Just as consumer needs are fast evolving, the world of CX is evolving too…
I’m sure you heard about consumer experience; it’s been around for a while and is a hot topic of conversation among big brands and businesses (re)looking to build on customer interactions. And yet, it is frequently a hugely misunderstood concept. While people may understand the theory behind it, they often lack the knowledge, relevance or consistency to truly enhance customer experience every day.
Imagine a world where brands fulfil their promises through meaningful consumer experience and interaction. Imagine businesses truly placing the consumer at the core of their organisations, and enforcing a consumer-centric approach within every department (not just sales and marketing), where this mindset is behind every process and experience that takes place. This is the type of business environment that we aim to create – one where the quality of our interactions vastly improves and, in turn, so does the quality of life in general.
Our purpose …
With so much uncertainty globally, now may seem like a strange time to launch a new business. However, I am confident that a company with the sole purpose of collaborating with brands to improve their customer interactions can only be a positive thing. In fact, with the pandemic creating so much unpredictability for businesses around their futures, customer experience – and, in turn, engagement – is more critical now than it has ever been.
My name is Raluca Epureanu, and I am the Founder and Managing Director of re:look; an experience consultancy firm established with the purpose to improve the quality of life and happiness of consumers by helping brands to build impactful and consumer-centric experiences. Raised in a culture that embraces hospitality, and growing up in a town that relies on tourism, has instilled in me the importance of positive customer interactions. It was this understanding that paved the way for me to work for a number of international hospitality brands, including JW Marriott and The Ritz-Carlton (the “gold-standard” for five-star hospitality).
It is also our passion for producing high-quality work, lasting relationships, loyalty and impactful experiences that gives me confidence in the success of re:look. As a boutique firm, with a team of committed professionals, who are outstanding in their respective fields, we offer a much more personalised and agile approach to customer experience that truly champions change through more empathetic behaviour.
Why CX?
My professional background, in particular working with The Ritz-Carlton brand and learning from their guest -centric approach, has allowed me to see first-hand the impact of creating positive experiences and memories for guests, through a well-established, consumer-centric organisational culture. In my own personal life, I have also felt the impact of companies that have failed to place value on customer experience, and I know how frustrating this can feel. Witnessing businesses struggle to consistently identify or bring to life consumer experience touch points and the issues that this can create, alongside my professional experience in creating meaningful customer interactions, is what sparked the idea for re:look consultancy, which seemed to me to be the logical next step on my journey to strive towards enhancing customer outcomes.
Our brand values …
A quote that has often inspired my own work philosophy comes from the American poet Maya Angelou – “People don’t always remember what you say or even what you do, but they always remember how you made them feel.” It is this that has also inspired re:look’s brand values of excellence, human-centric behaviour, integrity, and impact. These values are integral to both myself and the re:look team of experts from around the world. They also allow us to approach customer experience in a much more personal and holistic manner, which is what makes us stand out in an already established market.
As we’re offering a more all-encompassing approach through our brand values, I also believe that we are not just improving certain aspects of service, but improving our guests’ overall quality of life. By doing this, we’re striving to create lasting and much more meaningful connections to brands and businesses alike. Our coaching and development, for example, not only helps to align teams with their goals, but works to ensure that customer-centric strategies are implemented throughout an organisation. As a committed and avid follower of customer experience technologies and trends, I am also keenly aware of how the industry is ever-evolving, whether it’s drawing ever more refined conclusions thanks to data analytics, or using artificial intelligence to rethink customer care. Shifting our focus from solely consumer experience to the more all-encompassing strategy of business experience (BX) – and taking our lead from the industry heavyweights Accenture – is an example of how progressive re:look aims to be as a consultancy. As our company name suggests, we’re here to relook at organisations and view things from the consumer’s perspective, as well as to reshape the way we do things in order to better suit our guests’ needs while avoiding unnecessary silos.
Personally, I feel that my background in customer-focused hospitality, along with my innovative views on the future of customer experience, are the best possible foundations for a successful consultancy. Creating positive experiences for guests has always been something that comes naturally to me, and the appeal of this industry stems from how progressive and constantly evolving it is – particularly at a time when a lot of businesses in dozens of industries seem to be stagnating, and stuck in their ways. Empathy, integrity, and a personal approach are deep-rooted values for myself and my team, and I believe that these will help re:look to stand out. It is my honest belief that, as a business, we are helping to reshape industries, by ushering in a new era and approach to consumer experience.
