For Small Business Brands, The Future They Envision For Contact Center Employees Isn’t So Far Off

In 2024, organizations of all sizes and across industries are just getting their footing after years of adjusting and transforming due to the COVID pandemic. While some teams lost their momentum in the customer service space, others like online retailer East Third Collective (ETC) found their niche.

RELATED: How The COVID Pandemic Changed The Way We Approach—And View—Customer Service

For the small, women owned brand focused on customizing the gift giving experience, the height of the COVID pandemic gave ETC the opportunity to not just explore their entrepreneurial ideas but identify their hopes for the future of agent engagement as they scale the organization.

As we approach February and CCW Digital’s latest seminar series, Future of Contact Center Employees, our team will be taking a closer look at just how exceptional customer experiences hinge on effective and empowered employees.

Two of the brand's co-founders joined CCW Digital to share their CX/EX journey, and offer their insights on how regardless of size, with their right objectives and organizational morale, all teams can offer concierge style service.

Small Business Building With Big Customer Experience Goals

CCW Digital: How did ETC come to be, and what gaps in the consumer market were you looking to meet at the time?

East Third Collective: “The three of us all went to college together and have talked at length about different business ideas. COVID brought along that opportunity because since we all live in different states, a brick-and-mortar type of scenario was never was never going to work for us. 

One of the things that we have talked about as girlfriends over the years, something missing in the industry was the ability to send a complete, thoughtful, meaningful gift to someone and have all the pieces in one place.

RELATED: The Power of Purpose In Building Customer Relationships

CCWD: That idea of curating and providing a tailored experience for yourself as a buyer, or for the recipient as a buyer is something that’s so universally desired. What does that mean for you personally and for your brand?

ETC: Thousands of incredible companies make great products, but they make their one great product. And that may go really well with a different vendor’s really great product. 

What we were finding is you have all these great gift ideas, but you are sending them to yourself and then running to the store to buy a nice box and some ribbon and tissue paper. And then you forget the card. So you have to run back out, and then you finally box it all up and ship it off. 

It’s really cumbersome, and what we couldn't find in the marketplace was a place to sort of put something like that together all on one site and ship it. 

So that was our initial goal, to create a site where we could simplify the process in sort of a meaningful and really beautiful way, from personal to corporate gifting, as both an online shop and a gift consulting business. 

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Experience, Simplified: Curated CX Through A Communal Lense

CCWD: One of the things that your brand is really focused on is the idea of “experience being simplified." You touched upon that a little bit when you were talking about the origins of the collective. But what does that idea mean for your brand's customer service strategy?

ETC: Our customers, they can just get everything from us. They don't have to be running around town. And if they want to just ship it directly to the recipient through us  then it's off their plate completely, we offer that option too. 

We do all the work: we source the products, we package the products, and we deliver them, whether it be hand delivered or are shipping them, we do that for them. 

RELATED: How Companies Initiate Long-Term Loyalty With Brand Communities

CCWD: That really speaks to, especially in the ecommerce space, how many different types of expectations a customer might have when they come across your brand. 

We know that for customers, they want to align themselves with brands, with buying experiences, with tools and technologies that speak to their personal convictions that align with their concerns. 

If they know that they can go to a brand that does support women own or does support small business or is environmentally friendly, it takes the idea of customer centricity to a bigger place.

RELATED: When It Comes To The Customer Journey, Super Bowl Commercials Prove That Customers Want Someone–Or Something–They Can Relate To

Where Engaged Employees Can Create True Customer Centricity

ETC: And with us being an online shop who does sell on social media, it's sometimes tricky because the algorithm wants you not to focus on the customer or be authentic.

But it's really important to us to stay authentic. And sometimes that means the algorithm doesn't like us as much. And that's just something we're dealing with. And we'll continue to deal with it because we are remaining true to what we wanted to at the very beginning of this.

CCWD: We've heard a brand say “Hey, I would love to be trending, I would love to be viral. But even more than that I would love to be what I am in terms of a product or in terms of a customer experience.” That that is so huge in terms of the way that technology influences customer service.

Considering tech in your company, what types of tools do you use to help serve your customers or even to help your teams better be able to address all those needs that come into the ecommerce sphere?

When It Comes To Tech, Make Sure Tools Stay True To The Organizational Mission

ETC: From our perspective, it's responding to every single email or question over social media or inquiry. Our site does try to offer suggestions and pairings to help you sort of craft that perfect gift for your person. Guiding you is how we see the role of our site working and how we make the customer service, the customer experience, as good as it can be.

CCWD: Despite having great products and great customer service, multiple representative teams, and huge locations all over the world, sometimes agents don’t get the opportunity to intimately connect with a customer on that level. 

But as a team of just three, you have that chance to really be the one person that this customer has the opportunity to connect with. What do you think that companies that are already scaling up and have those larger teams can take away from the way that your organization tackles customer service?

RELATED: Connecting Your Story to Your Customer's Story—Lessons from Brittany Hodak

Scaling A Business Means Understanding Consumer Needs And Encouraging Employee Collaboration 

ETC: As we grow–which is our goal to grow–we want to somehow continue to keep that in mind and keep that feeling there. We're in the know, we care about our customers.

We think having somebody at the top involved in customer service on a “lower level,” maybe the person answers a few emails, who's in there knowing, “Oh, this is what my customers' needs are. This is how we should talk to our customers. This is how we can help our customers.” 

We're not there yet but we hope to be, and we hope to continue to meet our customers in the same way we have been.

To gain additional insight from industry leaders who are scaling–or have scaled–their own contact centers, be sure to view the agenda and sign up for our upcoming Seminar Series, Future of Contact Center Employees.

Photos courtesy of eastthirdcollective.com