Who is Jackson?

Meet Jackson, Online Operations & Customer Service Manager at Bailey Nelson!

About Bailey Nelson

Bailey Nelson is an international optical retailer dedicated to transforming the eye care experience. They believe eye care should be a joy, not a chore. The company offers affordable prices on lenses, frames, and contacts, as well as full-service optometry in every store, ensuring customers enjoy a personalised and satisfying shopping experience. Their mission is to make eyewear more accessible, allowing customers to experiment and discover the perfect eyewear to suit their needs.

Jackson's CX Journey

Jackson has worked at Bailey Nelson for five years and unconventionally entered the CX space. He began studying psychology and philosophy while working on the side at Fossil and Bailey Nelson to support his education. On the side of work and university, he was doing his own reading and self-education, where he found he was learning more and getting into topics that weren't covered in his degree.

When Bailey Nelson was opening a new store, Jackson was offered and accepted the position of assistant manager. Over time, he rose through the ranks within the company and eventually applied for the customer service manager position at the company's support office.

Jackson found the customer service manager position to be the perfect blend of human experience, technology and business. In his previous roles at Bailey Nelson, he was particularly interested in the training process and innovating ways to enhance customer support. With his experience working in the store, he felt uniquely qualified to bring a fresh perspective to the position when the opportunity to apply arose.

Indeed, Jackson's background in philosophy and psychology greatly informs his role as a customer service manager, providing him with a profound understanding of customer psychology. This education also enhances his critical thinking and analytical skills, allowing him to apply data analytics to his decision making process.

As a CX leader, Jackson is dedicated to enhancing the company's customer experience strategies and fostering a positive team culture.

The CX Team at Bailey Nelson 

Bailey Nelson operates in three regions—Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Jackson mainly oversees the ANZ regions, but works alongside the Canadian team on global strategy. In his team, Jackson has four team members collaborates. This includes an onshore fulfillment manager and three offshore customer service agents based in the Philippines.

Jackson notes that the biggest challenge as a CX leader is balancing team training with personally handling difficult situations. While he aims to upskill his team and allow them to learn from challenging experiences, he sometimes feels compelled to step in and resolve issues directly.

Hiring New Team Members

Jackson likes team members to engage with customers and have fun, but it is essential to know how to break down a problem and address it methodically. Jackson's team members must be motivated to grow their skills, constantly seek improvement, and show initiative. This mindset helps Jackson elevate his team as well as his leadership skills.

Bailey Nelson's Growth Strategies

Transforming Customer Experience

The team's primary goal is to ensure every aspect of the customer journey is seamless. At the moment, Jackson's main focus is the online customer experience. Because customers can receive a great in-person experience with support teams at the store, Jackson wants to ensure that online customers can experience the same caliber of support. 

Bailey Nelson's emphasis on support and customer experience elevates the company within the market. To further enhance their reputation, Jackson and his team are dedicated to refining every aspect of the customer experience by identifying and improving even the smallest details.

Bridging the Gap Between Physical and Online Shopping

Jackson and his team recognise the challenges of shopping for glasses online, particularly in areas like glasses sizing. To address this, they are committed to integrating various technologies and tools to replicate the detailed, personalised experience of in-person shopping on their online platform.

Their goal is to build the same level of trust online that customers experience in-store. Jackson acknowledges that eliciting customer emotions online is a complex task, but he believes it is essential for creating a trustworthy and engaging online shopping experience. By focusing on the emotions they want each customer to feel, they aim to bridge the gap between online and in-person experiences.

Integrating AI into Customer Experience

Jackson believes that AI will revolutionise the way customer experience (CX) operates. AI enables CX experts to predict customer inquiries and provide options even before customers realise their needs. By handling mundane tasks, AI allows CX agents to dedicate more quality time to customers, fostering genuine interactions that are crucial for the company.

Jackson's team utilises AI through Intercom's Fin AI chatbot feature, effectively handling straightforward customer service inquiries. This assistance frees up the team to focus on more complex tickets, providing more attention to customers who need it most.

The Bailey Nelson team fully embraces AI, and Jackson is confident that this tool will continue to evolve, offering additional support to CX teams. The goal is not to replace human interaction but to enhance it, ensuring that teams can create valuable customer interactions.

Jackson explains that customer engagement has a threshold. Simple questions can be efficiently addressed with chatbots or help articles. However, complex issues require human intervention, which customers often prefer.

Jackson emphasises that as people become more familiar with AI, the tool will become less intimidating, and CX teams will better integrate it into their work. Teams must learn how and when to use AI, recognising that some situations are best handled by human solutions.

Advice for CX Leaders

Jackson advises other CX leaders to maintain open communication with their team, encouraging them to seek advice whenever needed. While you don't need to provide the exact answer, guiding your team members in the right direction helps them discover solutions on their own.

CX leaders should empower their team to make decisions and embrace mistakes as significant learning opportunities. Jackson believes that self-education is invaluable. Leaders should stay informed about technological advancements and understand how changes impact all aspects of the company, from CX to business operations. The more knowledge you have, the better you can tailor the customer experience to individual needs.

It's crucial to look beyond CX and understand how various departments within a company collaborate. Adopting an observational mindset will enhance the support your team provides. When faced with the challenge of improving customer experience, leaders should seek feedback from their agents, in-store staff, and colleagues in other departments. This approach brings diverse and innovative ideas that stem from different areas of expertise within the company.