The Luxury Group Kering recently announced that Gucci experienced a revenue growth of 20% in the first quarter of 2019. As a result, the Florentine fashion brand is now focusing on strengthening its retail strategy by developing new call center concepts.
According to the Financial Times, Gucci plans to establish five call centers in major hubs such as New York, Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, and Seoul by 2020. The first call center, named “Gucci 9”, has already been opened in Florence, employing 150 individuals.
Unlike the popular trend of relying on AI-generated interactions, these call centers aim to encourage direct conversations between Gucci’s teams and consumers. Customers will be able to communicate with the brand through phone, email, or live chat at any stage of the customer journey, whether it involves inquiries about potential purchases, the buying process itself, or product returns. The call centers will adopt a luxury-oriented approach, both in terms of their design, which will reflect the aesthetics of Gucci stores, and the personalized, unhurried service they offer.
Kering, the parent company of Gucci, has been implementing a conversational digital strategy. Towards the end of last year, Kering revealed that Gucci, Bottega Veneta, and Saint Laurent each have their own customer service teams, while the other brands under the group benefit from centralized support. Additionally, Kering expressed its desire to distance itself from online retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter and take control of its own e-commerce operations. Through this new strategy, Gucci aims to strike a balance between the perception of luxury brands as cold and unapproachable and the expectations of millennial customers. According to Bain & Company, millennials are anticipated to make up 45% of the luxury industry’s customer base by 2025. Furthermore, Gucci’s call centers could reintroduce a human touch to the sales process, especially as Kering experienced a remarkable 71.3% growth in e-commerce sales for all its brands in 2018.
Useful links:
1. Financial Times
2. Bain & Company
