In this Q&A, FastGrowthBrands speaks to Melanie Travis, founder & CEO of women's swimwear brand, Andie. Melanie explains how our current situation is changing how businesses must approach customer service, what it means for companies' marketing messages and whether these changes will linger on once the virus has passed. 

Why does the current global pandemic mean changes for how businesses should approach customer service interaction? 

First and foremost, we are all humans in the same boat, experiencing a global challenge that has uprooted many people’s lives. While the bulk of our interactions with customers are still related to swimsuits, there are more gestures of kindness and moments of genuine connection.

Businesses will need to demonstrate that they’re empathetic to the challenges many people are facing, which likely means more flexible policies. For example, we’re making our return policy more flexible by accepting returns for store credit/exchanges outside of our regular return window; access to printers and post offices are less of a given during quarantine!

What steps has Andie taken to meet growing demand for better CX?

We’re continuing to do what we’ve always done well (personalised interactions with customers), while encouraging customers to engage with us in new ways (we’ve opened live phone lines, encouraged text engagement to meet customers where they are; a lot of times people just want to talk to someone!)

One member of the CX team is focused on community management, so there’s a tight feedback loop between CX and the marketing/brand teams. We’ve been posting more content across all channels during quarantine, so having this feedback loop helps the team stay current on what types of posts and messages are resonating with customers.

How has changes to your CX affected your marketing messaging?

Once customers realise who our CX team is, we have seen our customers really resonate with our in-house CX team (and they have the highest conversion rate of all touchpoints!), therefore, we’ve begun to message to drive awareness to the fact that:

- Our CX team exists

- They are real humans (women!) who work at Andie HQ

- They are sensitive and supportive

- They know our products best and can make personalised recommendations for customers

Do you think this focus on improved CX will continue after the pandemic is over? 

This has always been a priority for Andie; the pandemic has just demonstrated that there are even more ways that customers want to engage with us. Our customers have always been comfortable sharing details about their bodies and swimwear needs, but in the time of COVID-19 we’re also realising that they just crave genuine human connection. Maybe there will be more services for Andie customers in the future (e.g. recipe tips and vacation planning services).

How else do you think COVID-19 will change the way brands do business?

The brands that survive will be leaner and more efficient than before; new brands that emerge during or after this time will also focus more on strong business fundamentals that can help companies weather unexpected storms.