Global athletic apparel brand
Taking a Global Brand to the Next Level of Customer Engagement
What if... we could create a seamless experience for customers to interact with the brand from anywhere?
One of the largest lifestyle brands in the world, our client works to unite the world through sport to create a healthy planet, active communities, and an equal playing field for all.
They create innovative, must-have products while building deep personal connections with consumers and delivering an integrated marketplace with compelling retail experiences.
An Omnichannel Solution for Customer Engagement
As consumer expectations for brand engagement shift further toward mobile and social channels – the avenues through which they’re already interacting with friends and family – our client recognized the need to update its customer service and mobile offerings to facilitate a more seamless, omnichannel experience.
It wanted to cultivate a deep level of engagement and strengthen its direct-to-consumer game by making customer interactions through its digital platforms as frictionless as possible.
Our client wanted to update and expand this experience across the entire customer journey and through a variety of platforms, including its mobile apps, social media, and websites.
A Foundation for Customer Engagement Across Channels
It was soon realized, however, that traditional contact center solutions would not be flexible or scalable enough to meet the company’s needs, nor would they provide the unique experiences that loyal customers have come to expect from the brand.
We worked with our client to select and then implement the cloud-based Twilio Flex platform, which features a flexible, easily customizable, and scalable solution that could provide seamless communication across the company’s many channels.
As a Twilio premier partner, we were able to integrate Twilio Flex with the client’s mobile app. Twilio Flex can also be easily integrated with other communication platforms customers utilize, such as Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and voice calling, without having to build new infrastructure for each channel.
As the client integrates Twilio Flex with additional channels, the company’s customer care agents will have insight into all interactions through a single interface.
Expanding the Partnership to Mobile
In addition to a new contact center solution, the client was also looking to completely reinvent the customer care chat experience in its mobile app, which customers use to shop for and purchase products, interact with experts and customer service agents, and engage with the community.
Impressed with our expertise and thought leadership, the client asked us to complete the mobile app development as well.
Reimagining How Customers Shop with Brand Experts
Our mobile team collaborated with the client’s in-house designers to develop a custom chat experience that would integrate with Twilio Flex, connecting into the omnichannel customer engagement foundation we had previously laid. This collaboration marked the first time an external partner had worked directly on the mobile app – a distinction we were honored to receive.
The end result of our work is a smooth and intuitive mobile experience that enables users to easily communicate with experts and customer care agents as they shop within the app. Because we developed and packaged the new mobile solution as a reusable framework, they can also easily incorporate the same user-friendly chat functionality into its other native mobile apps in the future.
Connecting Customers and Products Through AI-Powered Visual Search
Following the success of our first mobile collaboration, we continued to help update and enhance our client’s mobile app. The next project we worked on came from the company’s internal innovations group, which wanted to bring a powerful visual search experience to the mobile app.
The visual search tool enables customers to either capture a new photo or upload an existing photo to the built-in search bar. The search engine, powered by artificial intelligence (AI), will then surface any matching or similar-looking products the company has in stock.
Bringing the Brand Community Together
The next innovative feature planned for the mobile app aimed to improve the mobile shoe-shopping experience by helping customers identify their ideal size for each individual pair of shoes using only their phones and their feet.
We helped build the new-to-market mobile experience. The result is a journey where customers can add a scanned image of their feet to their profile. Their ideal size is then displayed on each individual product page – eliminating the need for in-store trips to try shoes on and reducing the number of returns due to incorrect size.
The collection of mobile solutions around conversational commerce, artificial intelligence, community and augmented reality help customers enjoy a seamless ecommerce experience on the go while engaging with the brand on their terms.
Helping Customers Find the Right Fit
The next innovative feature the client has planned for the mobile app aims to improve the mobile shoe-shopping experience by helping customers identify their ideal size for each individual pair of shoes using only their phones and their feet.
This journey began when the client acquired a company with scanning technology that uses machine learning to make sizing recommendations based on an image of the customer’s feet. The client has introduced this technology in its brick-and-mortar locations and asked us to help bring it to the ecommerce mobile app as well.
We helped build the mobile experience and integrate it with the scanning technology. The end result will be a smooth shopping journey where customers can add the scanned image of their feet to their profile. Their ideal size will then be displayed on each individual product page – since different types of shoes may fit differently – eliminating the need for in-store trips to try shoes on and reducing the number of returns due to incorrect size.
Managing the Solution for Long Term Success
For each of the solutions, we had conversations with the client about how the company would support the Twilio Flex and mobile solutions once delivered. Through these discussions, leaders recognized challenges it would face with managing the solutions in house.
The company decided to leverage our managed service offering for ongoing management of its Twilio Flex and mobile solutions, which entails us providing 24/7 support and platform updates going forward. This will ensure that the client can consistently make the most of the solutions Perficient has provided.
Results
Enhanced, Innovative Experiences With One of the World’s Leading Brands
- The contact center solution using the Twilio Flex platform for a fully customizable and user-friendly experience has improved the communication experiences across multiple channels for both customers and customer service agents.
- The collection of mobile solutions around conversational commerce, artificial intelligence, community and augmented reality help customers enjoy a seamless ecommerce experience on the go while engaging with the brand on their terms. This strengthens the client’s position as a leader in innovative direct-to-consumer offerings.
- Perficient's managed services offering ensures that these experiences will remain top-of-the-line going forward.
Successful Collaboration with One of the World's Largest Lifestyle Brands
Our ability to integrate and align smoothly with the client’s product development teams, tools, and processes – while also bringing our own strategic, technical, and product development expertise to the table – has positioned Perficient as a trusted partner for this leading brand, and we look forward to continuing to work together to create outstanding experiences for customers.
