From Storefronts to Screens: Inside Customer Care at Lush

There’s something endearing about the theatre of shopping on the high street. That distinctive hustle and bustle. That distinctive energising atmosphere. There’s also somewhat of an evolution slash transformation of these spaces transpiring today set against the rise of online commerce, higher trading costs, and shifting consumer buying behaviours. Bricks and mortar retailers, both large and small, both traditional chain stores and independent outlets, are struggling to circumvent the convenient shopping model offered by the likes of Amazon.

There are exceptions to this trend, though. Success stories of those thriving in meeting this moment.

Step forward... LUSH.

Indeed, the brand that’s a staple on most major high streets across the UK and visible in dozens of major cities worldwide is seeing business boom. Founded in 1995, it cuts through some of the conventional high street clutter through its unique, handmade product proposals and its unique capacity to provide authentic, novel experiences (think: onsite beauty treatments, hand massages, hair clinics). Then there’s the fact that LUSH is big on environmental advocacy and putting into practice what it preaches – in other words, its mission (to Leave the World Lusher Than We Found It) is aligned with those of modern consumers, particularly younger demographics; it connects with its customer base on a personal level.

Over the last few years, LUSH has been augmenting its customer experience by building a scalable digital shopping space designed to drive sales and inspire loyalty in the same way its vibrant stores do. It now has an online and offline ecosystem up there with the best of them. So, what’s it like managing the global customer care operation at this flourishing retail giant right now? It’s a role so huge, that LUSH has two people dedicated to it: Naomi Rankin and Sonya Fanson. Here, our Industry Analyst Simon Hall quizzes them both.

Simon Hall: Naomi, Sonya, welcome! Thank you for joining me. You both share the same job title at LUSH - Global Customer Care Manager. There are so many functions that fall under the umbrella of customer care, so to kick us off, can you give us a sense of what your roles entail?

Naomi Rankin: Sonya and I are like this great Venn diagram.

I worked in the health service for a long time, straight from school, and I brought a lot of systems knowledge with me because I used to handle the admin and IT infrastructure for GP surgeries. When I came into customer care at LUSH, Zendesk had just been implemented, which was new for the team, and I grew organically with that.

Much of the work I do is around analysing how we can unify systems, make our workflows smoother, and operate more cohesively across our teams. As an example, we recently brought all the countries into one instance of Zendesk; a project that culminated with the integration of our North American partners. I thrive on crunching the big algorithms and exploring how everything can blend together. It’s coming into play more and more because our customers simply consider LUSH to be LUSH. They don’t care where we’re physically sat – they believe our customer care teams should know everything regardless of where they’re actually located. For us, it’s about tapping into that mandate and meeting those customer needs.

Where Sonya and I crossover is our love for both our people and the business. We care deeply about the wellbeing of our teams.

Sonya Fanson: Absolutely! I started in the shop in Poole, overseeing teams and overseeing the opening of the LUSH spa onsite there. I was managing all the staff, and we also had the founders working in the building, which was a lot to juggle and navigate. After that I moved into people services where I worked for a while before moving into the spa training side of things as well. And then, seven years ago, I switched into customer care to work with Naomi, and I’ve never looked back.

We've both got very different skill sets but fuse into one and we do crossover. My technology head doesn’t quite match Naomi's, so I focus on the elements around the people – pay structures, team structures, etc. I look at training and all those bits and pieces. There’s just too much to do for one person, hence why there's two of us. We look after 21 countries and 15 languages, and we have to run payroll in line with all the different EU laws. I’m sorting out contracts for Sweden one minute, then France the next. And everyone's got a different law. It’s demanding.

SH: What are the biggest challenges you’re facing when it comes to running such a vast customer management operation across so many different markets and languages?

NR: We have what’s called LUSH Group, which is owned by LUSH UK. And then the other countries are running like a franchise model. The customer care teams in 21 of those countries come under our direct management and we have tight relationships with most others. Only a small selection prefer to work more separately, but we’re continually becoming more aligned. The South Korean team, for instance – they’re a big franchise partner and they've been operating for over two decades but recently we've started to work closely with them because we want to unify how we approach customer care across markets and regions. Indeed, that was one of the first challenges I encountered when I moved to the UK team – we get customers from all over the world coming into the UK contact centre because they know we’re a UK-headquartered business. If they have an issue they can’t resolve, they come to us to fix it because they think we’re the mothership.

In the last three years, all the group countries have moved, and everything sits on one lush.com site – customers reach the right team based on the location their browser is set to. What this means, though, is that all our customer care teams are working in the same backend – if there's an issue or something goes wrong technically, we can run into problems. Nevertheless, it's great in real time because you can see everyone talking to each other and supporting each other – we might have someone in a smaller team, or someone new to our contact centre, asking for guidance and we’ll see experienced agents from different countries chiming in with solutions. We’ve fostered a lovely global support system.

For some of the larger teams – those in the UK and North America – there can be a tendency to stick to themselves and we're constantly trying to bring them in. We work hard in this area – encouraging people who have been doing the job the same way for a long time to broaden their perspective and step out from their cosy place. We’re always telling those agents that if they collaborated with other team members, who may not speak the same language yet do the same job, then they would see great results. And they do, once they're brave enough to engage. The more isolated, smaller teams really appreciate the connectivity because typically they don't have a colleague next to them to whom they can ask a question or solicit advice – but now they can virtually.

We find the people who make really great customer care advisors are very in touch with their empathy and their emotions. But the flip side to that can be they can get quite anxious. We encourage people and reiterate our unwavering support. One of the challenges is integrating AI – there is undoubtedly a degree of skepticism when it comes to this technology and people are concerned that it will replace certain functions. It’s our job to reassure them to the contrary and distill how it can help make their job easier and better – it's there to remove all the repetitive, boring admin work so they can spend more time delivering meaningful support.

"We find the people who make really great customer care advisors are very in touch with their empathy and their emotions. But the flip side to that can be they can get quite anxious."

SH: I was reading an interview with Kasey Swithenbank, the Head of Retail at LUSH, in which she talked about the emphasis the company places on its physical stores because it is by its very nature a sensory, experiential brand. How do approach the job of crafting one single, seamless customer experience across online and offline channels?

SF: For starters, our team in the contact centre have exactly the same training as those working in-store. They have all the essential product knowledge. We'll send products for them to try, and experience, so when they're engaging with customers, they know what they're talking about, and they can feel confident in what they're doing. That's always been key for us: they’re effectively shop floor staff but on the end of the phone or at the end of a live chat. They need to have the same knowledge as everyone else.

We put great emphasis on the training and development of the team from that viewpoint – developing their skills around product description. Why? Because if, for example, a customer comes on the phone and starts chatting about one specific fragrance group, our agents need to be able to speak to that and cross-sell where appropriate – which is, of course, much easier on the shop floor. They're amazingly talented – they can conjure up imagery and a sensory experience for a customer without having the products there to feel and smell. Similarly, if an agent is speaking on a call or a live chat – we've got internal channels where they can talk to, and ask questions to, other agents around recommendations or cross-selling best practices. They're sharing knowledge with each other all the time in an effort to improve that customer journey.

SH: There’s a lot written and reported about LUSH’s commitment to sustainable and ethical practices: indeed, it’s very much part of your brand identity. How does that factor into the work you do?

NR: Yes, it’s big for us.

We believe we should treat our customers and their data ethically. We're really lean on what we store locally. LUSH is a lovely, relaxed place to work, but when it comes to data privacy, we drill home to our staff how important it is to handle sensitive information with care. In customer service we’re in a position to see the whole customer journey from the very beginning to the very end. By nature, as a necessity, we have access to customers’ names and addresses, their correspondence with us, and their transaction details. We need to look after that data in the strictest terms.

Then there’s the focus on looking after our staff, which crosses over into our interactions with customers. Naturally, there are times when our frontline teams must deal with unhappy customers and sometimes it comes across in the way they speak. Whenever that happens, we really encourage our agents to just take five minutes out and take time for themselves rather than let that cloud the rest of their day and possibly other interactions with other customers.

"LUSH is a lovely, relaxed place to work, but when it comes to data privacy, we drill home to our staff how important it is to handle sensitive information with care."

SF: We always try to accommodate our customers however we can as well. For instance, we have a handful of older customers who've been with us for years, and they don't like using the Internet very much, so they still ring up and we still take telephone orders for them.

That's another example of how we translate our offline presence into our online one – we look to build that feeling customers get in the shop where people have become friends with their local shop staff. When I worked on the shop floor, I got to know our regular customers and they would often pop in to say hello and just have a chat – you’re not constantly pushing them to buy stuff. You're building up this personal relationship with them.

And to Naomi’s point on employee welfare – we always try to ensure we’re doing things ethically. We don't have sales commissions, which I think is important for a contact centre. Our teams aren’t penalised if they don’t sell loads of products – that's not what they're there for and their wellbeing is important to us. If you have a happy team, and you care for them and you're accommodating where you can be, and you treat them as people with families and outside responsibilities, then you’ll create a positive, dynamic working environment. That’s what we have and that’s something we're really proud of.

NR: Having worked in the health service, coming to LUSH was such a relief because it took such a huge amount of stress away from me. I want to make sure that our teams are happy and they enjoy coming to work. Then it has a knock-on effect: if we have happy staff, that will naturally translate into happy customers.

SH: I've been reading a lot about the work that LUSH does in that area. The fact the brand came off Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat until they take action to make their spaces safer...

SF: That was so good for us. When the business came off social media, it was primarily a stance against the potential serious effects of those platforms, particularly around mental health. But the impact it had on our customer care teams was just incredible as well, because social media comes with so much trolling and negativity. A large amount of the content there isn’t even relevant, but the team had to read through it regardless to discover if there was anything important – an authentic customer query or concern. Taking that out of their day-to-day, from a well-being perspective, added so much to the team. The relief that came from removing all that constant stream of negativity was massive.

NR: Of course, consumers still talk on social media and they always will. But we choose not to see it. Our true customers – those who know us well – still come to us and challenge us. Now, though, because it’s dealt with on a one-to-one basis, the team member managing it will be armed with brand-stamped tools and statements to respond accordingly. Our decision to step away from that whole world was designed so that our customers wouldn’t have to go through those spaces to find us and connect with us. If they're still there, that's up to them. But we're not directing them there.

We’ve invested in alternative channels, most notably our own app called Bathe. It has curated meditation and playlists embedded within it and consumers can pick their bath bomb or whatever product they choose and immerse themselves in the LUSH experience. It has these lovely uplifting, calming ways to de-stress and it ties into our campaign to come offline – it's something that the company really believes in. The people who work at LUSH come here because they share that mindset – we want to make the world a better place.

"When the business came off social media, it was primarily a stance against the potential serious effects of those platforms, particularly around mental health. But the impact it had on our customer care teams was just incredible as well."

SH: Let’s dive into this technology piece, because it is one of the most fascinating aspects about LUSH. Retailers are not typically innovators in the realm of technology, but LUSH is pushing boundaries in this space through its app and its Lush Lens digital packaging solution. Can you run us through the technology journey you’re on at LUSH and where it fits into the architecture of your customer care strategy?

NR: When I first started, everyone was working out of Gmail inboxes in different countries. Can you imagine? Originally, because we are a bricks and mortar business, the customer care team started out from mail order. Then, over time, the website became more sophisticated and online sales grew. The customer care teams grew naturally out of necessity, but they'd never really been properly organised or trained.

Sonya and I have brought people together onto this one system gradually and finally, this year, we've got every single group team in there. Now we have e-mail and telephone calls all coming in through Zendesk. Our agents are in one place. They can communicate with each other and transfer knowledge, documents, etc. Our website is language led via the browser – you'll get the right warehouse because you choose your location. If you choose the English browser, you'll get an English agent. We're able to facilitate that because everything is connected on the other side.

Aside from that, we have also partnered with Ultimate to utilise their AI ticket bot. We rolled it out in November 2022 in time for Black Friday. Every year at this time, rather than have a sale, LUSH usually go offline completely and/or we have a campaign about stepping outside and taking time to recharge. And every year, we get inundated with messages from customers enquiring whether we do indeed have a sale. So, that was the first test of the technology, and the results were amazing. In the first four weeks, it successfully responded to 57% of our incoming tickets because Black Friday queries were the main subject of customer outreach. We then gradually expanded the functionality. It started off in English only, but now it responds in 10 different languages for the most frequently asked, top slice questions. The knock-on effect of that is our agents now have more time to deal with customers that need one-to-one attention.

That was our first tiptoe into AI.

We’re also using Zendesk for the messaging service we have on the website. Our chatbot is relatively simple at the moment, but we're developing its capabilities. That's our next project – we’ll use those flows to have simple conversations and help consumers self-serve as much as they want to, while simultaneously keeping agents available to them if they so need.

SF: For us, it's having the people work in tandem with technology, and that all stems from the work in the factory – our products are made by hand. Everything is very people led.

One of the advantages we have as a company is that it’s still owned by the Founders. They still retain that daily influence on the products we make and how they are released into the market. Naomi and I will often get emails from them enquiring about how customers are responding to new releases, new offers, new shop layouts, etc. They want to know what our customers think, and that's perhaps something we do slightly differently in relation to other contact centres – we're not just trying to get through customer problems as quickly and cheaply as possible.

We record all our conversations – we tag and classify every single interaction our agents have with customers because we want to get granular with customer feedback. We run comprehensive reports and within days of something new going live, be it a product or service, we can adapt and pivot where necessary. If there is a common problem or, on the contrary, we’re receiving great feedback – from one spectrum to the other – we can go the relevant teams and impart that information. And it can be simple stuff – maybe there’s an issue with a new bottle top, or maybe we need to tone down some colours, or maybe a new formula we’re trying isn’t resonating. Whatever it is, we can quickly remove products from the market, make changes, and get them back out on sale again. We wouldn't be able to do that without listening to our customers in the moment. It's great for us to have all this first-party data at our fingertips and for us to be able to share it. Those systems or workflows were never there before because the information wasn’t stored anywhere.

The technology powering the business is always at the forefront of our thinking. What can we do? What can we create? Those are the questions we ask ourselves. We have a specific business area dedicated solely to innovation and technology – that's what they do day in, day out. It’s quite unusual for a retail company to have that. We’re continually pushing boundaries around what’s possible and trying to make the customer journey as seamless and enjoyable and delightful as it can be. Some things work. Some things don't. But if we don’t try, we're not going to find anything different. We’re tweaking and doing quality assurance testing all the time. But it means we can adapt as we go.

"The technology powering the business is always at the forefront of our thinking. What can we do? What can we create? Those are the questions we ask ourselves."

SH: Naomi, in a recent video interview you mentioned your customer satisfaction (CSAT) score sits above 90%, way above the industry average that typically hovers in the mid-70s. How do you track and measure that?

NR: We track it with Zendesk – all our conversations come into Zendesk. Whenever a ticket is resolved, however it came in, be it through SMS or email, the customer will receive a survey at the end. We’ll ask them about satisfaction scores there.

But our customers will tell us through other channels as well – they're more like a fan base than a customer base. They won’t hesitate to tell us if they hate something or love something. They’re very vocal. They’re passionate about the brand, which is lovely. They’re essentially our driving force – we want them to be happy and to keep using our products. Our aim isn't necessarily to close a ticket quickly or to take more money off someone; our aim is to make people fall in love with the brand then keep them coming back for more – those are the principles that underpin everything we do. And that doesn't always mean you take cash at the end of the day. Of course, often it does, because people want to spend their money in places they're happy, but that's almost a happy circumstance at the end.

Our role in customer care is to make sure we retain that custom.

SH: Looking to the future to wrap us up and I have two questions in one. First, what’s coming next in terms of your customer care enterprise at LUSH? And second, more generally, what’s the next big thing that’s going to disrupt the retail sector?

NR: There’s an interesting dynamic at play right now.

Consumers today have a warring conundrum in their heads. Naturally they still want to buy things and get that feeling of instant gratification, but there is also undoubtedly a growing awareness of the world. Gen Z are all over it. And so, from a brand perspective, there’s no getting away from having to be responsible.

The question then is: how do we as a retail company balance that with still giving people what they want? There needs to be a level of self-reflection and self-awareness built into company operations. That’s something we do really well.

SF: Yeah, our values flow into that. Being able to see the value and the ethics behind products on the shelves is an important component of retail for consumers now – people are very conscious of that when they’re shopping with LUSH. Indeed, they’re shopping with us for that exact reason a lot of the time. They also want to feel a sense of value in every step of the customer journey from start to finish. It's not just the product; it's the experience in-store, the experience on the phone, the experience via e-mail.

NR: And holding people accountable. You can't make throwaway statements anymore. If you say something, you have to mean it and you have to stand by it. That's what I love about many of our campaigns – we hold ourselves accountable. Hopefully we’ll always be like that. And interestingly, our staff hold the business accountable. We're constantly self-measuring, which is great, and the customer care teams are on the front line of that.

We have to be well informed and make sure that, however we're representing, we have good foundations.

For more critical insights from members of our community, check out all the other interviews in our View from the Boardroom series.