FEATURE: MERCHANDISING & POS
PUTTING CUSTOMERS AT THE HEART OF YOUR BUSINESS
DIY Week speaks to Nicholas Hammer, co-founder and CEO of Goodays, one of Europe’s leading customer experience platforms, to find out more about his company, his role, and why being customer focused is so crucial for retail success.
Founded in 2012, the company’s vision is to help brands improve their commercial performance by delivering customer experience at scale. The platform allows companies to communicate with and engage every single customer, every time, without losing that welcomed human touch.
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DIY Week: Please tell us a bit about your company. Nicholas Hammer: We founded Goodays back in 2012, and we are now Europe’s leading customer experience platform. We partner with over 150 clients in retail, banking, travel, entertainment and hospitality - including some of Europe’s biggest DIY, home and garden retail brands, such as Mr Bricolage, Leroy Merlin and, in the UK, Blue Diamond. Our platform helps companies structure their whole business around the most important thing for commercial success - customers and customer satisfaction. Put simply, if you have customers and want to create a better connection with them, our platform is for you.
DIYW: Can you tell us about your role? NH: I’m involved in every aspect of the business, along with my co-founder, Thibaut Carlier. I spend a lot of time listening to our clients and evolving our technology and our service to help them better tackle the urgent business challenges they face, in particular, how to manage huge volumes of digital interactions with their customers without losing the human touch. So, a lot of my time is spent at the grassroots of business with them, ensuring we are a trusted and valued partner that
30 DIY WEEK NOVEMBER 2023
oodays (formerly Critizr) is now one of Europe’s leading customer experience management platforms.
delivers the results they need. We also have over 100 people working across our offices in Paris, Lille, London, Spain, the Netherlands and Japan. I’m very invested in building a great culture based on human, collaborative, ambitious, and entrepreneurial values so that everyone enjoys their jobs and delivers their best work.
DIYW: What is your main focus at the moment? NH: The end of the year is peak season for many retailers, but also a great time for planning, so I’m very focused on scoping out plans for 2024 and responding to what we think will be the big customer and business trends. We know that spring season is peak time for DIY, so now is the time to tune into what customers want and put in place strategies for improving customer service. The focus for many of our clients in the DIY sector is their teams. We’re helping them empower their customer- facing staff with the right tools and strategies so that they can get on with the job of serving customers – and doing it well. So great service, a brilliant customer experience and understanding consumers are all top of mind.
DIYW: And what do you see as the main challenges for your clients? NH: The pace of digital transformation in commerce is very fast, and we’ve challenged ourselves to always stay a step ahead to meet the needs of our clients. That’s not an easy option, but we have always listened to the market and worked hard to keep our solution at the absolute forefront of what customers and brands need. Building an international team with over 20 nationalities and many different languages comes with a few challenges, but the vibrancy and diversity of our business as a result is well worth it! International growth is an exciting opportunity
for us, but the scope and maturity of each market is different, so there are, of course, challenges when it comes to our global growth plans, which we’re meeting with investment in intelligent, tailored strategies in each country.
DIYW: Are you currently working on any new products? NH: Gooday’s Customer Experience Management is built to deliver meaningful customer connections and conversations at scale. It enables DIY brands to quickly tackle one of the biggest challenges in business today. Real connections are sparked, deeper, more frequent interactions are possible, and teams are empowered to improve the metrics that matter most to their business, with a core goal of profitability. AI is also coming to the forefront of the retail landscape and we’re developing ways to deploy it to improve customer service – but always to enhance human connections rather than replace them, which is the secret to success.
DIYW: What advice would you give to retailers looking to invest in the customer experience? NH: It’s simple: focus on your customers, put them at the heart of your business, and then invest in ways to listen and respond to their needs. It’s a task that can seem overwhelming, but technology is here to help, and it can be done! Also, many clients I meet in the field often tell me how highly
valued the Goodays’ platform is. It’s become a daily habit and part of the everyday routine for end- users in stores, streamlining work and generally making life better in their business. In a sector where companies all too often invest in technology that’s too complicated to use or is ultimately ineffective, this would be my top piece of advice. Find something that works, and people will use it. Otherwise, you could be wasting your investment. For the Goodays team, knowing that we have a near 100% use and effectiveness score with our users is the ultimate measure of success.
DIYW: Going forward, what does the next year hold for you? NH: We’ll be focused on building our global team and investing in the platform, as well as continuing to look outwards to support the ever-changing needs of our clients. Helping them deliver better for customers so that they thrive and always holding true to our belief that people and profit go hand in hand. Human connections are what makes commerce better for everyone, and we’re excited to have so many brands joining us in that quest.
Visit the Goodays website at
https://goodays.co to find out more about how the platform helps leading global brands deliver better experiences, drive loyalty and retain customers from day one.
www.diyweek.net
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