At A Glance

At Woof, Grace Bagley is not just leading customer service—she’s building a brand voice that resonates with dog lovers everywhere. From leveraging AI to proactive CX strategies, Grace’s approach focuses on empathy and trust. Explore her insights into crafting human connections through CX and how she keeps her team motivated and customers coming back, tails wagging!

Who is Grace?

Meet Grace, Director of Customer Experience at Woof!

About Woof

Woof makes dog life easier to give you more special moments with your pup. The company began when Daniel, the founder, invented the Pupsicle to entertain his dog after he got surgery. Once his dog started using the toy, Daniel discovered that the Pupsicle had many other benefits. He then began creating other designs, and thus, Woof was born!

Grace’s CX Journey

At the time when Grace was scouted for her previous role, she was in the art space, where she worked in fine art printing and interacted with customers face-to-face. Although she wasn’t in tech, she began working for Chatdesk, a company that partners AI with freelance-based customer support, based on her CX track record. 

After getting laid off, she was picked up by Woof. Grace fell into the role and has enjoyed creating her own CX system.

Because she considers herself very empathetic and talkative, Grace was a great fit for customer experience. She likes talking to people, finding out what makes them tick, and helping them, but she doesn’t enjoy leading the conversation with a sale.

“I’m way better at creating trust than I am at selling something,” she says.

Grace looks at CX as a way of being in sales without having to sell. In her opinion, CX is a great way for chatty people to connect with others, and to enhance the customer experience with empathy and a genuine connection.

The CX Team at Woof

Woof’s CX team is made up of 8 people who are mainly remote, but there’s one person who works in-house and handles escalations. They’re the main social voice for the brand.

The team also uses Chatdesk, Grace’s former employer. There, agents have macro templates and incorporate AI to provide customer responses in the correct brand voice. The company stems from a giant knowledge base.

From a management perspective, Grace doesn’t have any major challenges. Her team works very well together, and shares a goal of providing the best service for their customers.

“I think I just got very lucky in having a fantastic team,” she says, “So much of your experience is made by the coworkers that you have, whether it’s a good job or a bad job.”

Otherwise, from a CX standpoint, one of the challenges her team faces is having to respond to every channel all the time and within a reasonable time frame such as chat.

Grace’s CX Strategy

Grace looks at CSAT scores, response time, and tracks NPS when it comes to KPI measurements. CSAT and response time are the top two measurements, considering that resolution time isn’t as big of a driver for her team. 

She tracks each aspect weekly and uses Gorgias to analyze these trends over time. Overall, she loves looking at the logistics of customer experience.

Prioritizing Proactive CX

Grace considers proactive customer experience a mass effort through all of the departments, including marketing and operations. Her team gets a decent amount of pre-purchase questions that revolve around sizing, color, flavor, and other minor things that a potential customer would want to know. 

AI and Chat Desk are great for those questions because they use quick, simple answers that can be automated for each customer. Even though these responses are automated, it still gives the customer a good experience. Post-purchase is where her team’s human interactions come further into play.

Driving Revenue Through Customer Experience

Grace’s team uses gentle winback strategies to drive customer experience, such as offering monthly discounts when a customer wants to cancel their subscription or giving out store credit when customers ask for a refund. Grace doesn’t want customers to feel as though they’re going through loops when they want a direct solution to their problem, so her team uses these windbacks within reason.

“We just have a really warm presence with our customers and it feels like you’re kind of spitting in the face of that a little if you try to hardball it, you know?”

The team usually offers a refund replacement or store credit with an incentive of $5. While most people prefer a refund, this option works for the team 20-30% of the time. It’s all about giving customers control, which can be a meaningful interaction.

“It’s certainly been an improvement,” she says. “I like being able to give people [an option] if they had a bad experience with one product, but not sending them another… Just give them as much control as you can.”

Integrating AI into Customer Experience

In the right time and place, Grace believes, AI should absolutely be used because it can give the correct answers ten times faster than a person can. She loves AI, but within reason.

“If it can give you correct answers [quicker] than a person can, I would take that as a customer,” she says.

The team’s AI automation operates through Gorgias. If a customer reaches out and their question matches a keyword, the tool will refer to an article that relates to their question. If that doesn’t help, then the team will reach out to provide extra assistance.

Advice for CX Leaders

Being a successful CX leader is all about keeping a level head, Grace explains. When customers reach out with negative comments, it’s important to remember that they are messaging a brand, not you. Moreover, it’s good to put each negative interaction into perspective. In Woof’s case, if a customer is reaching out in concern, Grace can understand that because they might be worried about their pet.

“Every now and then, there’s a message that kind of drives you nuts or someone’s not listening to you,” she says. “Admittedly, that used to upset me over the past few years, but I realized they have no idea who I am… We all will get a little bit upset. It’s [typically] around something that we love.”

Tech Stack

Gorgias

Stamped

Rise

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