Engaging Experience. How is the Jewelry Scenario Evolving?

Before summer, Gucci, a Kering Group leader, an- nounced the launch of “Gucci 9”, a new global client services center with over 150 multi-lingual customer service representatives in brick-and-mortar and on- line stores in 26 countries in the Emeair region. The initiative was well timed with the openings of the analog spaces in New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore and there is a great desire to guarantee familiarity and offer customers a localized and totally integrated experience, as explained by Marco Bizzarri, the President and Ceo of the maison, «Gucci 9’s mission is to offer worldwide clients a direct link to the Gucci community, creating a constant, accessible and per- sonalized experience. The service given is in line with the values that de ne our brand today and set it apart: a human approach, reinforced and supported by technology.» According to Altagamma’s analysis, luxury sales will reach 1.256 billion euros in 2025, boasting about 500 million consumers. Buyers are mostly Millennials and Gen Zeds – while in terms of nationality, the Chinese will play a key role - and their pro les have led companies to rethink their engagement strategies. As for the rest, as analyzed by Forrester Research, the companies most sensitive to the idea of customer service are the ones who saw the best results in terms of profit growth, «That’s not all, we’re seeing that the amount customers spend is strongly influenced by the relationship with the company and when it’s strong, customer spending significantly increases,» continued Federica Aceto, Ipsos Customer Experience leader. «The experience has proven to be a fundamental driver in how customers choose what to buy and large companies, though even small-to-medium, which are growing, look for a multi-channel approach and work to seize this opportunity, providing personalized services and capitalizing on all the information that an immediate and direct contact can give you. The focus on the customer journey is re-defining the processes, shifting it to client and obligating companies to be more exible and adaptable in an ever-changing context. Being able to offer a distinctive journey is reflected in the results and allows for greater resonance, given that consumers trust the judgment and reviews of those who have already tried a product or service.» In the era of social media, companies equip themselves with the ability to give across-the-board experiences, which crosses the con nes of sales into an intimate and personalized dimension. Big data and physical and virtual touch points are just a part of the process destined to revolutionize company culture in terms of how they relate to the public. And its increasingly luxury companies that look for professionals who can support this change, thanks to specialized CVs full of business skills, knowledge about trends and public engagement abilities. In light of this, the rst short course in Fashion and Luxury Management has debuted in Milan at the European Business School. The initiative aims to form highly specialized gures. Martino Garavaglia, Ese Marketing Manager explains, «We speak continually about the customer journey and experience, but companies don’t always have people who e ectively understand all the aspects of this issue. We opened the candidacy and we were immediately contacted by players such as Gucci and Chanel, just to name a few. The customer experience manager has many different skills: the person must have a marketing and communications background and must be an expert in buyer behavior and have digital and business knowledge.»

Text by Barbara Rodeschini