The Caffeinated Tale of Nespresso & How They Do Customer Experience Right

Coffee is coffee is coffee? Wrong. Call me a coffee snob if you must, but there is a distinct line between good coffee and bad coffee. If you are unaware of this line in the sand, give me a holler and we’ll set up a time to get you on the right track. 🙂

Once again I had an entirely different idea for this week’s blog, but as I sat down to my laptop with my perfectly tempered cup of CARAMELIZIO the words just fell out of my warm, coffee-scented breath. Unfamiliar with Nespresso? Based in Lausanne, Switzerland, Nespresso is premium coffee line and brand that is an affiliate of the Nestlé Group. The company sells their own line of coffee machines and capsules throughout much of the world. They have sustainable practices in all major areas of their business and manufacturing including coffee sourcing, social welfare, and aluminum sourcing. You can bring back (or mail) the used pods, and they take care of all the recycling for you.

Beyond sustainability, what sets this company apart from their competition? It’s the customer experience. Any truly premium product must come with the customer experience to match. The Cisco Whitepaper, The Connected Digital Experience: Why it’s great for your customers and your business discusses key elements of breaking down the barrier between customer service & marketing, connecting the dots for the customer. Nespresso has a great command of this element of their business—they’re not stuck on disconnected touchpoints, siloed systems, and the fractioned customer service that follows.

A unified omnichannel experience can be an arduous endeavor for any company, but it is imperative to creating a personalized customer experience. Regardless of how the customer has reached out to your organization, consistency should be delivered to a customer across every interaction. A customer’s lifecycle is, well, a cycle! Organizations have to work to engage with their customers to stay relevant and connected to their customers throughout the lifecycle. It is imperative that organizations are engaging with their customers on their customer’s preferred channels of communication.

What makes Nespresso’s specific digital experience so great? From their gorgeous website to their application, an easy user interface greets you. They present you with outstanding self-service options by walking you through the different machines and how to choose the right one. If you bought a machine from a retailer rather than from them direct, not a problem, simply just put your serial number into your account and they will help ensure you are buying the best coffee and correct accessories for your machine. At every point of contact with Nespresso, they know what you have purchased and when the transaction took place.

Now that you have a machine, it’s time to buy the coffee pods. If you’re in a boutique and you’re unsure where your taste buds lay, they will guide you through the variations and offer you a complimentary cup of coffee. If you are unable to make it into a boutique to buy the pods, their online experience is just as informative and will get to know your coffee preferences and guide you through their recommendations based off of factors such as intensity, tasting mode and aromatic profile. They have five different methods of buying the coffee pods, and they all will deliver a connected customer experience that is contextual and personalized. When in a boutique, upon giving them my name and phone number they know exactly what I like, how much I typically purchase, and how often I frequent their stores.

You get home, start using your new machine and you experience a problem or have a question. Worry not! Nespresso Assistance is available around the clock. Yes, 24/7 live customer care via chat, email, phone and social media. Regardless of how you contact them, your Coffee Specialist (agent) will see your full history with Nespresso and can assist you promptly. Nespresso reported double-digit growth in North America and mid-single-digit growth in all other regions, without skipping a beat on how they deliver their amazing customer journey.

To my two Swedish readers, I thank your country for this lovely Coffee niche. For the Marketers & O Brother, Where Art Thou? fans giving this post a gander, it doesn’t hurt that George Clooney is Nespresso’s global brand ambassador. What a fantastic case of influencer marketing! PRO TIP: There is a larger-than-life image of Mr. Clooney on the wall of the Mall of America Nespresso boutique so eloquently sipping his beautiful cup of espresso. Coffee with a view, if you will. In the words of my youngest sister Annie “this is the nicest coffee store I’ve ever been in”.

And you all thought I was going to talk about Facebook, didn’t you?

A jittered cheers,

Becky