Article âĒ 6 min read
The Magnolia method: Scaling authenticity in customer service
āđāļāļĒ Tara Ramroop
āļāļąāļāđāļāļāļĨāđāļēāļŠāļļāļ March 23, 2022
You donât have to be the âTarget Ladyâ to appreciate an occasional chin wag with customers. But a chatty approach may not always fly in busy contact centers, with open tickets and customers on the phone who need helpâhelp that probably doesnât include a recap of the weather.
It does fly at Magnolia, though. For about half the total support tickets, in fact.
Dedication to the customer relationship sets certain companies apart, for consumers and within the business community. For example, The Ritz-Carlton, Amazon, and Costco are often included on short lists of companies with stellar customer service, and itâs easy to see why. Agents are empowered to do what it takes to maintain the customer relationship, and sometimes with four-figure budgets to back them up.
You could make a case for adding Magnolia to the list: the Waco-based home and lifestyle brand was founded by Chip and Joanna Gaines in 2003, and has since evolved to include brick-and-mortar retail (Magnolia Market at the Silos), restaurant, bakery, quarterly lifestyle magazine, vacation rentals, and more.
![magnolia silos](https://d26a57ydsghvgx.cloudfront.net/content/Relate/magnolia-silos-small.jpg)
The popularity of their design aesthetic is undeniable, given the legions of visitors who visit the Silosâas theyâre knownâeach year, and by the brandâs staggering 4.2 million followers on Instagram. The appeal goes beyond picture-perfect content, though, as people are truly enamored with the couple behind the experience. One explanation could beâtake note, skepticsâthat kindness and authenticity are actually scalable. But beyond being scalable, theyâre simply essential ingredients to creating an enduring guest experience.
âThis isnât about pushing candles or vases; itâs this experience we hope people feelâĶthat thereâs a tangible takeaway even if they donât buy anything,â Joanna recently said during the closing session, âBrand builders: Balancing business and creativity to make a cultural connection,â at the 2019 National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show.
[Read also: Want customers to trust you? Trust your agents to make them happy]
Building a business around authenticity
HGTV executives first thought the Gainesâ approach would serve a niche, Chip said at the NRF Big Show. But the pair proved to be so relatable, a wider audience was keen to keep up with them. So much so, the coupleâs tiny Waco home dÃĐcor shop grew into the national home and lifestyle brand it is today, built around that community.
âThis isnât about pushing candles or vases; itâs this experience we hope people feelâĶthat thereâs a tangible takeaway even if they donât buy anything,â
Joanna Gaines
âHonestly, what you see is what you get,â says Magnoliaâs Guest Services Director Sam Goff in reference to the companyâs founders. âI think that level of kindness and authenticity is contagiousâit inspires our culture. Whether youâre walking around the office or youâre shopping at the Market, youâll notice people are genuinely happy to be here. People are genuinely happy to see you.â
Debunking CX myths
Weâre on a mission to prove that âomnichannelâ isnât just another buzzword. This time, weâve enlisted some help.
It appears the trickle-down theory of company culture applies: You canât buy culture and you canât delegate it, which means leaders must lead by example. As Chip said at the NRF Big Show, musing on the companyâs expansion from a few dozen employees to a few hundred: âWe want our people to thrive and be successful.â While southern hospitality is infused throughout the Silos, it especially comes to life on Magnoliaâs guest services team.
Chip and Joanna explained at the NRF Big Show how much they value touchpoints: any way they can connect with customers. While the Magnolia Journal is currently one of their biggest touchpoints, customer support, it turns out, is another important one. The support team is empowered to create a brand-right experience, buoyed with heaps of trust, and some budget, even as the company scales up, explains Goff.
Support tickets typically fall into two categories, in roughly equal parts: transactional and what Goff calls âexperiential.â Transactional customers, as the name implies, have product or delivery questions. They need more immediate help, and agents are there to support those needs. Experiential customers, however, call mostly to share their experiences or just to say hello.
Building an experience around allowing customers to share their experiences results in a unique definition of support success. Sometimes the time to resolution on a ticket can be high (like months high), Goff says. The teamâs customer satisfaction scores reach well into the 90+ percent bucket, but they pick their moments when deciding to send a âhow did we do?â email survey after a customer shares a personal experience. When time allows, agents are encouraged to meet visitors for lunch, and a creative budget is used to send flowers or buy gift cards (not Magnolia ones) to give to customers. One agent, Goff recalls, struck up a conversation with someone who wanted to bring her mom to the Silos for her 81st birthday. She had lunch with them and showed them aroundâon her day off.
âEvery ticket tells a really cool, really sweet story,â Goff says.
Building an experience around allowing customers to share their experiences results in a unique definition of support success.
Modernizing with customers in mind
The team strives to modernize the support experience, which isnât mutually exclusive from preserving their approach to customer service. Goff explains that he wants more transactional guests to have the easiest possible path to getting in touch, which means having a full omnichannel solution at the ready. Phone support (as you can imagine) is popular, as is text message. Customers were also âecstaticâ over the augmented reality component of the Magnolia app. Some theories about why: Itâs simple, at their fingertips, and gives them the ability to digitally place products in their homes without actually leaving their homes, Goff says.
[Read also: How augmented reality could change customer service]
Yet, Goff says, Magnolia guests actually prefer to wait longer for a 1:1 connection. Itâs counter to many companiesâ experienceâresearch shows that 85 percent of customers will hop to another channel if they hear crickets on their first attempt at reaching out, and most of them wait less than an hour to try again. But patience works for Magnolia. With leaders who are unfazed by using the word âloveâ when talking about people in their company, and the feeling they want to exude in their business, it doesnât come as much of a surprise.
Such a unique customer base takes unique agents to meet those needs. The first must-have, Goff says, is empathy. So is the ability to give people the benefit of the doubt, a desire to be forward-thinking, and to do what it takes to meet customers where they are.
âWe hire for character, first and foremost,â Goff says. âWe can teach you how to use our systems, but are you a compassionate person? No matter what, are you able to approach every call with renewed focus and energy?â
Authenticity requires an interest in, dedication to, and appreciation for the things that make people tick, whether thatâs getting efficient, informed answers about a product or an order, or feeling heard by an interested stranger on the other end of the phone line. The Magnolia approach might not work for everyone, but the company offers proof that kindness and authenticity can scale with a little effortâĶ and room for conversation.