Freshpet sought a better way to provide high-touch service to consumers. At the same time, the pet food brand wants to streamline workflow processes, have complete visibility into every parent conversation and track every inquiry.
Connecting and engaging with customers is a key, if not the leading, element to success in the competitive pet food industry.
By 2022, $136.8 billion will be spent on pets in the US with pet food and treats worth $58.1 billion, according to the American Pet Products Association.
Freshpet, which makes fresh food for cats and dogs, has quickly become a leading pet food supplier in the expanding industry, with products available in 22,000 stores across the US — including refrigerated ones shelves at Walmart, Petsmart, Petco and Whole Foods.
While such growth and expansion brings in many new customers, it also drives an increasing number of consumer inquiries and questions. Answering those questions quickly, as well as building and maintaining consumer trust and loyalty is paramount to staying ahead of the competition in the pet food industry.
All of those quests are a big part of why Freshpet looked for a better way to provide a high-touch service to consumers — what the brand calls parents. At the same time, Freshpet wants to streamline workflow processes, have complete visibility into every parent conversation and track every inquiry.
The brand needed a consumer engagement solution that allowed the brand to meet pet parents and answer their questions on any communication channel of the parent’s choice.
Building deeper customer relationships is top of mind for every consumer-facing retailer and brand because a large number of consumers, 73%, will leave after a bad brand experience, according to the third annual “Consumer Insights about Customer” by TCN Inc. Service” survey conducted by OnePoll.
Removal of pain points
Freshpet’s director of consumer care, Lisa Diehl, also hopes to provide customers with shorter wait times for a live agent interaction.
“They are [pet parents] have many questions about their pet’s diet and appreciate a thoughtful, timely response. The main pain points we need to solve include reducing customer support call volumes while also reducing wait times to speak with one of our live agents,” he said in a email interview.
Diehl wanted an intuitive dashboard where the team could manage multiple consumer chats simultaneously across digital channels — social channels, SMS, text and the chat function on the Freshpet website.
“Providing high-touch service to our valued pet parents is our top priority — we needed a consumer engagement solution that allowed us to meet our pet parents in their preferred channel,” said he.
The strategy plan calls for restructuring the consumer care team to focus on each pillar of consumer relationships — from care to community to self-service. It also requires technology to advance that strategy.
Choosing the right solution
Freshpet chose Emplifi’s Service Cloud and deployed an FAQ chatbot, branded “Scout,” that automatically “gets” answers to many basic questions that previously required a team member’s time.
“As a result, our highly trained consumer care team members can devote more of their one-on-one time focused on more complex consumer inquiries. We not only perform at a higher rate , but we also laid the groundwork to scale our consumer engagement efforts as the Freshpet brand continues to grow,” said Diehl.
The brand has partnered with Emplifi in some capacity since 2016, according to Diehl. Emplifi is a customer engagement platform with AI-powered technology capabilities.
“It was only in 2022 that we deployed the full capabilities of the Emplifi Service Cloud to serve as an ‘anchor platform’ for the consumer care team,” he said.
Due to the long-standing partnership, Emplifi’s team immediately understood Freshpet’s consumer care needs.
“They also clearly demonstrated how Emplifi Service Cloud can capture and track consumer data in context at every touch point we use – voice, email, chatbots, social posts, SMS messages, and more,” said Diehl .
Scout helps Freshpet automate various inquiries.
“For example, Emplifi Knowledge, the technology underlying the platform’s customer management capabilities, helps guide interactions with up-to-the-second consumer information, enabling each member of Freshpet consumer care team to provide empathic responses that show we understand and care about our community of pet parents,” said Diehl.
“It gives us the tools we need to stay in front of our consumers and turns our social channels into influential consumer care communication channels.”
More than 20,000 brands like McDonald’s, Ford Motor Company, and Delta Air Lines rely on Emplifi to enable connected, immersive experiences for the modern consumer across marketing, commerce, and care, said Zarnaz Arlia, CMO , Emplifi, in an email interview.
“Emplifi provides all the tools and user interface brands need to self-serve on any channel. Marketing and IT groups simply add the bot widget to their website, social media messaging platforms and other channels like of mobile apps by just adding a few lines of code to their channels,” Arlia said, adding that Emplifi clients have complete control over the look, feel, voice and content with the bot tools.
“Non-technical tools make it easy for brands to add or edit existing content,” he said, adding that the platform also provides a machine learning tool that takes the guesswork out of retention.
“It shows managers real-time information on the content customers are looking for. You’re building what customers need and want. The insights you get from this tool are a game changer for keeping up to date in your system with accurate information.”
Deployment brings wins
Within three months of deployment, Freshpet saw huge benefits:
- 97% of customer questions that came through the automated chat function on the Freshpet website were answered correctly in real-time without input from the consumer care team.
- A 39% decrease in the number of calls that consumer care agents had to answer. While the chatbot handled any questions that Scout could easily answer, the consumer care team was able to focus on high-priority consumer issues that required human interaction.
- A 29% drop-in wait time for customers whose questions require a live consumer care agent.
Diehl said Scout has made a “huge impact” on consumer care initiatives, improving results and achieving a streamlined CX strategy and described the technology as a “win-win” for Freshpet and the its customers.
“We believe that providing outstanding customer service is key to building long-term relationships. The journey for a Freshpet consumer is about more than a purchase. They act as a caregiver, and the brand they purchase must be credible, professional, and sympathetic to their needs as pet parents,” he said.
The highly competitive market “depends on outstanding consumer care,” he added.
“We can’t afford to lose a consumer’s conversation just because they switch from Twitter to Instagram. Our consumer care team must be able to provide clear and transparent communications across all channels. Along with fluid -continuous consumer communication, reporting the right issues is particularly important to our organization because it allows us to maintain a high level of consumer retention and cultivate new relationships.”
Diehl’s advice to other retailers and brands seeking to eliminate similar pain points is to first understand that consumer strategy is key and must align with overall organizational strategies.
“Once you know where you’re going, start looking at the tools needed to get there. Also, what’s been key for me is understanding the demographics of consumers. It’s a digital world,” says Diehl. . “They’re growing up with it as part of their reality. Making sure your strategies to the future buyer are aligned with that will start to set you up for success.”
Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Rewards That Matter. He has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for leading media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.
