Lupe Puerta - how tech is creating tools to improve the customer experience
With service and clienteling on my mind, prompted by the passing of ex-Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, I called onto specialists Helen Baynes (read her interview here) and Lupe Puerta, founder and CEO of the Floorr. The two met early on, pre-Harrods and Lupe proudly refers to Helen as her mentor. Lupe followed Helen to Net-a-porter, where she ended up heading personal shopping, and then VIP clients relations for both NAP and Mr Porter until last year. She shares with me what is key today to deliver great service to the digital consumer and talks about her new project, the Floorr:
‘First, let me say that I truly admired Tony Hsieh and I will remember him for how he put the customer at the centre of everything he did.
The Floorr is a place where customers come to see many different ways to interpret a piece, either something they are looking for or something they already own in their wardrobe. A place where people find inspiration and it’s delivered from the point of view of the shop floor community, who are our content [look] creators.
Our shop floor community monetises the content in turn for their knowledge. This is very important for The Floorr as we bring a different voice into the industry. One that has always been there but never been translated into a website.
We’ve got the creatives and the buyers and the editors of our industry, all their voices are so important. Our voice is much more direct because we feel it’s very key to give the customer practical advice about the pieces they are about to buy: like someone on the shop floor saying “that's great, but actually, this piece is better for you”. And they offer this advice with confidence because they know the product so well, and they also have a great picture of what is important for the consumer to know.
So that's The Floorr: a place for inspiration, discovery, advice and search curation, whether that is style, occasion, the weather or your next holiday destination!
Nowadays, the hard part is what to do with customer data. How can you use it to customise the customer experience not only from a service and personal shopping point of view but also by putting the right thing in front of your customer? For us, AI is important, but also giving our customers the tools to create their search and choices on how to curate to meet today’s needs.