Gucci turns to call centres to lure high-spending millennial shoppers
Fashion brand tries to reinvent the traditional shop assistant for the smartphone age
Gucci is opening six customer service centres, including in Florence and Shanghai, staffed by 500 people, as the company tries to reinvent the traditional shop assistant for the smartphone age.
The call centres, which will resemble Gucci shops, are intended to cater for shoppers wanting to discuss a $2,200 GG handbag or a $1,590 pair of trainers by phone, email or live chat.
It is the latest move by the Italian fashion brand, which is part of the French group Kering, to keep up with rapidly changing consumer habits, which has helped the company deliver industry-leading sales growth in recent years.
Marco Bizzarri, Gucci’s chairman and chief executive, said the call centres aim to give customers “a direct connection to the Gucci community that is seamless, always accessible, personalised experience”.
Gucci has branded the new client service centers with the name Gucci 9, an indication of importance it is placing on the rollout of the centers in driving sales.
Industry analysts are closely watching the next steps from Mr Bizzarri, and Gucci’s designer, Alessandro Michele, to see if they will be able to hit the company’s target of €10bn in revenues and further close the gap on rival Louis Vuitton.
Luca Solca, an analyst, said Gucci has grown at a “pace never seen before” by a big brand by understanding the new social and technological trends that are reshaping the idea of luxury. “A generation shift and the internet are the root cause,” said Mr Solca.
However, the pressure to sustain that growth is rising. Although Gucci’s 20 per cent jump in organic sales last quarter led the industry, the pick-up failed to outpace the consensus of financial analysts in the way it did a year ago.
The company’s main call centre on the outskirts of Florence opened this month, and offers an idea of how Gucci hopes they will help. In a 2,300 sq m building with similarities to the group’s store in Milan, rows of smartly dressed young people sit at desks chatting on phones or tapping at emails.
Mr Bizzarri said it is a place where he and his team can “explore the best ways to optimise the remote client experience” that is important for driving sales particularly among fickle, smartphone-addicted millennial shoppers who account for more than half of Gucci’s revenues. Call centre staff are encouraged to strike up personal relationships online with high-spending callers, just as the traditional shop assistant would.
Gucci’s latest Ophidia GG handbags and Flashtrek trainers sit on yellow coloured boiserie shelves, while upholstered screens divide up rooms, helping to muffle sound. In an adjacent room, young people in jeans and Gucci sneakers drink espresso from a bar. While it looks like an expensively appointed start-up, it is full of 150 people answering calls from customers in 26 countries who want to buy, return or chat about Gucci — invariably from their smartphones.
It is brisk work. On a recent Friday, a digital screen at one end of the room shows 74 calls have been received. Another screen shows tens of thousands of euros of sales have been logged. And it is just before 10 in the morning.
By 2020, Gucci plans to open similar call centres in New York, Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai and Singapore.
But the most prized luxury they promise has nothing to do with technology: there is no limit to the length of time a caller can talk to a real person on the phone.