Eugene Krechetovych, Foxtrot Head of CRM: “You can’t buy a magic CRM. You need to live it everyday”

Eugene Krechetovych, Foxtrot Head of CRM

Eugene, how did you start your career at Foxtrot?

Before Foxtrot I worked in the banking sector, at Ukrsibbank. At some point I got bored, and coincidentally at the same time I received an offer from Foxtrot to build a CRM. I agreed.

Do You remember your first day in Foxtrot?

Yes. It was a shock. Foxtrot had a crazy pace of work, a million tasks that needed to be processed simultaneously. Nobody set you priorities. I had to work on the challenges that myself considered important.

What was your team in the beginning?

I joined Foxtrot in 2015. In the beginning, there was me and 2 other people who were developing a loyalty program. At that time, the loyalty program already existed, but it wasn’t digital: with paper questionnaires, lack of goals and incomprehensible processes.

Cashiers rarely asked clients if they had plastic Foxtrot loyalty cards. We didn’t have any personal offers, product recommendations, or promos with bonuses in the receipts. In fact, there was some kind of “loyalty program engine”, which wasn’t used properly. And customers were reluctant to use their cards. Clients did not have personal accounts on the web-site, they couldn’t view the purchase history. The team and I had to create all this from scratch.

How did you start building CRM?

We started by creating a single contact file. The problem was that Foxtrot had many separate data sources. Paper forms, website registrations, calls to the contact center, etc. It took us 6 months to integrate the systems with each other and get a single customer contact file.

Also an important achievement at that time: Foxtrot was the first company in our industry to fully digitize the loyalty card. We linked it to a mobile phone number, and got rid of the plastic cards.

Then we started to move towards the personalization of Foxtrot offers. Previously, 100% of our income came from promotions across the entire database. Now 80% of all communications are event-triggered: they are sent to a specific person after his certain actions in the Foxtrot ecosystem.

When did You start using Corezoid in Foxtrot?

We started using Corezoid, when decided to launch a chatbot. Foxtrot had a growing volume of orders and purchases. And we wanted to transfer service communications with customers to a new channel. Together with Corezoid team we launched the chatbot quickly, literally in 1 month. And now we are developing its functionality. Our chatbot is not intended to annoy the clients with notifications. Chatbot's main function is to let the client check the status of orders, the number of bonus points, and so on. When the bot tracks the uncompleted intent, it proactively recommends useful actions.

Together with Corezoid team we launched the chatbot quickly, literally in 1 month

The client can view his electronic receipt, electronic guarantee, add the loyalty card to the Google Wallet or Apple Passkit wallet, make payments directly in the chatbot. We track the actions of the user and highlight the necessary sections of the menu, depending on the context: are there active orders, bonuses, promotional coupons.

Clients have intentions, why they launch the chatbot. They have a purpose. For example, if there is an active order, the customer probably wants to check its status. If a person has accumulated a lot of bonuses, he or she probably wants to spend them. People respond well to such a personalized approach.

What metrics, KPIs do you track in Your CRM work?

For us, the growth of the active base, the frequency of purchases, and customer retention are important. We also look at the number of participants in the loyalty program. “FoxFun” now has 11.6 million members. This is one of largest loyalty programs among all the retailers in Ukraine.

The active client base is 2.6 million people – these are people who make purchases with us every year. 90% of customers use their bonus cards and 75% make repeat purchases.

There is also such a metric as a decrease in the number of calls to the contact center after the client has used the chatbot. Of course, we track the results of sales after communications from our side: we work with abandoned carts, views, coupons. Foxtrot Viber bot has over 400,000 subscribers and we continue to grow. I think by the end of this year we will become the leader in retail in terms of the number of subscribers in the chatbot.

Foxtrot Viber bot has over 400,000 subscribers and we continue to grow. I think by the end of this year we will become the leader in retail in terms of the number of subscribers in the chatbot

In addition to Viber, we also have a bot in Telegram, the functionality is the same there, but Viber has more coverage in Ukraine.

Foxtrot chat-bot in Viber https://chats.viber.com/foxtrotinfo_bot

What does your CRM team look like now?

The existing team consists of 4 employees with a deep knowledge and expertise in the implementation of the complex projects. Now we are actively developing a partner network, collaborations with retailers, gas stations.

What new features have you launched recently?

We recently launched an e-guarantee, an e-check in a chatbot. We launched the ability to add a Foxtrot card to Apple, Google wallets, and immediately see the balance of bonuses on the card. This was done really quickly, within 1 week. We launched dynamic pricing, product comparison.

We also develop an important social partnership and provide targeted assistance in the form of discounts. We already have a successful experience of cooperation with the Ukrainian Association of ATO Participants "Ukrainians United!" using a social card of ATO participants, which gives the right to receive a discount of up to 10%. Also this year the public organization “UTOG” was connected to the social program as well.

How fast can you run experiments and test new assumptions?

At Foxtrot we can experiment quickly enough: 1-2 weeks from idea to launch. Any link that a person clicks on Foxtrot.ua web-site, any left contact from a home computer, phone or tablet – all this is linked into a single client profile. Based on the client's behavior, we have the ability to build assumptions and quickly test ideas by launching communication in different channels: push, Viber, sms, e-mail, etc.

Which mechanics work best?

I can tell you about the general principles. For example, personalization of the user experience works much better than any promotional emails. That is, analyzing a person's behavior on the site, we highlight interesting categories for him, products, possibly with personalized prices, promo codes.

In Foxtrot we have implemented a mechanism that takes into account profitability targets and updates prices for goods every 30 minutes, offers supplementary accessories, etc. This approach has helped to significantly increase, for example, sales of accessories. Both on the website and in the offline point of sale, we offer clients the same kits. This way, shop assistants don't need to think about which products are sold well together.

In Foxtrot we have implemented a mechanism that takes into account profitability targets and updates prices for goods every 30 minutes, offers supplementary accessories, etc.

What are your plans for CRM development at Foxtrot?

We are launching a referral program so that people can invite friends for a reward. Also we want to add gamification rules to “FoxFan”. We have already built pragmatic things: bonuses, discounts, coupons. Now we want to add emotions to our CRM activities.

CRM is hard work. CRM does not appear in the company at once. It is impossible to “buy” a CRM. It is important that the person who develops a CRM does not give up. He must draw for himself the perfect picture and strive for it. This story is not about one month. Sometimes TOP-managers think: "If we buy a CRM, it will fly." It will not. Without people who work on CRM every day, constantly test assumptions, neither CRM works. It is impossible to “implement” CRM and rest happy. You have to live it every day.

CRM does not appear in the company at once. It is impossible to “buy” a CRM. It is impossible to “implement” CRM and rest happy. You have to live it every day

What are Your criterias for hiring people to work at Foxtrot?

I rely upon the recommendations. It is important that someone vouches for a person. Candidates must be full of energy and desire to change something in this world. Not all the ideas will work eventually, however, the candidate should be a fountainhead. Plus he needs to have a strong discipline to put ideas in life.

Why is it interesting to work in the sphere of electronics and gadgets sales?

The technology market is very vibrant. The situation changes every day. Competitors are constantly coming up with new ways to engage customers. Fortunately, at Foxtrot we are able to react quickly to market changes. Compared to the banks where I worked before, we just have a space speed. In the bank, I remember that it could take 6 or 7 months from idea to implementation. At Foxtrot, our hands are free. We think, count, and quickly launch activities to test our assumptions in production. To some extent, quarantine helped us here. We managed to test about 80 different cases, mechanics in the field of CRM.

How many people work with Corezoid in Foxtrot?

You don’t need many people to work effectively with Corezoid. We have 2 people in Foxtrot, who are working with Corezoid. They build Corezoid-based solutions both for external Foxtrot clients and for Foxtrot employees, for example, HR-processes.

Please recommend to our readers a few books, films, TV series that you liked lately?

I can recommend “Sapiens. A Brief History of Humanity ” by the Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari. As a kid I loved adventure novels by Jules Verne with all those amazing inventions.