience .
Video-powered retail allows our customers at home to connect with one of our product experts in-store via video link – where they can ask questions and receive the same service that they would in-store . It currently runs across our home , furniture and menswear departments , as well as facilitating our online bra-fit service . We have some exciting expansion plans in the near future which will open up the service to more departments and improve the online experience for even more of our customers – which is great !
How has your video-powered retail service enhanced the customer experience and helped M & S in the e-commerce space ?
Our video-powered retail service allowed us to stay connected to our customers when many of our stores were closed due to COVID-19 ,
Annie Gardner , Omnichannel Customer Experience Manager , Marks & Spencer
www . intelligentcxo . com
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