How IKEA went digital to stay ahead of the game

How does IKEA, the world’s most famous furniture retailer, stay at the top of its CX game? That was the subject of Customer Contact Week Asia’s boardroom discussion titled From Legacy to Legendary CX with IKEA, which took place at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront Hotel in Singapore in June.

We caught up with Alex Soliman, regional customer care center lead at Ikano Retail (an IKEA franchise) and Bikram Mazumdar, division vice president for South East Asia, North Asia and India at Sprinklr, who shared how customer service is changing in the Asia Pacific region, the key challenges retail has faced since the Covid-19 pandemic, and working collaboratively to provide an omnichannel experience.

On the changing customer service landscape in Asia Pacific

Alex Soliman: Digitalization is becoming more prevalent and I think it has accelerated at 10-15 times the speed since we came out of Covid-19.

For customers, options are really important. That is the key in the way that they connect and shop with IKEA. Traditionally, the IKEA concept is very brick and mortar, it was built on a concept that was offering low price in return for the customer engagement in that journey. We help you, you help us and we keep prices low. This willingness to pick up and assemble goods has changed in time, especially in the last couple of years. There are more demands to create different types of store visits on how the customer actually comes in, connects with us and sees our products.

Traditionally, the IKEA concept is very brick and mortar. This willingness to pick up and assemble goods has changed in time” Alex Soliman, Ikano Retail

Bikram Mazumdar: Digital adoption in Asia is pretty high. Based on an International Data Corporation (IDC) report, 91 percent of companies in Asia have digitally adopted.  The expectation to make changes and make changes quickly is what I see as a differentiator for Asia; it is leapfrogging a lot of legacy investments that perhaps the West has had to go through in the past.

Here in Singapore, more than 50 percent of people who do online transactions, also do social commerce. It tells you how the winds have changed a little bit, and how consumers are looking at tools that make it easier for them to buy and solve imminent problems.

Back in the day, there were very few things that we used to buy online, but now, I do not remember the last time I went to a store, even for my convenience stuff. The way we live has changed and that has fostered the necessity for brands to develop digital ways of selling and serving a consumer – a harmonious and orchestrated experience. I think now is as good a time as it will ever be for tech to come in and support the brand in their journey of acquiring and retaining customers.

On the main challenges for CX since the Covid-19 pandemic

AS: Social media was a prevailing challenge for us. Pre-2020, social was growing at a very healthy rate, it was becoming a preferred channel for customers to interact with businesses. Then in 2020 and 2021 it just blew up. Social was becoming much more of a channel where customers prefer to connect and, again, being a social channel, customers are much more likely to vent frustration on social media and the reach is much further than any other channel.

It definitely presents a high risk. If you know that this is a channel that has the highest level of risk but you do not have the insights, you just have raw data sitting around, then you do not know what your customers are saying about you and what their sentiments are. Prevention is better than cure, you want to set yourself up to make sure you minimize the risk or that this does not become a possibility.

On IKEA's path towards an omnichannel experience 

AS: We started working with Sprinklr about a year and a half ago. We looked at how to scale up and evolve to become even better, remain competitive and in a good shape in line with customers' expectations. That, in the end, is a driver for transformation. Our ultimate aim  is to create a true omnichannel setup.

We looked at further functionalities that Sprinklr offers, such as social media integration, being able to analyze and report capabilities, chatbots, added channels, and then eventually leading us through to be able to do conversational commerce. The journey has just started and we are looking at moving to the cloud, and at different features.

On leveraging customer data to create different experience to other CX providers

BM: We try to bring all the legally available customer data onto a single unified platform across all touchpoints that the brand has with its consumer. Imagine you are interacting with a brand through a channel of your preference. It could be anything in social, email, voice or it could be anything from social, messaging, email or voice. We can collate all of that together and then curate an experience for the consumer based on the data in the channel of the consumer's preference, it goes a long way for that consumers to start appreciating the personalization and for them to start loving the brand. 

"If I am talking to a brand on WhatsApp, I do not want to be called. And if I do wish to switch channels, I certainly do not wish to repeat the whole conversation again." Bikram Mazumdar, Sprinklr

In our lives, we are all consumers and we tend to differentiate between the experiences we like and what we do not like. If I am talking to a brand on WhatsApp, I do not want to be called. If I am calling someone, I do not want to be served elsewhere. And if I do wish to switch channels, I certainly do not wish to repeat the whole conversation again. I think what many brands want to bring to the table is the ability to have all the data in the same place and then curate the experience on the channel of choice for the consumer.

On attending Customer Contact Weekly Asia's in-person event

AS: For me, these types of events are visionary. It is really interesting to come to these events being honest with yourself, that you can always be better. Seeing what vendors were offering, the really good conversations you have with peers and with people from other industries was a really good surprise. The knowledge exchanges that I had were fantastic.

Another takeaway was listening to other customer contact care center leads and the challenges they are facing, and most of the times you hear that there is a trend. It might be slightly different but the topics there are more or less similar, each one with their own details that might differ. But at the end of the day, it's the same thing. We are talking about things like automatization, digital deflection, customer experiences, or customer expectations evolving. It is all centered around these topics and that was super interesting.

BM: We are back to doing in person events and I think it is a great opportunity for brands and tech companies to talk and find solutions to the newer ways to make happier consumers. One key takeaway for me is how engaged most brands were at this event. We had a lot of CX  thought leaders in the audience who shared their knowledge to bring us up to speed on their brand philosophies and we truly appreciate that. 

What was equally important is the vision that they are setting. How their brand is going to convert the next bunch of customers as well as retain the ones that they have is very different to the commentary I used to hear two or three years back, pre-pandemic. This event has been super engaging, and I am looking forward to delivering on some of those conversations.