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Community Spotlight: AMA with Freshdesk MVP, Kannan, Director of payments, Zalora

Community Spotlight: AMA with Freshdesk MVP, Kannan, Director of payments, Zalora
rhea.desouza
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Hello there,

I come bearing some exciting news!!

 

We are hosting our very first Community take-over :boom:

The spotlight will be on Kannan, Director of Payments, Zalora, a Freshdesk customer, on March 22. 

 

Let’s take a look at their background -- 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a great opportunity for you and your team to connect with a Freshdesk customer, and ask any questions that can help you make the most out of our product.

 

How does it work?

  • Post your questions in the comments section below
  • Kannan will monitor the post to answer your questions
  • Engage in a conversation, ask follow up questions or share your two cents

See you on March 22 at 10:30 AM ET/ 9 PM IST

Cheers | Team Freshworks Community

39 replies

Isaac Thomas
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My bad, should have tagged them earlier 😓

@keefe.andrews @zachary.king @Alefre @ErikAlmSynerity @manns @vijay_2am 

 

-- Isaac
kannan.rajaratnam
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Wow, this has been an exciting half-hour! Cheers everyone for taking the time to get involved. We hope to do many more such events that can help you make the most of your product. 

Last but not least, a huge thank you to Kannan - your insights are much appreciated, and I’m sure our members would have learnt a few things along the way.

A happy dance to celebrate this session!

Until next time!

Thank you Rhea for coordinating. The questions were very resourceful and gave me a lot of reflections on our journey as well. Happy to contribute today, hope it has been helpful. Feel free to drop a note here on linkedin should anyone need further clarification! 

rhea.desouza
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Wow, this has been an exciting half-hour! Cheers everyone for taking the time to get involved. We hope to do many more such events that can help you make the most of your product. 

Last but not least, a huge thank you to @kannan.rajaratnam - your insights are much appreciated, and I’m sure our members would have learnt many things along the way.

A happy dance to celebrate this session!

Until next time!

Cheers | Team Freshworks Community
kannan.rajaratnam
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Welcome @kannan.rajaratnam. My question for you - How do you keep employees motivated through busy seasons where increased volumes are bound to take a toll?

This used to a big challenge as our business is quite seasonal with peaks hitting 10X the volume. Typically a-lot of advance planning takes place with expectation setting and some level of restriction and process review to improve turn around time. We also focus on mass and proactive updates to keep the impact to contact centre minimal. Beyond that, we shift the cost savings realized from other expenses to incentivise top talents. 

Also expectation setting! Once the expectation is set with both employees and with customers, I guess, both the parties would know what to expect. 

Setting a set of appropriate guidelines on SLAs and also escalation protocols can go a long way.

P.S.: Not an expert, but sharing my thoughts by putting myself in the shoes of an employee dealing with these. 🙈

Precisely, Customer service is not a walk in the park. I have always regarded the role as one of the most challenging yet having a holistic view of the organisation’s processes. Some musings here.

rhea.desouza
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This next one I’m sure will be helpful for many! 

Q4: How has having a streamlined system assisted help desk agents be better at their jobs and not burn out, especially since expectations on customer support has RISEN through the pandemic?

Besides the team we also used the opportunity to onboard stakeholders to use Freshworks to attend to escalations. The SLA with stakeholders helped to create the right expectation and a standard approach for the employees to remember. The data that we derive on tracing these interactions have been a great deal of help in structuring new process or optimising the current one. 

Love that idea! 

Cheers | Team Freshworks Community
kannan.rajaratnam
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This next one I’m sure will be helpful for many! 

Q4: How has having a streamlined system assisted help desk agents be better at their jobs and not burn out, especially since expectations on customer support has RISEN through the pandemic?

Besides the team we also used the opportunity to onboard stakeholders to use Freshworks to attend to escalations. The SLA with stakeholders helped to create the right expectation and a standard approach for the employees to remember. The data that we derive on tracing these interactions have been a great deal of help in structuring new process or optimising the current one. 

rhea.desouza
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Userlevel 7
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This next one I’m sure will be helpful for many! 

Q4: How has having a streamlined system assisted help desk agents be better at their jobs and not burn out, especially since expectations on customer support has RISEN through the pandemic?

Cheers | Team Freshworks Community
Isaac Thomas
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Next question!

Q2: While it is key for a company to be available across mediums, which channel of support seems to work best for an online retailer like yours?

First it was Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, Instagram and now Tiktok. Likewise, we have customers hopping between emerging trends and having chic and classy brand appearance demands us to be available on all platforms with social media gaining prominence in recent times. 

And how do you sync both offline and online experiences?

Eagerly waiting for @kannan.rajaratnam’s response! 😐

-- Isaac
kannan.rajaratnam
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Next question!

Q2: While it is key for a company to be available across mediums, which channel of support seems to work best for an online retailer like yours?

First it was Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, Instagram and now Tiktok. Likewise, we have customers hopping between emerging trends and having chic and classy brand appearance demands us to be available on all platforms with social media gaining prominence in recent times. 

And how do you sync both offline and online experiences?

We don’t have offline experience currently while we introduced them in the past as part of our awareness campaigns. Some of the key considerations was creating strong backend visibility of data and information that is powering our front end tracking systems or the reference tool for our front liners. We had hybrid models where you could order online and collect at our store or browse physical product offline and head on to one of the customers there to place an order assisted by an employee of ZALORA. @Isaac Thomas 

alyssia.correa
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Welcome @kannan.rajaratnam. My question for you - How do you keep employees motivated through busy seasons where increased volumes are bound to take a toll?

Just a thought!

Organizations should first have their infrastructure in place. If not, employees would get frustrated very soon.

Basic infra like:

  1. Good laptops, PCs, etc.
  2. Give enough reimbursements for a high bandwidth internet connection (considering WFH scenario)
  3. Required tools / software to reduce manual intervention

Really good points @Isaac Thomas - I think its important to focus on employee experience as much as customer experience! A happy employee = a happy customer!

Ally, Freshworks Community Manager
Isaac Thomas
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Welcome @kannan.rajaratnam. My question for you - How do you keep employees motivated through busy seasons where increased volumes are bound to take a toll?

This used to a big challenge as our business is quite seasonal with peaks hitting 10X the volume. Typically a-lot of advance planning takes place with expectation setting and some level of restriction and process review to improve turn around time. We also focus on mass and proactive updates to keep the impact to contact centre minimal. Beyond that, we shift the cost savings realized from other expenses to incentivise top talents. 

Also expectation setting! Once the expectation is set with both employees and with customers, I guess, both the parties would know what to expect. 

Setting a set of appropriate guidelines on SLAs and also escalation protocols can go a long way.

P.S.: Not an expert, but sharing my thoughts by putting myself in the shoes of an employee dealing with these. 🙈

-- Isaac
alyssia.correa
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Userlevel 7
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My other questions is - how does Zalora provide a unified/holistic experience to their customers? How do you tackle this when sometimes offline and online retail experiences are so different?

Consistency is key, we have a set of standard measure across different touch points, example delivery lead time, payment invalidation, aging ticket, CSAT. Ensuring customers have great and consistency experiences helps to keep us ahead of the curve when it comes to best in class service. 

You’re right - consistency really is key! And a lot of attention to detail - this will ensure best in class service!

Ally, Freshworks Community Manager
kannan.rajaratnam
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Welcome @kannan.rajaratnam. My question for you - How do you keep employees motivated through busy seasons where increased volumes are bound to take a toll?

Just a thought!

Organizations should first have their infrastructure in place. If not, employees would get frustrated very soon.

Basic infra like:

  1. Good laptops, PCs, etc.
  2. Give enough reimbursements for a high bandwidth internet connection (considering WFH scenario)
  3. Required tools / software to reduce manual intervention

Good points Isaac, having the basic infrastructure is essential. We always have been very cautious in making sure the team is equipped with the best tools. During peak we tend to shift focus on the human side of things to keep them motivated. 

S
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Next question!

Q2: While it is key for a company to be available across mediums, which channel of support seems to work best for an online retailer like yours?

First it was Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, Instagram and now Tiktok. Likewise, we have customers hopping between emerging trends and having chic and classy brand appearance demands us to be available on all platforms with social media gaining prominence in recent times. 

And how do you sync both offline and online experiences?

rhea.desouza
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Userlevel 7
Badge +9

Next question!

Q2: While it is key for a company to be available across mediums, which channel of support seems to work best for an online retailer like yours?

First it was Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, Instagram and now Tiktok. Likewise, we have customers hopping between emerging trends and having chic and classy brand appearance demands us to be available on all platforms with social media gaining prominence in recent times. 

Wow! Going all the way back to Friendster 😀

Cheers | Team Freshworks Community
kannan.rajaratnam
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Userlevel 3
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My other questions is - how does Zalora provide a unified/holistic experience to their customers? How do you tackle this when sometimes offline and online retail experiences are so different?

Consistency is key, we have a set of standard measure across different touch points, example delivery lead time, payment invalidation, aging ticket, CSAT. Ensuring customers have great and consistency experiences helps to keep us ahead of the curve when it comes to best in class service. 

Isaac Thomas
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +3

Welcome @kannan.rajaratnam. My question for you - How do you keep employees motivated through busy seasons where increased volumes are bound to take a toll?

Just a thought!

Organizations should first have their infrastructure in place. If not, employees would get frustrated very soon.

Basic infra like:

  1. Good laptops, PCs, etc.
  2. Give enough reimbursements for a high bandwidth internet connection (considering WFH scenario)
  3. Required tools / software to reduce manual intervention
-- Isaac
kannan.rajaratnam
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Userlevel 3
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Next question!

Q2: While it is key for a company to be available across mediums, which channel of support seems to work best for an online retailer like yours?

First it was Friendster, Myspace, Facebook, Instagram and now Tiktok. Likewise, we have customers hopping between emerging trends and having chic and classy brand appearance demands us to be available on all platforms with social media gaining prominence in recent times. 

A
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Before we jump into the Q&A, I’d like to ask @kannan.rajaratnam a few questions to hit the ground running! So here it is - 

Q1: How has Freshdesk omnichannel helped you deliver delight? Could you share a few examples?

Click ‘quote’ and share your answer.

This question is open to the forum, so please feel free to add your thoughts too!

Great questions to kick off the evening or rather night for me 🙂 We love the idea of having seamless and interconnected view of our customers and Freshdesk delivers that. Regardless of channel where the customer is contacting us and move over to a different channel we are able to undertake and provide satisfactory resolution without having to have the customer to repeat their situation to us. The shift from traditional voice, emails to chat and social media is prominent yet customers do expect to retain certain replies in a more formal manner as reference and Freshdesk enables us to do just that. 

 

Having a seamless and interconnected view of our customers and their requests is certainly so important in this time! 

alyssia.correa
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My other questions is - how does Zalora provide a unified/holistic experience to their customers? How do you tackle this when sometimes offline and online retail experiences are so different?

Ally, Freshworks Community Manager
kannan.rajaratnam
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Welcome @kannan.rajaratnam. My question for you - How do you keep employees motivated through busy seasons where increased volumes are bound to take a toll?

This used to a big challenge as our business is quite seasonal with peaks hitting 10X the volume. Typically a-lot of advance planning takes place with expectation setting and some level of restriction and process review to improve turn around time. We also focus on mass and proactive updates to keep the impact to contact centre minimal. Beyond that, we shift the cost savings realized from other expenses to incentivise performing talents. 

Isaac Thomas
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Userlevel 5
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As you’ve quoted above, customers are constantly online today and want quick responses and aren’t always so forgiving to long turn-arounds- How has the need for instant gratification changed the retail industry? How do we cater to these increasing expectations?

Generally we are seeing an ever evolving trend when it comes to speed, when we first started 10 years ago, delivering within 3 days was a wow element and today we delivery 97-99% of orders in the next day. On CS replying within 24 hours was acceptable now majority of our replies are instantaneous with chat and even for some of the most complex queries we resolve them on avg or 13-15 hours. 

 

Wow that is an impressive turnaround time! How times have changed - I wonder what future customers will expect in terms of response time! 

Precisely my thought as well. With the ever growing demands as a customer, Tech I’m sure is keeping pace. 

Excited to see how this game evolves!

-- Isaac
rhea.desouza
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Next question!

Q2: While it is key for a company to be available across mediums, which channel of support seems to work best for an online retailer like yours?

Cheers | Team Freshworks Community
kannan.rajaratnam
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Welcome to the Refresh Community, @kannan.rajaratnam 😀 Excited to have you host our very first Community take-over.

 

Likewise Rashmi ! Looking forward a fun-filled night

A
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Welcome @kannan.rajaratnam. My question for you - How do you keep employees motivated through busy seasons where increased volumes are bound to take a toll?

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