Here’s how they’re building a 21st century CPG platform and powering customer communications with Drag.
COMPANY
Boosted Commerce
INDUSTRY
Ecommerce
COMPANY SIZE
11-50 employees
LOCATION
United States
Anton von Rueden,
President & COO @ Boosted Commerce
⏳ 100% faster
integration of CS systems
from newly acquired brands.
? 100’s+
of monthly customer enquiries
in multiple languages.
⭐ 9 brands
with consistent customer facing experience (and counting).
The context
Boosted Commerce is a CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) platform focused on accelerating the growth of beloved consumer brands. They do this by acquiring, investing in, and growing third-party seller businesses across Amazon (FBA) and through original product development across verticals they believe offer exceptional opportunity.
With nine brands acquired within the last six months, and plans to close three more deals by the end of this year, the Boosted team anticipates the challenge of a smooth transition and takeover of customer service and inventory management systems. With seven brands acquired within the last six months, and plans to close three more deals this month alone, collaboration with brand founders, transparency of customer service management, and the seamless integration of these systems is key to their success.
It is critical for their team to deliver unmet standards in customer service and satisfaction, because this has a direct impact on sales, expanding their customer base, and maintaining customer loyalty to these newly acquired businesses.
But that’s a lot to manage: responding to all customer inquiries within a 24 hour time period, across 20 sales channels, and in marketplaces all over the world.
“I am very excited to have discovered Drag! I am impressed with this simple, cost-effective and infinitely scalable solution to facilitate our global customer service conversations.”
Anton von Rueden,
President & COO @ Boosted Commerce
The challenge
Anticipating the challenge of quick but successful transitions, President & COO Anton Von Rueden understood early on that they would need to think critically about the scalability and ease of use of these integral systems.
Before Drag, he was alone in handling all customer service for their first two brands. Finding a platform that would allow the company to maintain a consistent customer-facing experience for 100+ brands was a critical priority. It wouldn’t be long before the current approach proved unsustainable.
Before Drag, they researched and considered other, traditional email and customer service platforms. Most acquired brands are based on Gmail communication and so a modern, easily integrated service was key.
While the Boosted team was recruiting a VP of Operations, one of the candidates recommended Drag during an interview. They decided to participate in the free trial and very quickly decided that this was the right app for their operations.
The solution
Today, the Boosted team has cultivated an outstanding global customer service team, and this would not have been possible without Drag. For example, customers never doubt their value as each inquiry receives a timely response, and always from the “same” customer service team member.
“Having the ability to “Reply As” our sole customer service alias has been crucial because it allows for an uninterrupted conversation and consistent experience”, said Kensie Tanner, Coordinator, Operations. “Our customers never feel as if they are being passed along from one agent to another. Anyone on our team can address a customer’s needs quickly, no matter what time zone they live in. Each customer is made to feel as if their specific concern is most urgent, and a top priority – which it is! With Drag, we are able to make this a reality.”
The Boosted team also mentioned that aside from providing excellent customer service, Drag delivered a resolution to concerns over security and access. “Drag’s functionality allows our VAs to access only the emails they need to, like customer messages, without having access to other emails from the same account,” said Drew Lessard, VP Operations.
As months have passed and Boosted has gained greater recognition for its success, the company has been approached by other customer service-focused platforms. After carefully reviewing the potential that these platforms have to offer, the Boosted team remains committed to Drag. “There really is no comparison when it comes to Drag. We have a great relationship with their team, it is incredibly easy to use, addresses all of our needs, and the price is right!” explains Kensie Tanner.
“There really is no comparison when it comes to Drag. We have a great relationship with their team, it’s incredibly easy to use, addresses all of our needs, and the price is right!”
Kensie Tanner
Coordinator, Operations @ Boosted Commerce
The use case
With Drag, the Boosted team will set up a customer service board, refunds board, and archive board, for each brand. The entire operations team, including the brand managers, have access to these boards. Everyone has the ability to “Reply As” the customer service alias, but this is mainly done by the customer service manager and the customer service virtual assistants.
Drag eliminates the back and forth of emails and questions, which can easily get lost and cause confusion. By having the ability to triage emails and drag only customer service related emails from the brand’s main Gmail account to a Drag board, the CS team has access only to exactly what they need, and eliminates concerns over account security.
When a new brand is acquired, customer service best practices and SOPs are passed along to the Ops team. The brand founders are added as temporary Drag users so that all interactions between their customers and the Ops team are transparent.
The Ops team can reach out to the Brand Founders easily by using the @ feature on the app. The brand founders get a notification that they have been mentioned and are directed to that card. Here they are able to guide the team through any questions or unforeseen issues. Once the Boosted team has fully taken over, they continue the practice of transparent management and can easily communicate with their VAs.
Another feature the Boosted team relies on is the Drag board columns. Each board has a “To-do” “Doing” and “Done” column. All incoming inquiries are sorted into the To-do column. Once someone on their team has initiated contact, it is moved to the “Doing” column. When an inquiry is closed, it is moved to the “Done” column. This allows managers to quickly view the status of CS inquiries and allows for full transparency.
On the right side of the boards is a chat area, where team members can tag each other, ask questions, and get their answers all in one place. It has never been easier to train new team members and collaborate!
How they know that Drag is working
Recently, they closed a deal on a brand that focuses on home improvement – their biggest brand to date! Overnight, they transitioned over the brand’s CS system and SOPs and took over all communications. Over the next few days, they had their VAs fully trained on an entirely new brand, new products, and new processes. Boosted’s Customer Service Manager claims that this would not be possible without Drag.
“The best way to judge this is through customer feedback. Even in those few cases where a customer is not 100% satisfied with a product, we still get compliments like ‘Thank you again for your TOTALLY AWESOME CUSTOMER SERVICE YOU TRULY ARE AMAZING!!!! for your care and concern. It is thanks to Drag that we are able to adopt and operationalize processes of a new brand so quickly.”
“The team at Drag is incredible. They really took the time to understand our needs, and have been there supporting our growth every step of the way.”
Drew Lessard
Vice President Operations @ Boosted Commerce
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