L’Occitane Customer Care: Cultivators of Change Through Genuine Connection

L'Occitane en Provence, founded in 1976 in the Provence region of France, is a worldwide brand that offers premium, natural-based, personal care and wellbeing Provencal products and services. L'Occitane seeks to revive the Provencal way of life and traditions through high quality, effective personal care products as a great answer for natural wellbeing.

Briefly describe the nominated department: history and past performance (up to 1,250 characters):

L'OCCITANE en Provence was founded in 1976 in the South of France. Inspired by the rich nature in the lands of Provence, we offer a wide range of beauty and skincare products. The same spirit that shapes Provence, its warmth, authenticity, sense of community, also shapes The North America Customer Care team.

Since most people brace for a negative experience when calling customer care, we've taken a human-centric approach that transforms the moment into one of ease and genuine connection. Our goal is for guests to leave feeling like they've just spoken with a friend.

We support guests through product education, direct-mail order assistance, ecommerce post-purchase guidance, and in-store assistance via phone, email, online chat, and social media. Regardless of how they contact us, we meet every guest with the same presence and care as if we were speaking face-to-face.

The team consistently advocates for simple & smooth customer experiences throughout all touchpoints on their purchasing journey. We conduct live telephone listening sessions, showcase survey verbatim, and utilize contact volume to drive positive change wherever necessary.

The team serves as the human extension of Provence: warm, grounded, attentive, and committed to true connection.

Outline the department's achievements since July 1, 2023 that you wish to bring to the judges' attention (up to 1,500 characters):

When was the last time you received a personal thank you note after a Customer Service interaction ended? Likely, never...right? In 2024, our Customer Care team implemented the Precious Moments initiative to elevate guest experience and provide a personalized moment after service interactions. This proved profound as it is not often practiced in the beauty industry.

While most retailers rely on email automation, we send personalized notecards that arrive at guests' door one week after their interaction with our team. The cards feature warm, inviting imagery of the South of France and are personally written by the agent who assisted them. For us, it is imperative that we go beyond simply resolving an inquiry. We aim to leave a lasting impression and develop a genuine relationship with guests. This level of personalized care sets our team apart from competitors in the beauty industry.

Although our products are sold across multiple wholesale partner websites, we've made service simple. With our One-Contact resolution commitment, guests only need to reach out to us, no matter where their purchase was made. As the single, seamless point of support, we ensure every inquiry is handled confidently in one place. This tool helped contribute to a 6pnt growth in our First Contact Resolution KPI during fiscal year 2024-25.

We also proactively test all online promotional offerings, ensuring a seamless redemption experience. This resulted in a 38% decrease in promotional-issue related contacts in 2023-2025 versus 2021-2023.

We remain steadfast in understanding guests fully and responding with genuine care.

Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant. If possible compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry and/or to the organization's past performance (up to 1,500 characters):

With over 3000 personalized thank you cards sent since implementation, our Precious Moments initiative has received remarkable customer feedback. It reflects our commitment to establishing meaningful connections with our guests and caring about how they feel after interacting with our team. This level of care sets us apart in an industry increasingly focused on AI-powered customer service.

Additionally, the One-Contact Resolution commitment sets us apart in the beauty industry, where customers are often bounced between retailers and brands for answers. By taking full ownership of every inquiry, we're redefining what modern customer care can be. Our One-Contact Resolution model removes friction, builds trust, and centers the guest's experience above all else, positioning us as a meaningful force for change in an industry that rarely goes this far for its customers.

We utilized contact intervention data to implement self-service features like order tracking, cancellation options, address modification (2023) and return-label creation (2024). These have proven successful, especially the address modification feature, which resulted in a 53% decrease in overall contacts from fiscal year 2023-2024 versus FY 2022-2023.

The team's dedication has contributed to measurable improvement in key service metrics. North America's Customer Care Net Promoter Score increased by 6 points in FY24-25 (reaching 44), which exceeds the average NPS of 41 for retail companies according to Customer Gauge.

These gains demonstrate the impact of elevating service recovery into a personalized experience, setting us apart in an industry where transactional service remains the norm.

Reference any attachments of supporting materials throughout this nomination and how they provide evidence of the claims you have made in this nomination (up to 1,500 characters):

Our nomination is proudly supported by the following three attachments:

Our Precious Moments story provides context on the why behind establishing meaningful connections, how we execute this initiative, volume, and guest feedback to showcase the true impact we have made thus far.

The One-Contact Resolution document will help showcase our aim to remove friction from the guest experience and empower our agents by offering resolutions for all purchases in one place. Also featured are our guidelines, employee testimonials, guest feedback, and supporting KPI data.

The verbatim from our Net Promoter survey campaign will allow you to see direct feedback that advocates for our commitment to providing genuine, personalized care, while removing the burden from our guests. This guest feedback is incredibly important to us, and we believe there is high value in sharing for you to see first-hand.

Finally, a video to highlight the self-service order features on our website, implemented to bring empowerment through automation; return creation, order cancellation and address modifications.

Together, these materials help measure and support our Customer Care team's achievements over the last two years.