Kekäle

“A positive emotional experience is reflected in our turnover. We have noticed that if customers experience joy or trust while shopping, the likelihood of a purchase decision is 40 percent higher than when they feel irritation or sadness.”

– Outi Marttinen, Marketing Manager of Kekäle

Kekäle Tripla

Company background

Kekäle is one of the best-known retail chains in Finland. Kekäle is a Finnish family-owned business and retail chain specializing in quality clothing for women, men, and children, as well as top brands. Kekäle’s goal is to help people find their favorite clothes that they both like and will keep for a long time. Established in 1957, the family business currently operates 13 stores and an online shop.

“Our mission is to help our customers elevate their confidence and feel good about themselves, which is why customer experience and its development play a crucial role in our strategy. We have millions of customer interactions annually, where we can positively impact our customers’ lives.”

– Outi Marttinen, Marketing Manager of Kekäle

Main challenges

Before Kekäle started using Feedbackly, they were collecting customer feedback. This was a good starting point, but a next step was needed to be able to tackle a few crucial challenges:

  • Lack of connection between business strategy and business outcome – customer experience was one of the cornerstones in their business strategy, but they were not able to measure the impact of CX on business growth

  • Lack of understanding about the reasons behind customer purchasing behavior

  • Missing reliable tools for measuring customer experience throughout customer journeys on various touchpoints

“We needed a service that could help us understand our customer experience better.”

– Joonas Kekäle, CEO of Kekäle

Solution

Kekäle uses the Feedbackly software to measure eCommerce and brick-and-mortar experience to improve conversion, basket size as well as customer retention. One of the most critical journey touchpoints is a short web store post-purchase survey that is shown on a pop-over window. The first question is always the Emotional Value Index (EVI®) question: “How did doing business with us make you feel today?”

“Emotional experience gives us more information than, for example, NPS, about how our customers perceive the service they receive from us at different touchpoints. EVI® is also an easily understandable metric throughout our organization.”

– Outi Marttinen, Marketing Manager of Kekäle

A positive emotional experience shows also in business results which enables the optimization of customer experience for sustainable business growth.

“A positive emotional experience is reflected in our turnover. We have noticed that if customers experience joy or trust while shopping, the likelihood of a purchase decision is 40 percent higher than when they feel irritation or sadness.”

– Outi Marttinen, Marketing Manager of Kekäle

Early on, it was clear that Kekäle has an incredibly high level of customer experience, and the Emotional Value Index (EVI) score is among the best that the Feedbackly team has seen. We asked how they achieved it.

“It all starts with the well-being of our employees. We are a family business, and our employees are at the center of our success. We want them to grow, shine, and find their work meaningful. The meaningfulness of work, especially in stores, often comes from employees seeing how satisfied and happy customers leave us. This creates positive cycles that are reflected in both employee well-being and the quality of customer interactions. In recent years, we have also invested in internal training and communication.”

– Outi Marttinen, Marketing Manager of Kekäle

It is motivating to see that customer satisfaction is high, but Kekäle knows it is not a reason to do less. It is always important to react quickly when improvements are needed. This is the only way to be able to stay among the most-loved retail chains in Finland.

“The majority of the feedback we receive from our customers is positive, and it’s wonderful that our employees receive confirmation of their excellent work. If we receive recurring feedback on the same issues, we investigate the underlying reasons and can agilely improve our operations. For example, the feedback we receive regarding our assortment is a great tool for our buyers.”

– Outi Marttinen, Marketing Manager of Kekäle

Results

Today, Kekäle’s CX program is on a whole new level:

  • They can now see how their CX efforts support their strategy and business growth – the EVI® score has a strong correlation with purchase behavior

  • They can quickly identify any reasons behind their customer purchase behavior along their entire customer journey

  • They have the tools and knowledge needed to independently manage their CX program and keep providing the best experiences to their customers

“We are happy to have Feedbackly alongside us on our journey towards exceptional customer experience. They’ve made the challenging task of mapping and understanding the emotional nuances of our customer journey much simpler, making it easier for us to fine-tune each touchpoint. Additionally, the onboarding process was very informative, equipping us with the insights needed to carry on this work internally.”

– Outi Marttinen, Marketing Manager of Kekäle

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