Customer experience at the heart of Megaworld Lifestyle Malls' success
Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, the dynamic retail arm of the leading real estate developer Megaworld Corporation, is transforming the shopping scene in the Philippines. With an impressive portfolio of 20 malls, this retail giant has become a hallmark of innovation, offering shoppers a unique and vibrant shopping experience.
But Megaworld's impact stretches far beyond malls. Their visionary approach includes pioneering townships, with an impressive count of 26 flourishing developments across the Philippines. They're not just shaping communities; they're fortifying them. By harnessing cutting-edge technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence, they're elevating safety standards and enhancing climate resilience.
In an era where digital engagement reigns supreme, Megaworld Lifestyle Malls is not merely keeping up; they're leading the charge. Their Customer Experience Group recognised the seismic shift in consumer behaviour, accelerated by the pandemic, and has embarked on a transformative journey to provide customers with a seamless, enriching, and secure online experience.
Disconnected data impedes delivering first class customer experience
The first step that the customer experience group took was to invest in transforming their customer service process. They imagined a seamless customer service experience where shoppers can get any enquiries answered in the quickest and most convenient way possible. To achieve this, they saw the need to invest in a customer service tool to run a successful service team.
The team were existing users of an established CRM player in the market, and they naturally looked at the company’s existing service management tool. However, they realised that there was no native integration between their CRM platform and the service management platform, despite both products being under the same parent company. It was not possible to import historical data between databases as well.
“It was as if they were two separate products with completely different UX. We had to maintain two separate databases for each tool as well,” shares Nicolo Sanchez, Head of Customer Experience Group at Megaworld Lifestyle malls.
At the same time, the team was struggling with a fragmented database. Different teams across marketing and service were using individual spreadsheets to manage their database, and 3rd party registration forms to capture data that don’t seamlessly connect to their core database.
Seeking alternative CRMs that will partner Megaworld on their digital transformation journey
This decisive move led their team to seek an alternative CRM solution, and their criteria were crystal clear: they needed an all-in-one marketing and service solution that operated on a unified database.
They also took into account the CRM solution's popularity in the local market. As they grew their customer experience team, they aimed to find a solution that potential hires were already familiar with.
Moreover, considering their significant digital transformation plans, they sought a solution that was user-friendly but also capable of scaling to meet their evolving needs.
These mix of strategic and tactical requirements were the driving force behind their decision to embrace HubSpot.
Nicolo adds, “One reason why we chose HubSpot was its local market penetration. As we scaled our team, hiring for talents with experience with the platform was important to us. It was also a skill that was valued in the Philippines market compared to lesser known CRMs. We also looked at HubSpot’s positioning against other big CRM players - we valued a solution that could fulfil our needs at every stage of our digital transformation journey.”
Seamless transition to HubSpot
Once the team had chosen HubSpot as the cornerstone of their front office operations, the next challenge was to smoothly migrate their data from the incumbent CRM into HubSpot. With the support of HubSpot's personalised onboarding program, their team efficiently accomplished this data migration and workflow transfer within a mere three months.
Nicolo shares, "Their transition into HubSpot was seamless. They subscribed in late December 2022, and by February 2023, their marketing team was already leveraging HubSpot to send consumer emails. In the first three months on HubSpot, they surpassed the milestone of sending over a million emails per month, a significant leap from their average of 600,000 emails per month."
Meeting their shoppers where they are with omnichannel chatbots
In the post-pandemic landscape, shoppers have higher expectations of brands, expecting quick and accessible answers across all channels. To meet these evolving demands, the Customer Experience Team's used HubSpot to expand their chatbot presence.
Megaworld Lifestyle Malls deployed 18 chatbots powered by HubSpot Service Hub across various channels including individual Facebook pages for each mall, their mobile app, and website. Using automated chatflows built on HubSpot, these chatbots swiftly handle common inquiries like parking, mall hours, and directories with lightning-fast automated responses.
The impact is striking - customer inquiries receive rapid replies. Shoppers now enjoy the simplicity of asking their questions via chatbots for instant answers. Even complex queries smoothly transition to a ticket submission, routed to live agents for personalised responses. This chatbot revolution isn't just efficient; it's an exciting leap in customer service.
Boosting marketing productivity by streamlining manual work
At Megaworld Lifestyle Malls, their marketing team is dedicated to creating delightful experiences for their shoppers, including raffles and promotions. These initiatives typically require shoppers to provide their contact details to participate. In the past, their team relied on a patchwork of tools such as Google Forms, spreadsheets, and even pen and paper to gather shopper data.
This resulted in an extensive amount of time being spent on data cleaning and importing after every campaign. With HubSpot, the entire process has become automated. Their team now seamlessly integrates HubSpot forms into landing pages, effortlessly capturing shopper details that are automatically updated in their CRM.
These form submissions trigger a series of automated workflows in HubSpot. For example, as soon as a shopper submits the form, they receive an email confirming their participation in a raffle. This automation has significantly boosted their marketing team's productivity and freed up their time to focus on crafting delightful campaigns and experiences for their shoppers.
Easier database segmentation and personalised communication
HubSpot has also empowered the marketing team to easily segment their database, and craft personalised outreach to each segment.
Nicolo adds, “It’s so much easier to do segmentation on Hubspot versus our previous CRM. We can easily create custom properties whether that's contact properties or ticket properties. And what that has allowed us to do is to make our emails more targeted based on previous behaviour.”
The marketing team is seeing an impressive 45% open rates on their marketing emails as a result of better personalisation.
All-in-one customer view
Megaworld Lifestyle Malls nurture robust shopper relationships through diverse engagement points in their marketing and customer service. Automating the logging of all interactions within a unified contact view amplifies the authenticity of their engagement. This empowers customer service agents with the contextual data needed to provide prompt, authentic, and human-like responses.
Flexible system for multiple use cases
As they became more familiar with HubSpot, Megaworld Lifestyle Malls' internal team discovered they could tailor the platform to meet the needs of their facilities management team. This team oversees equipment and facility audits, ensuring safety and maintenance. With custom objects, they submit tickets to track equipment status, generating comprehensive audit reports. HubSpot's user-friendly customisation benefits multiple teams, enhancing the ROI of their technology investment.
Another use case the Customer Experience Group is excited to roll out is the Mall Partner Support Portal - where their mall partners can find information easily and get the support they need efficiently.
Handling 3.5x more customer enquiries with HubSpot
Since adopting HubSpot, their customer service teams have experienced a remarkable surge in productivity. Previously, they were mostly limited to customer interactions through phone calls alone. However, with the integration of service chatbots across various channels, they've witnessed a remarkable surge in ticket submissions. Even with this 3.5x surge in ticket volume, their customer service agents have not just maintained but surpassed their SLA targets, thanks to streamlined workflows powered by HubSpot.
-1.jpg)
-1.png)
%20(1)-1.png)
.png)
