Interview: Nicolas Hammer, Co-founder and CEO, Critizr
RTIH: Tell us about Critizr
NH: We founded Critizr in 2012 and it’s now Europe’s leading customer feedback platform. We’ve grown steadily from a core base of retail clients in France, to having over 80 clients around Europe in retail, banking, travel, entertainment and hospitality. The platform works for any business that has customers and wants to forge a better connection with them and improve their experience.
It’s designed to do that really effectively, by giving businesses a better means to listen to their customer and understand their needs, and then to take action on their behalf. It’s this ‘loop’ that makes Critizr’s technology different: connecting customer feedback, insight and action in one seamless process.
Critizr also gives businesses what I think is their single most important asset in modern retail: empowered staff. Most customer feedback solutions work from the top down, which I believe really misses the point. People at senior level in a business need customer feedback for their planning, but they are not the people who deliver for customers at the point of CX. frontline, local staff are.
The Critizr platform is designed to be embedded across the whole business, so that local teams and managers can use it themselves. They log in via their computer or phone, they understand in real time what their customers like and what they don’t, what’s working, what’s not and where improvements can be made.
They can solve problems quickly to win back dissatisfied customer and share positive reviews with their own teams to boost morale. It’s all about empowerment and building true CX champions on the shopfloor, which we know from years of experience is a powerful driver of customer satisfaction, loyalty and revenue.
RTIH: What was the inspiration behind setting the company up?
NH: I started developing the idea for Critizr with Thibault Carlier (co-founder and our CTO) while studying at Kedge Business School in Bordeaux and at the University of Stanford in the US. We were interested in the disruption of retail and how technology was helping businesses respond to such rapid shifts in people's shopping habits.
We saw that success for retailers in the future would be about agility, efficiency and a relentless customer focus. But we wondered why so many retail tech solutions focused on the needs of marketing and insights teams at HQ, not those of local, customer facing staff in branch.
This was our lightbulb moment. A realisation that valuable customer feedback was usually routed into spreadsheets and silos at head office, not to the people at the point of CX.
Many retailers have hundreds of branches, and yet there didn’t seem to be any solution to bridge that customer feedback gap. Our vision for Critizr was to create technology to nurture these local customer relationships. After consultation with contacts at some of France’s biggest retailers, we developed our first version of the Critizr platform around this central idea, and it still guides our company today.
RTIH: What has been the industry reaction thus far?
NH: There are so many retail technology solutions on the market, but when we get the chance to show businesses how and why Critizr is different, they can see its potential straight away. For retailers used to a more conventional model of customer feedback and data management, the prospect of easily bringing all staff on board and devolving CX power to the place where it matters most is very exciting.
We’ve been working with some of Europe’s most successful retailers for a good number of years now, brands such as Carrefour, Total, Crédit Mutuel and Monoprix. Critizr is tried and tested, and it helps that we have some very compelling evidence to share around improved customer satisfaction scores, increased staff retention and morale, ease of installation and operation, and business ROI.
Feedback from the shopfloor is also very important to us, since we all know the dangers of investment in expensive tech that no one in the business gets round to using. We hear regularly that Critizr is a well-used and liked ‘daily habit’ for branch managers, fitting easily into daily operations and making a real difference to the day to day.
We have so many ‘Criti-stories’ from our clients that show Critizr in action, solving problems on the shop floor, winning back dissatisfied customers and delighting customers with great ideas and action.
“We’ve been working with some of Europe’s most successful retailers for a good number of years now, brands such as Carrefour, Total, Crédit Mutuel and Monoprix. Critizr is tried and tested, and it helps that we have some very compelling evidence to share around improved customer satisfaction scores, increased staff retention and morale, ease of installation and operation, and business ROI”
RTIH: You’ve just been unveiled as one of the first platforms to integrate with Google’s Business Messages in Europe. Can you tell us about the significance of this?
NH: It’s a significant development in terms of its capacity to change the way businesses talk to their customers. People can now contact and converse with local shops in real-time from Google Search and maps. For our clients, that means a powerful new channel to answer questions, provide locally relevant information, and issue personalised suggestions and advice.
It’s completely aligned with Critizr’s mission to close the gap between a brand’s local teams and its customers and we’re really excited to be amongst the first to be using it. With the aftershocks of Covid-19 still being felt, it’s more important than ever for brands to build a strong connection with their customers, and to be instantly available to answer questions and smooth the shopping experience.
RTIH: What has been your biggest challenge/setback?
NH: I’ve probably experienced similar challenges to many people trying to build and manage a fast-growth technology business across different countries. We have successfully grown and funded the business to transition from the early startup phase into a bigger, more established operation in Europe.
Our challenge now is pushing into new territories and sectors, and translating our success for these new markets. Showcasing our proposition and success to date in a new country and business environment is without doubt challenging. But we have an exceptional team of CX specialists onboard who are ensuring our message cuts through to the right people and that the Critizr difference is understood.
RTIH: What are the biggest challenges facing the omnichannel retail sector right now?
NH: Covid-19 has been the biggest shock to retail in living memory. Times were already tough and the pace of change was fast. But now the retail sector faces a huge uphill struggle to recover from the impact of lockdown and the changes it has brought to physical retail, online shopping and customer preferences.
The focus for all retailers must be on agility and finding ways to quickly adapt if they are to survive, let alone thrive. There has to be a relentless focus on the customer and creating a seamless, brilliant experience across the full customer journey. This can be really challenging without the right technology in the hands of the right people.
RTIH: What can we expect to see from Critizr over the next 12 months?
NH: During the pandemic our focus has been on supporting our existing customers as a trusted partner through these difficult times for the retail sector. And we are working hard to showcase the power of Critizr’s platform and the transformative effect it can have on a company’s customer experience and bottomline in the year ahead.
We’ll continue our expansion across Europe, supported by last year’s €15 million funding round, with our UK office now added to existing bases in Paris and Lille. We’re also currently hiring for a range of roles which will take the Critizr team over the 100 mark which is very exciting.
To read Critizr's essential guide for retail businesses emerging from the Covid-19 crisis, please click here.
