Building Personalised Experiences - How a Luxury Retailer Streamlined Operations, Data, Technology and Loyalty with HubSpot | Retail

A luxury retailer reached out to us with a clear challenge: while they had already implemented HubSpot CRM, it wasn’t configured properly to meet their specific business needs. The system wasn’t integrated correctly across their existing tech stack, and the platform was missing some foundational processes across marketing, ordering and customer service - they required expert support to make HubSpot work for them.

Their goal was to improve platform utilisation and functionality, fix existing issues within the system, address faulty integrations with their ecommerce and ERP platforms, and integrate a new phone system. Additionally, they needed to build a robust customer engagement framework, streamline their operations, and define a loyalty program—all aimed at creating a single customer view to deliver a more personalised and seamless experience for their high-value customers.

Despite having HubSpot in place, they needed guidance on configuring the platform effectively, creating actionable workflows, and integrating all their systems into one cohesive tool.

The Problem

The retailer was facing a series of challenges with their existing HubSpot setup, which were hindering the efficiency of their operations:

• Underutilised HubSpot: While HubSpot had been implemented, the platform wasn’t configured to suit the retailer's unique needs. The system was disjointed, and customer data wasn’t structured in a way that would allow the retailer to leverage it for creating a single customer view or an effective loyalty program.
• Missing Processes: Critical foundational processes, particularly around customer service workflows and marketing automation, were missing. Without these, the system couldn’t be fully optimised to support the business’s objectives.
• Disconnected Systems: Their ecommerce, ERP, sales, and marketing tools were not integrated, leading to inefficiencies. The lack of centralised data made it difficult for teams to collaborate and access the same information.
• Fragmented Customer Experience: Sales, marketing, and customer service teams weren’t aligned, and there was no unified view of the customer, including orders, returns, and customer service tickets. This made it challenging to engage customers across different touchpoints.
• Loyalty Program Design: The retailer had not yet defined a loyalty program or designed a framework for it. They needed an automated scoring system to identify high-value customers, deliver personalised experiences, and increase customer retention.

They needed a unified HubSpot CRM system that could bring together all their customer data, streamline operations, and provide better management of both customer relationships and their loyalty program.

The Approach & Implementation

Recognising the limitations of their current setup, the luxury retailer came to us for help. Although HubSpot was already in place, our role was to ensure the platform was correctly configured, tailored to their specific needs, and aligned with their business goals.

We provided strategic guidance, process design, and technical support to make sure the retailer could fully leverage HubSpot’s capabilities. Our team worked to bring the retailer’s CRM, marketing, and customer service processes together in a way that would improve customer engagement, streamline operations, and enhance their loyalty program.

We approached the project in three clear stages, each building on the previous one, to create a fully integrated system that worked seamlessly for all teams:

Stage 1: Discovery & Opportunity: We started by conducting workshops with key stakeholders across sales, marketing, and customer service. These sessions focused on understanding the retailer's current CRM and customer engagement strategy, their pain points, and their platform specifications. We reviewed customer service workflows, order pipelines, and how email marketing was being handled.

During this phase, we also spoke with other vendors to better understand how the existing integrations had been set up and where improvements were needed. By the end of the workshops, we had a comprehensive understanding of their systems and processes, which we documented alongside a set of recommendations for moving forward. This included a loyalty framework and scoring system to identify high-value clients.

Stage 2: Design: With a clear understanding of the retailer's needs, we moved to designing the system and processes. This stage involved defining the customer journeys, creating workflows, and ensuring HubSpot was configured to support the right data tagging and segmentation.

We focused on optimising customer service desk management, building a smooth order pipeline, and integrating the loyalty program with HubSpot. This included designing a client tier scoring system, setting up ticketing workflows, and automating communications to ensure customers received the right level of attention based on their engagement.

The outcome was a detailed process design document, which outlined the system architecture, integration plans, and specific process improvements.

Stage 3: Implement: In the final stage, we began implementing the designs directly within HubSpot. We set up custom properties, sales pipelines, ticketing systems, and automated workflows.

We worked on refining the retailer’s email templates to ensure all communications were personalised and aligned with the brand’s identity. Our team developed custom email templates and landing pages that were visually appealing and seamlessly integrated with HubSpot’s CRM.

We also integrated the retailer's telephone system with HubSpot, ensuring customer calls were logged directly within the CRM, creating a more comprehensive view of customer interactions.

To fully benefit from their optimised HubSpot CRM, we encouraged the retailer to adopt the new workflows, segmentation strategies, and customer service tools we had set up. By leveraging HubSpot’s automation capabilities, they could deliver more personalised experiences, optimise their loyalty program, and streamline internal processes.

Outcome

The results of the HubSpot CRM implementation were impressive:

• Unified Customer Data: HubSpot now serves as the central hub for all customer data, integrating sales, marketing, and customer service teams. This provided the retailer with a 360-degree view of each customer, improving internal collaboration and creating a seamless experience across all touch points.
• Streamlined Customer Service: With the customer service desk now fully integrated, the retailer could manage and resolve customer queries more efficiently. Automated workflows and internal notifications led to quicker response times, improving overall customer satisfaction.
• Improved Marketing Engagement: The retailer’s email marketing efforts were revitalised. With personalised, automated campaigns that align with the customer journey, they saw higher open rates, click-through rates and conversion rates in campaigns.
• Optimised Loyalty Program: By integrating the loyalty program into HubSpot, the retailer was able to offer targeted rewards and personalised incentives, increasing customer retention and driving loyalty.
• Seamless Integrations: The integration of the telephone system and other platforms into HubSpot allowed for a more holistic approach to managing customer relationships, with all communications tracked in one central system.
• Actionable Insights: With custom reports and dashboards, the retailer could easily monitor the effectiveness of their CRM and loyalty program, enabling data-driven decisions and further optimisation of their customer engagement strategies.

The optimised HubSpot CRM system has become a central part of the retailer’s operations. It supports customer service, marketing, and sales, paving the way for continued growth and success.

This case study demonstrates how a properly configured HubSpot CRM can transform customer relationship management for a luxury retailer. By integrating systems, automating workflows, and personalising customer engagement, the retailer was able to improve internal processes, enhance customer experiences, and drive greater business results.

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