We love nothing more than to engage with companies who are experiencing rapid growth, whether unexpected or during seasonal trade peaks. Our ability to adapt to any demand and our scalability scope has surprised our clients time and time again. In this case study, we had to deliver on Brooklinen’s high customer experience expectations at a time where every customer interaction was vital to their expansion efforts.
Background: A Linen Company That Puts Customers First
Since its inception in 2012, Brooklinen has become one of the most popular luxury bedding companies. They were on a mission to provide consumer-friendly, affordable, and high-quality bedding. Their focus on providing a personalized, customer-centric experience was what set them apart..
In the spring of 2020, during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brooklinen prepared for a bumper Black Friday and Cyber Monday. They explored avenues to include a BPO partner that could help handle the expected deluge of customer inquiries. They anticipated high customer demand in the holiday season because their May 2020 annual birthday event had seen a significant increase in tickets and emails. However, the Brooklinen team knew that getting into bed with the wrong outsourcing partner could wrinkle the sheets.
The Challenge: Getting Under the Covers
Brooklinen had worked hard on their reputation to match their superior service with the comfort and quality of their sheets. They had an outsourcing partner performing customer support, but they needed supplemental support to take on seasonal surges. At the time, their existing service provider was taking strain with the increased customer inquiries during peak periods.
They made the strategic decision to find a new, reliable partner that would be ready to warmly, efficiently, and expertly handle inquiries during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, while prioritizing brand management and their unique experience.
Their quality-over-quantity philosophy meant that each new team member had to be knowledgeable about Brooklinen’s products and policies. The skill and adaptability of the outsourced team was of paramount importance — as was their ability to demonstrate brand loyalty.
After careful consideration, they connected with Boldr and expressed their hopes to engage with a company that could provide reliable consultants who stayed true to their brand ideal, which was to offer superior comfort in every interaction through customer-friendly support.
The Solution: Fitting New Sheets
Boldr places value in the effort it took each of our clients to establish their brand values and company cultures. By placing highly skilled, custom-built teams, into an environment that comes with specific service delivery demands, we are able to honor and build on their hard work. That’s why we train our teams to function as brand-loyal and brand-knowledgeable extensions of our clients.
In this instance, we were optimally-positioned to deliver on Brooklinen’s requirements. Our team’s flexibility and tailor-made solutions, as well as our posture as an ethical outsourcing firm ultimately convinced Brooklinen that we were the perfect partner.
Brooklinen’s distinctive online retail experience did not require a cookie-cutter BPO model to satisfy their goals. Before we began our initial customer experience support, Brooklinen collaborated with us to share their needs, knowledge, internal processes, and most of all their culture of intense focus on customer care. Ultimately this understanding of their needs and the knowledge of the textile industry allowed us to build an authentic, transparent, and trusting partnership.
Like Brooklinen, Boldr emphasizes quality over quantity. We never fill roles for the sake of filling them. We searched for the right associates to uphold their desired experience. By hiring, training, and testing these team members and deeply understanding Brooklinen’s reputational focus, we were able to deploy our initial “LiveChat” support in July 2020. After a favorable performance during the Black Friday/Cyber Monday holiday event in October, Boldr delivered a tailor-made team of both chat and “voice” (i.e., live conversation) support.
We created a personalized Brooklinen team, which currently draws from customer advocates and service professionals in Canada, Mexico, South Africa, and the Philippines. We worked tirelessly to design a specific staff training and rigorous testing regimen. After thorough vetting and hiring, we mandated a testing period in which customer advocates (who provide chat support) proved their knowledge and customer service skills before progressing to core team members who provided live voice support by phone. Boldr carefully managed all team members throughout their probationary “testing” period and beyond, to ensure they maintained all of Brooklinen’s brand and reputational aims.
Having achieved Brooklinen’s holiday goals and providing year-round customer support, Brooklinen off-boarded their other BPO partner within the year. Since that July, our team has continuously delivered Brooklinen’s brand experience to their customers. Over the course of our two-year relationship, we have added more services, including 24/7 email, 24/7 LiveChat, and live phone coverage. We also designed and launched a specialized Customer Support Dashboard that provided detailed analytics of the teams.
We further supported the influx of customer inquiries during the following seasonal ramp ups of 2021, including Black Friday/Cyber Monday and Brooklinen’s celebrated Birthday Event. We went from providing seven team members for the holiday event in 2020 to providing more than 70 team members across the globe the following year as their sole service provider. We continue to collaborate, refine our approach, and add capabilities as our partnership evolves.
The Boldr Impact: The Lasting Effect
Employing and unifying team members who reside in places that have high unemployment rates and limited professional development opportunities have become Boldr’s modus operandi. We aim to make both a personal and economic impact on global communities in need. As such, our partnership with Brooklinen has contributed to bettering the lives of our team members, their families, and their larger communities.
Our track record of delivering reliable customer experience support for Brooklinen during both seasonal and off-season peaks has led to a collaborative partnership that strives to find better approaches in a continuously evolving online retail landscape. Where industry challenges can leave some scared sheetless, Boldr perseveres and finds solutions, for the sake of our company, our community, and our valued clients.
