Gucci opens call centres to bolster digital service

Gucci is opening customer service centres to cater to digital customers with queries, specifically those on a smartphone who want to liaise via email, live chat or phone.

Customer service centres, better known as call centres, have long battled an image problem, with many companies outsourcing their service to foreign entities in order to keep costs down, diverting those queries to locations with cheaper labour. When living in London, for example, it is not rare for a call to be answered in India, Poland or Bulgaria. And the quality and level of service is often questionable.

The first aesthetically pleasing call centre

Not so at Gucci. The company is opening six service centres, including in its operational city of Florence and cities like Shanghai, with a service team of 500 staff and centres as aesthetically pleasing as its boutiques. According to the Financial Times, shoppers can contact a call centre to discuss anything Gucci related, be it a 2,200 dollar GG handbag or its latest pair trainers by phone, email or live chat.

A call centre will give shoppers 24/7 access to Gucci

Gucci needs to keep up with rapidly changing consumer habits if it wants to reach its well-publicised goal of 10 billion euros in annual revenue. Marco Bizzarri, Gucci’s chairman and chief executive, told the FT the call centres aim to give customers “a direct connection to the Gucci community that is seamless, always accessible, personalised experience”.

The aim of the call centres is to provide shoppers the same level of service as can be found in store, but 24/7, where a friendly voice can always be found on the other end of a device, be it in a message, email, or old-fashioned call.

Customer service and experiential shopping lies at the heart of brand and customer relationship. If a shopper has a question about a product, they can anonymously ask a service agent, rather than go into a boutique, which can sometime pose a barrier.

Gucci will be setting a new precedence for digital assistance at a luxury brand. It will be interesting to see the impact of the initiative on its wider sales.

Gucci SS19 handbags, source Gucci online