Leading home appliance brand, Fisher & Paykel is on a mission to become the most human centred appliance brand in the world, using its knowledge of its customers and a deep understanding of its products.
Appliance Retailer recently spoke to Fisher & Paykel general manager of digital, Sarah Lukins about the new age of omnichannel customer experience and how the company is leveraging technology to better support the needs of its customers.
“Fisher & Paykel has a 24/7 multi-lingual global customer experience team, who are using AI to enhance and support customer calls, making it more efficient to understand the cause of any potential issues,” Lukins said.
“Our customer agents are using AI to surface more information from the customer, which means they’re better equipped with knowledge to deliver a more meaningful conversation and can reach a resolution much faster than if they weren’t leveraging AI.”
However, Fisher & Paykel is very careful and considered in its approach to avoid using technology for technology’s sake, having trigger points to understand if a customer has a more complex query.
“For example, if a customer is tracking an order or wanting to book a support call, we can use AI to respond to those types of queries. But if a customer is asking about product recommendations for their new kitchen, we won’t outsource that to AI,” Lukins said.
“We also use AI for language translations on our global websites, which enables us to grow our presence in overseas markets outside of New Zealand.”
From a customer perspective, Fisher & Paykel is investing a lot in technology and the use of AI in its products.
“We believe this is game-changing for our customers, especially when it comes to connected appliances. There are still many customers yet to realise the benefits of a connected appliance but we’re looking at what AI can do to enhance people’s lives, even if they don’t know they need it right now,” Lukins explained.
“Our connected appliances already have software, which is updated as required, allowing customers to add more functions and features to their product post-purchase. Our connected appliances can already be controlled remotely via smartphone or by voice when integrated with other ecosystems.
“We’re excited about the future possibilities of our connected appliances and how we can better understand our customers by learning their habits to deliver greater efficiencies, whether it’s saving them money or energy by uncovering their daily schedules to know when appliances should be switched on or off.”
Given cost-of-living pressures and changing shopping behaviours, Fisher & Paykel is increasingly investing more in its brand marketing, as a crucial advantage and unique selling point in the current market.
“We’re not only competing on price but demonstrating the value of our brand, which is important from a customer loyalty perspective. When customers are looking for products in the major appliance categories, it’s viewed as a long-term investment so they’re not as price sensitive,” Lukins said.
“We’re seeing customers looking for more value and spending more time understanding the differences in product tiers, so we need to give customers more choice within our product ranges.
“There’s a lot of research being done prior to purchase and in the appliance category, it’s a more conscious decision so it’s critical that we clearly communicate our brand value and brand proposition, highlighting our product innovation, connected appliances and customer service, including the post-purchase customer experience.”
For example, Fisher & Paykel offers subscription services for consumable purchases, such as water filters, allowing the brand to continue the conversation with customers after their purchase. “We will be extending this service to other consumable products later this year.”
When it comes to marketing, Fisher & Paykel is focused on ensuring its messaging is consistent across all channels and in all markets around the world, from paid advertising and social media to its website, retailer websites and point of sale in stores.
“About three years ago, we brought our online marketing in house, and we have our internal brand and content team and a single brand agency, to ensure we retain consistency of messaging from the use of text to choice of images,” Lukins said.
“Our connected story is very important, and we want to speak to our customers more openly on this topic, such as explaining what a connected appliance is and what benefits it provides. We want to ensure our SmartHQ app is working complementary with our products and websites. We also want to our encourage customers to connect their appliances so we can learn more about them and their behaviour to improve and enhance their daily lives.”
Sarah Lukins will be in Australia as one of the keynote speakers at the Online Retailer Conference and Expo at the ICC on July 24th & 25th.