Channel-Less Service Innovation: Next-Gen Tech & CX Transformation
Company: Farfetch, Global Luxury Platform
Role: Senior Global Director, Service Design
Focus: New Product & Service Launch, UX Design, Service Design, Omni-channel CX, Employee Experience
Customer: B2B, B2B2C, B2E
Industry: Tech/ eCommerce Platform/ Digital Marketplace
In today’s world there are no “online” or “offline”customers - there are only customers. Every piece of new technology within the service ecosystem must integrate into a customer’s life and meet them where they choose to be when they choose to be there. It also means that every person that a customer may encounter in their service journey, and every person in the background must know their role and play it flawlessly.
That’s where my team came into the Farfetch Luxury New Retail strategy. We applied Design Thinking and brand level CX journey design to co-create product & service journeys that completely integrated new technology into the 360 degree retail experience. Every team across the platform had a part to play. From innovation strategists, service designers and app designers and engineers - all the way through to the learning experience designers that built content to ensure that each service staff member knew how to execute the customer journey vision flawlessly. We designed for the people who brought a channel-less service experience to life.
Integrating Technology with Service Design
11 Channels crossing digital and physical.
18 Merchant Partners in 5 countries.
1200+ Employees across 15 departments.
One Connected Customer Experience
The Opportunity:
Research indicates that luxury customers are ready to embrace new technology. Of those surveyed, 61% reported that the sales associate relationships are central to their shopping experience. Bringing new technology to the shops and sales associates equips merchants to leverage the seller/ customer relationship while offering a modern omnichannel experience to capture wallet share that also mitigates common customer pain points.
of consumers cross multiple channels while shopping.
surveyed said they are ready to embrace new technology.
more shopping from omni-channel customers compared to in-store only peers.
The Technology:
The new technology set new bars in luxury retail, solving some of the most frustrating customer pain points reported by customers. 58% of customers surveyed reported “waiting for products” as their biggest shopping pain, while 47% noted lack of product availability. By connecting retail shops with Farfetch’s expansive catalogue and supply chain, customers had expanded access to the products they wanted more quickly. While the in-store devices integrated digital e-commerce benefits into the store with in mirror styling and interactive displays that connected to a virtual shopping cart.
Consumer App for shopping across all channels, in shop, ecommerce shopping cart, etc.
Connected Retail App for retail staff to connect to customer data and extended inventory.
Connected Devices, mirrors, interactive displays, in-mirror styling
The Service Design Challenge:
In today’s world, there are no such things as “online” or “offline” shoppers - there are only shoppers. Every piece of new technology within an experience ecosystem must integrate into a customer’s life and meet them where they choose to be when they choose to be there. That includes every person a customer may encounter in their service journey, which means every person “backstage” must know their role and understand what it means to play it successfully.
The Solution:
That’s where my team came in. With hundreds of staff members involved, we knew there was no way this new model would be successful without a clear plan for the people who make this service possible every day. We designed a success path for each team and staff member, starting with the customer’s cross-channel experience using personas, blueprints, and prototypes. We used these tools to facilitate collaboration and orchestrate connections between the customer journey and the service staff members within each participating organization and department. We identified the key touch points along the journey. We partnered with each team to identify exactly what new and existing internal processes and tools would require changes to execute the new service model. Once the “mechanics” of the service were designed, we called in our change management experts to build a program to support the mindset and behavioral shifts that would be required to be implemented successfully. We designed a training plan for every team across the Farfetch service platform and partnering retail staff.
The staff was highly engaged and confident in their roles when we reached rollout. Customers could enjoy the novel, luxury experience as intended - with great excitement and ease.
Select Program Results:
Strengthened industry partnerships and reputation as the platform for luxury. Set up the business for commercial success with an actionable, scalable plan for product-experience integration and global sales implementation.
Employees adopted and reported high-levels of comfort with the new technology from day one of launch.
Increase in existing customer engagement within the first 6 mos. of launch of new technology.
of customers re-engaged in the shopping experience within one day of shopping across the Luxury New Retail experience.
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