Meet Sydney Friedman Slomovitz, CX Manager at Jones Road Beauty!
Jones Road Beauty was founded by makeup artist Bobbi Brown on the philosophy that the world doesn’t need more beauty products. It needs better beauty products. Jones Road Beauty is an edited collection of clean, indispensable makeup designed for every age, skin type, and skin tone. Over 2,700 potentially toxic ingredients have been eliminated from the brand’s formulas.
Sydney began her journey into customer experience as a shade matching consultant for Jones Road Beauty when the makeup company was three months old. “My role eventually transitioned into customer experience before we even had an official CX team,” she remembers.
In addition to studying makeup artistry, Sydney majored in business with a focus in hospitality, has a journalism degree, and went to pastry school. This diverse background helped prepare her for the role of CX Manager at Jones Road Beauty. “I’ve always been interested in communicating with people and building relationships. It was a natural fit,” she adds.
Sydney was drawn to Jones Road Beauty’s ethos of being true to yourself, inclusivity, and confidence. She explains, “Founder Bobbi Brown has distilled her years of experience and knowledge into cool and innovative products for everyone. We focus on doing everything that we can to be transparent with our customers.”
Sydney leads a fully remote, international team of 9 associates who focus on tickets as well as 5 makeup artists trained to shade match customers. This flexible setup allows her team members to work to their strengths while servicing customers in a timely and accommodating manner. “I was one of around 15 people at the company when I first started,” Sydney says. “Jones Road Beauty has blown up in the past 3+ years. It’s been amazing to watch the brand evolve.”
Managing members with different personalities and strengths, Sydney has found ways to use her team’s dynamic makeup to elevate CX at Jones Road Beauty. “We’ve been able to pull members so they can focus on what they are good at and do what they love. I get so excited working with these unique personalities, and seeing how we can grow and learn from each other.”
Makeup is very personal – Sydney and her team understand that each customer they interact with is different. They strive to make a customer’s experience exceptional and unlike they have ever encountered before. “We go above and beyond to be transparent and cultivate meaningful relationships. At the end of the day, we are more than a beauty brand,” she says.
She points to their Facebook community, JRB Roadies, which started a year and half ago as evidence. “When I left for maternity leave in October, we were at 30,000 members and now we have 50,000 thanks to one of our associates that helped to achieve this while I was on leave,” she reveals. “They are so passionate about Jones Road Beauty and even made t-shirts. We’ve had the pleasure to watch these friendships grow and some members even get together and make road trips to our stores.”
When hiring new team members, Sydney looks for individuals who are interested in talking to and learning about others. “Makeup is deeply personal,” she reminds. “We need people to be commutative and personable with the patience to ask questions and think ahead.” She’s also looking for go-getters who can incorporate customer delight in their work. “Our main goal is to elevate the customer experience by going above and beyond. We want to leave lasting memories of Jones Road Beauty where customers look back on and say, ‘WOW, remember when this happened, it was so incredible!’”
Optimizing Communication Channels
Sydney says that because customers are often reaching out with specific questions, email is the preferred communication channel. Members take questions and inquiries based on their area of expertise to ensure resolution and customer satisfaction. The team uses Gorgias, which allows them to utilize time to the best of their abilities.
Key Priorities & Goals
To improve CX at Jones Road Beauty, Sydney focuses on encouraging her team members to harness their strengths and personalities. “I want to empower people,” she says. “I want them to feel confident, to trust their gut when coming up with a solution. This creates growth within the team, and in turn, fosters better relations with our customers.”
The team’s strong foundation is built on letting members find a lane where their skill set shines. “One person enjoys handling orders and returns while another is great at managing our socials,” Sydney notes. “I want to segment our team, so everyone doesn’t feel spread thin, but rather, is passionate and excited about their work.”
Customers Are Not Reaching Out: Red Flag or Green Flag?
Sydney feels that if customers have less questions about Jones Road Beauty products, they are effectively doing their job. “Our amazing retention and marketing team educated our customers thoroughly and provided essential information - they feel confident about using our products without needing to reach out.”
CX and Driving Revenue & Customer Retention
The CX Team is solely focused on servicing customers by answering questions and recommending products based on interests and needs. “Our marketing handles revenue and retention,” Sydney reveals. “My team is responsible for making sure our customers feel like they are taken care of, that they are listened to and heard.”
AI or No AI?
Questions and inquiries about makeup and skincare tend to be specific and for this reason, Jones Road Beauty hasn’t incorporated AI into its customer service just yet. “I’m open to AI and know there are going to be changes and innovations,” Sydney says. “But I think that it’s important to have a human touch when communicating with our customers.”
Advice for CX Leaders
Sydney maintains that CX leadership should be guided by compassion and careful consideration. She elaborates, “I tell my team not to take anything too personally. We have so many customer interactions during the day, but at that moment, we are the only one that customer has talked to. So, let’s do everything we can to improve their experience and make them happy.” At the same time, when members are feeling overwhelmed, Sydney urges them to step back and take a breath if needed. She goes on to advise leaders to put their best foot forward, be open-minded, and lead with positivity.
Gorgias
Loop Return
Shopify Plus
Can’t-Live-Without-Tool: Gorgias
Favorite Channel: Email. When it comes to assisting with customers’ inquiries, email is the most efficient vessel of communication. However, the most impactful and special form of communication would be our community, JBR Roadies.We see so much support, storytelling, and collaboration of ideas happening there – it’s amazing.
Recent Book or Podcast: My thoughts go to the TV Show, The Bear, and the episode, ‘Forks,’ when Cary sends Richie to intern at a Michelin restaurant. In the beginning, Richie doesn’t understand the minutia details that go into elevating the diners’ experience. As he learns more, you see him falling in love with it. By the end, Richie overhears customers say that they wished they had got the deep-dish pizza – he then goes out of the restaurant, gets a deep-dish pizza and brings it to their beautifully plated by the chef table . The scene was inspired by the book, Unreasonable Hospitality. It was incredibly impactful to me – you’re listening, but the customer doesn’t know, and you’re going above and beyond for that customer delight, so they feel passionate about the restaurant, company, or brand. You’re leaving them with memories and something to talk about, and that can’t be beat.
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