Founded in the United States in 1990, personal care brand Bath & Body Works now operates worldwide, offering its range of fragrances and skincare products. The company aims to provide service experiences that surprise and delight, and Bath & Body Works Arabia’s marketing team uses Messenger to answer customer questions and to help people resolve issues.
"Working with Emplifi and implementing Messenger API for Instagram allowed us to more easily categorise messages from our customers so that our agents could respond faster and more efficiently. By streamlining customer conversations into one central hub, we’ve not only boosted productivity, but identified new sales opportunities, too." - Amina Mashukova, PR & Social Media Executive, Bath & Body Works Arabia
Their story: Delighting customers at every touchpoint
What does it take to be fully on-call across digital channels? Let’s look to the business case of iconic personal care brand Bath & Body Works. From their wide collection of fragrances to soothing skin care, the brand creates not only products, but also experiences that surprise and delight customers, making every touchpoint count.
Their goal: Scaling to meet customers where they are
Today, customers require more one-to-one attention and support. It’s clear why direct, conversational messaging on Facebook & Instagram has only grown. Messenger simply checks all the boxes customers expect: ease, relevance, and personalization. When a customer can open a conversation and resolve a specific issue without having to exit the communication flow, that’s thoughtful CX.
The shift towards “always-on and everywhere” availability, especially on social media, brought a massive increase in conversations to Bath & Body Works Arabia’s channels. In 2020, they experienced:
A 64% increase in conversations, compared to the same period in 2019
14 times more comments per post on Facebook and 1.3x comments per post on Instagram than competitors
As a leader in the space, Bath & Body Works Arabia looked at this influx as an opportunity, outfitting their social media channels with a strategy focused on customer care efficiency.
Their solution: envisioning unified CX with Messenger
Timely and meaningful communication across digital is key for brands to nurture relationships and grow loyalty. Centralized operations and smooth access to direct Messenger conversations means no question, concern, or praise goes unnoticed or unanswered. To manage and optimize their conversation workflows, Bath & Body Works Arabia operates from Emplifi, the unified CX platform.
Knowing how high the stakes are, Bath & Body Works Arabia closely tracks the experience of every interaction across marketing, commerce, and care. Discovering and adapting to customer cues helps them deliver more resonating brand experiences. Response rates, time to resolution, customer sentiment, engagement, and satisfaction. It’s all measured, and it all matters.
This valuable insight is actioned in service of a key question: How impactful are our messaging touchpoints? Looking at Q4 2020, the time to resolution across channels were impressive.
Facebook DMs & Comments: 2 hours
Instagram DMs and Comments: 1 hour
42% improvement in handled conversations, compared to 2019
Their success: Direct conversations to drive purchase intent
When conversations start in a place as comfortable and accessible as Messenger, a new opportunity also arises: re-engagement. It’s a natural one. Agents are available to not only provide excellent post-purchase care, but can also influence the decision-making process. Bath & Body Works Arabia sees the true value of removing friction in the buyer journey, whereby agents answer questions, recognize intent, and offer personalized recommendations in the same workflow.
The data confirms it. When a user is redirected to an ecommerce portal by an agent, the frictionless journey results in, on average, a lower bounce rate and better CTR compared to paid campaigns. In Q4 2020, Bath & Body Works Arabia experienced an average CTR of 3.81%. The average for Facebook ads in the same region for the same period was 1.15%
Now, the role of agents takes on a certainly powerful new dimension: revenue generation.
Their success: Customer experience as an organizational imperative
In the infinite loop of CX, one thing is crystal clear: great customer experiences are non-negotiable, no matter the team or touchpoint. Brands like Bath & Body Works who are optimizing their strategy on channels like Messenger are taking the lead. With how much communication they manage on a daily basis, time efficiency is so critical.
By directing customers to Messenger in 2020, Bath & Body Works Arabia:
Experienced time savings totaling 145 working days per year
Reduced customer care operational costs by 184% compared to 2019
