December already? My, how time flies when you’re busy celebrating awesome CX. For real, though – ‘tis the season to reflect, and to be grateful for those who help to add a little more magic to our lives.
Securely sitting in that magic-making category are brands that take extra care to provide incredible customer experience. And this article—the 3rd and final one in our B2C 2023 series—shines a brighter light on our Best Brand Winners from this year’s inaugural Back To The Customer (B2C) Awards.
Quick background on the Awards themselves: Hosted by Flip, Kustomer, and Aircall – these awards were created to celebrate extraordinary CX work in DTC and eCommerce, in 3 categories:
- Top CX Leaders – learn more about our winners in part 1 of our B2C series
- Frontline MVPs – learn more about our winners in part 2 of our B2C series
- Best Brand – today’s focus!
And, with so many extraordinary submissions (over 135), it came down to the nitty gritty details for our Judges:
- Alexandria Collis – Sr. Director of Operations, Princess Polly
- Nate Brown – Co-Founder, CX Accelerator
- Jenna Best – VP of CX, Brooklinen
- Ben Segal – VP of CX, Thesis
- Liz Tsai – Founder & CEO, HiOperator
- Jess Cervellon – VP of CX, Feastables
Excited to give you a closer look at what makes our winners the cream of the crop. But first…
WHAT EXACTLY MAKES A BRAND GREAT?
It’s a good question – and a broad one. The truth is, there’s a whole lot that goes into creating a beloved brand.
As B2C Judge Jenna Best of Brooklinen said, “To me, Best Brand reflects all the little pieces that companies are doing right to make their customers happy and at the center of what they do… What makes brands customer-centric is not an accidental, one-dimensional approach… The multitude of layers are by design, and the cross-functional efforts and alignment required to achieve the point of ultimate retention really requires attention, iteration, and pure joy.”
Fellow Judge Liz Tsai agrees. As she puts it, “Customer experience is so often the heartbeat of the brand. It’s what customers actually interact with. And I think, more and more, we’re seeing that the essence of a brand’s success is really deeply intertwined with the experiences that they craft, the trust they build with their customers, and the relationship that they nurture through—not just their product—but also their service.”
Liz breaks it down perfectly when she adds, “In the heart of every transaction or interaction is actually a human. And, every interaction is an opportunity to offer a kind word, a timely response, or a solution that goes the extra mile.”
3RD PLACE WINNER IN THE CATEGORY OF BEST BRAND
Our 3rd place crown landed squarely on SNOW! This brand’s Customer Support team is committed to a dual emphasis on technological advancement and customer-centricity, and it’s yielding awesome results.
Highlights of what impressed our Judges include:
- UTILIZING THE BEST OF TECHNOLOGY – In the pursuit of offering customers and employees a better experience, SNOW has honed in on technology as a way to quickly handle customers’ pre and post sale requests, making it easier for all involved. They’ve leaned on some of the best AI tools, implementing—and heavily utilizing—a phone line AI solution, a website AI solution, and a training AI solution. To name a few. And, B2C Judge Nate Brown applauded their “incredible personification of their brand personality over the digital channels.”
- REVENUE GENERATION – That same focus on tech is helping SNOW’s CS team drive revenue, in areas such as: Abandoned checkout – an agent phone calls and emails to entice abandoned cart customers to complete their purchases. And Abandoned cart: performed by their website AI, they’re able to reach abandoned cart customers who’ve not provided contact information by IP address and entice them to complete their purchase.
- EMPLOYEE FOCUS – SNOW utilizes various Slack channels with the specific purpose of aiding CS agents in customer success. They also recognize employee retention as not only indicative of employee satisfaction, but also a key contributor to providing consistent experiences to their customers. Events like team members’ work anniversaries, birthdays, team performances, and holidays are celebrated. And, they’re proud to have an employee attrition rate of just 16.6%.
- PERSONAL CUSTOMER CARE – SNOW’s agents reach out to first-order customers and offer themselves as a personal point of contact for them. They email product tutorials to customers so they’re confident in using their products once they arrive, and make themselves available for questions customers may have. Their agents also review each low CSAT customer’s account and follow up with them in order to rectify situations whenever possible.
2ND PLACE WINNER IN THE CATEGORY OF BEST BRAND
This honor went to none other than Bespoke Post – a brand that decidedly puts the customer at the center of all they do.
Let’s dive into some details:
- CX TENETS – Bespoke Post focuses on guiding principles that include, essentially, doing anything and everything to make the customer happy. Some examples? At company all-hands, their CX team presents “Meet a Mike”, where they discuss an exemplary customer they interviewed and got to know better. They also have a program called “The Turnaround”, where an agent is recognized for taking a potentially bad customer situation and making it better. For Bespoke Post, it’s all about the experience part of customer experience.
- UNIQUE EXPERIENCES AT EVERY TOUCHPOINT – Bespoke Post has implemented a number of initiatives to make things—wait for it—fun! With “Beers On Us”, they partnered with breweries in different cities, sending nearby members an email inviting them to visit and get a free beer for themselves and a friend. With their “You Just Moved” initiative, CX teams reach out to members who’ve recently moved to recommend local hikes, coffee shops, and breweries. Another example of what they like to call “a Bespoke Post cares about me moment.”
- PRIORITIZING THEIR PEOPLE – Bespoke Post believes an engaged, supported agent provides the best service. Regular game events lighten a stressful role, Customer Service Appreciation week is always a celebration, and their team Halloween party is apparently the stuff of legends. “Grow with Bespoke Post” initiatives help provide a path for employees to move up in the org. Their Agent Boosts program lets agents earn stretch opportunities to help with other initiatives around the company. Awesome OS has hundreds of clients, and Bespoke Post consistently ranks among the highest in terms of ENPS.
- INDUSTRY RECOGNITION – Looks like our Judges’ admiration is in good company. Bespoke Post has been ranked by Newsweek among America’s Best Customer Service Companies in 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024. They’ve also been CCW Excellence Award Finalists for 3 straight years, and won Best in Class Contact Center (1-99 Seats) in 2021.
1ST PLACE WINNER IN THE CATEGORY OF BEST BRAND
Our top spot—Back To The Customer’s Best Brand 2023—went to Little Spoon! Parents looking for healthy kids food options online have been turning to this awesome org in droves, making it one of the fastest-growing brands in its industry.
Here are just a handful of reasons why:
- NEXT LEVEL ENGAGEMENT WITH CUSTOMERS – Little Spoon knows their customers intimately, because their customer care team is composed of their actual customers. Their team and philosophy have earned them features in Inc. and the New York Times, due – in part – to the fact that they’re huge on providing resources and tools that drive deep engagement. From their own council of experts, and a collaboration with the #1 parenting podcaster (Good Inside Podcast), to over 700 articles in the Bespoke Community platform, educational resources specific to a child’s age range, and articles across their Is This Normal platform that have received 2.3M+ views… Little Spoon is not messing around when it comes to offering parents real value.
- EXTRA LOVE FOR EMPLOYEES TOO – As a company that genuinely cares about their people, Little Spoon has achieved best-in-class employee retention of 85% since its inception.
- COMMUNITY – This brand goes beyond just excellent customer experience. They’ve created a supportive community of 2M subscribers (and growing), and they boast 3.2x industry average email engagement.
- WELL-DESERVED RESPECT IN THE INDUSTRY – Our B2C Judges were not the first to be wowed by Little Spoon. Their product innovation and brand leadership have earned them more than a dozen industry awards – from the Bump, Inc., Good Housekeeping, Pentawards, Babycenter, Baby Awards, BrandsThat Matter, and more.
We also have to give honorable mention to 3 more awesome brands—B2C semi-finalists—who stand out beautifully in the CX space: Dutch Bros. Coffee, Uqora, and Vuori. Kudos to each of you!
Shoutout to our generous B2C Sponsors this year: TTEC, PartnerHero + Humanize, Simplr, AdvisoryHub, LTVplus, Richpanel, Hark, and DigitalGenius.
Thank you to ALL of the extraordinary Brands submitted in this year’s Awards, and another huge congratulations to all of our Back To The Customer Champs 2023!
P.S. We’re already looking ahead to next year’s Back To The Customer (B2C) Awards (Hey, we like to think ahead.) So, keep track of those CX superstars in your network, and stay tuned!
