Who is Carla?

Meet Carla, Operations Assistant Manager at Lush Cosmetics!

About Lush Cosmetics

Lush Cosmetics is on a mission to leave the world lusher than we found it, providing fresh, handmade, and vegan beauty products for customers of all backgrounds. Founded in 1995 by a group of six Co-Founders, the brand is 10% employee-owned and puts its people at the heart of the business. Whether you have dry skin, oily hair or something in between, Lush offers a product for every need. 

Carla’s CX Journey

At first, Carla planned to work in industrial engineering. In Brazil, she received her bachelors and masters degrees in that program, and worked for a multinational motorcycle company as a project manager. After a while, she began to feel like she needed a change.

Seven years ago, Carla moved to Canada for a fresh start. She took a fashion business class and was able to explore her creative interests. Then, she started working for a large fashion brand as a workforce analyst and combined her analytical background with her passion for creativity. After working with the brand for three years, Carla moved to Lush Cosmetics in another workforce management position. She became fast friends with the Operations Manager and would complete operational projects and work closer with the management team. She rebuilt the forecasting and scheduling processes and started to add data analysis to decision making processes.

A year later, Carla went on maternity leave. Midway into her absence, her higher-ups called and told her that the Operations Manager was moving to a different department and they couldn’t see anyone else other than her to fill the position. She immediately accepted the offer!

“It wasn’t a planned move. It [just] happened for me, but it’s been an amazing journey,” she says. “[I’ve been trying] things here and there, and finding my way, but it’s been rewarding.”

Carla likes to use her analytical talents in her CX work. In customer care, you deal with a lot of valuable data, and she loves this aspect of her job. She works with customer data to analyze trends that improve the business. 

She believes that a business is a business because of customer experience. It’s a powerful position to be in because agents are the ones who work directly with the customers day-to-day. Customer experience professionals are the ears and the voice of the customer.

“I think any business, if they put their power into really building that connection,” she says, “That’s [how it becomes a great business].”

The CX Team at Lush Cosmetics

Lush Cosmetics’ CX team is comprised of 29 members between management, leadership, and agents. When COVID sent everyone in the office home due to quarantine, the team was able to find a way to function efficiently from a remote platform. When the team went back to the office, most of them wanted to remain remote because it worked better for their schedules and preferences.

Carla thinks that transitioning to a remote platform was a great decision for the team — especially when it comes to hiring talents. The team hires from all over Canada, and being remote helps leadership find the best candidates. Because the team needs agents who can speak English and French, it was difficult finding bilingual candidates in Vancouver. Now, the team can hire suitable agents who fit the job requirements without being limited to a central location.

“It was a way that was smart for us to move forward,” she says.

One of the top challenges for Carla is keeping the team motivated and communicating efficiently within a remote space. People want to feel seen, so it’s important for Carla to ensure that she takes all of her employees’ thoughts and experiences into account as she manages the team. Additionally, she also has to ensure that everyone is on the same page, which can be difficult when the team members are logging in from across the country. Above all else, it’s crucial to maintain a healthy connection amongst the team, even when people aren’t working together face-to-face.

“As leaders, I think we really need to set the tone and set the environment where the communication flows and everybody is on the same page,” she says.

Carla’s CX Strategy

When it comes to KPIs, Carla looks at CSAT scores, first response time, and average handle time. In a live platform like chat or email, she wants to see how fast her agents are responding to customers, whereas average handle time depends on the content of the interaction. 

If a customer reaches out with an issue that needs to be resolved, the average handle time needs to be as quick as possible. On the other hand, if a customer asks for advice, the agent should take as much time to ensure the customer receives information that is the most helpful for their needs. In this case, the goal is for the customer to understand how great the brand is by receiving a starter course in the brand’s vast array of products.

“We want our agents to spend as much time as possible with that customer [and] make sure that the consultation is a full cycle, that they are getting everything that they need, and that we are able as well to show how amazing our brand is and [how] our products differentiate from other businesses,” she says.

Carla does frequent quality checks. The team leads analyze tickets and gives feedback to agents weekly. By providing these one-on-one sessions, the agents can see how they can improve.

Prioritizing Proactive CX

Lush agents can interact with customers from four live channels — chat, phone, email, and SMS. Her team provides online support whenever customers need it. She encourages her agents to provide seamless customer interactions. When working with a customer, agents can see their previous interactions and purchase history, which helps them get a glimpse of the customer’s preferences and understand who the customer is. 

“It’s really like bringing all that together so the communication between us and the customer is always backed up by their entire history,” she says.

Driving Revenue Through Customer Experience

Lush agents are trained in the selling cycle to keep revenue at the top of their minds. Driving revenue is important for her team, so sometimes leadership will provide agents with brand gift cards to try out products in-store. This helps them know more about the products and what the shopping experience feels like. The goal is to bring that same experience to the online platform and through agents’ CX interactions.

“You are the one who actually can make a difference because you are the one directly having the contact with our customers,” she says, “Who better than you to be the real brand ambassador?”

Carla believes that it’s completely different having tried a product rather than just reading about its benefits. She has seen her agents connect with customers by recommending helpful products based on their needs and preferences. Overall, these tactics create a true connection between the agent and customer.

“It’s not copy and paste,” she explains, “It’s not automated. It’s really emotional. It’s really personal… and that makes the conversations completely different. You can feel when someone is only copy and paste and when someone is really involved.”

Sometimes, Carla’s team will do product review where each agent presents products that they’ve tried and talks about their experience. Agents can also share tickets that they are proud of with the team and their coworkers will look at them and share their feedback. It’s a great way to create a communal connection amongst the team, which is what she hopes to encourage in her CX work.

“Creating that community within our team and letting them give feedback to each other, letting them learn from each other as well, that’s really cool,” she says.

Integrating AI into Customer Experience

The Lush Cosmetics CX team uses AI in a lot of its communication channels. For instance, they use answer bots for live chats, and AI is also used during email interactions to gather a summary of what the customer is asking for.

Carla believes that it’s important to use AI because it can be very resourceful and efficient not only for agents and customers, but also for the business as a whole. But she reinforces that AI does not replace the human interaction that makes meaningful connections between customers and businesses.

Advice for CX Leaders

“As leaders,” Carla explains, “we have such a major part in setting the tone and the vibe of our team.”

CX leaders can create the type of team they want to see by being the type of leader that reflects it. Carla’s team is fun and motivated to create connections with customers, and that environment begins with the management team and the leadership they put forth. 

Carla also advises CX leaders to put their team first. You must always do the best for your team and check your team’s results. From that outcome, you can see how your team can improve and also how you can improve as a leader. Always keep this cycle going, she explains, because you must always want to elevate yourself and your team.

“When you are paying attention to your people… You don’t see them as customer care agents. You know exactly who they are as a person — how they like to receive feedback, their strengths, their opportunities — and then you can keep the continuous improvement cycle going,” she says.

Tech Stack

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