An Interview with Giulia Klees - MAC Cosmetics Retail Operations Manager

Just last week Giulia Klees the Retail Operations Manager for MAC (Estee Lauder) joined us in Paris for a very special event on 'Empowering your in-store staff'. Ahead of the session we caught up with Giulia and asked her a few questions about the MAC Cosmetics Voice of the Customer program across France & their collaboration with Critizr. 

What’s your philosophy for Customer Focus: both your personal values and those of the company and group?

It is simple: we seek to give "the power" of Customer Relationship Management to the Store Managers. For us, what’s most important, is the store teams are able to have autonomous conversations with their customers, whether about a negative or positive interaction. This empowers the teams around Customer Satisfaction as it becomes a local responsibility.

It also motivates them, because they are exposed to all the reviews, including the positive opinions that are often addressed to them.

Finally, it also ensures our customers get a more proactive response from the brand in the event of a problem and the appropriate response to their issue. For example, there may be a need to offer a promotional incentive to a customer, the store manager is able to make the decision. They can also suggest a product, offer to come into the shop and meet one of our make-up artists, etc. They know their shop layout, their customers, their colleagues, they are the best person to respond to their customers and ensure satisfaction.

How long have you worked with Critizr?

We have been working with Critizr for 1 year. Critizr's solution is connected to all MAC Cosmetics stores. We were looking for a partner capable of supporting us in collecting customer reviews (spontaneous and solicited) and promoting conversation between the local teams (53 managers) and our customers. We collect customer reviews from our stores and our e-commerce site and respond to our customers via Critizr in less than 48 hours. We monitor the progress of different satisfaction indicators, shop by shop, more than in just a comparative way, the customer experience offered by some is not the same as in others!

What is the most important thing when you start a Voice of the Customer Program?

It’s to raise awareness throughout the entire retail network. We went step by step to get the teams on board. The solution was first tested by headquarters and then deployed more widely in the stores. Critizr assisted us in the internal communication and familiarisation stages of the tool, through presentations at company seminars, training and the development of response guides to help managers with advice on how to converse with customers. Our teams no longer rely on these guides today as they are now completely autonomous when they reply to Customers. The most important thing to ensure the success of this approach: involve the local team by giving them the tools to interact with their customers and improve satisfaction.

Thank you Giulia! 

If you'd like to hear more about our collaboration with MAC Cosmetics please get in touch.