Case Study: Chef Works
Chef Works improves personalisation and service after moving to Zendesk
- Location: Alexandria, New South Wales
- Industry: Textiles, Apparel
- Type: B2B & B2C
Introduction
Chef Works makes culinary apparel and accessories for chefs and hospitality businesses. It wanted the service around those products to feel as considered as the products themselves.
The company brought in SuccessCX to work on the customer experience side of that.
The goal was straightforward: make Chef Works easier to deal with, and give chefs and hospitality buyers a reason to come back.
Client background
Chef Works sells hospitality apparel across six continents and more than 90 countries, and has spent years building direct relationships with chefs and hospitality professionals.
Sustainability runs through the product line rather than sitting alongside it, built around a policy of Reduce, Reuse, Repair and Recycle.
As the company expands, its focus stays with the people wearing the uniforms every shift.
Challenges
Chef Works had implemented HubSpot some years earlier, but the team found it hard to work together in it. Tracking important tasks was difficult, escalations were easy to miss, and too much of the day ran on manual intervention.
The customer service team was also struggling with the volume of enquiries coming in. Replies were slow, and the support experience suffered for it.
1. Understanding customer needs
SuccessCX started with workshops to understand who Chef Works serves and how the team actually works. Alongside that came analysis of the existing customer service and sales data, which showed what customers wanted, where they got stuck, and what they expected. Everything designed afterwards was built on what came out of those sessions.
2. Proactive customer service
Chef Works and SuccessCX connected the customer service and sales CRM platforms into one solution. Workflow and automation took over the manual sorting and prioritising, so agents could see the high priority work at a glance rather than hunting for it.
The agent interface was reworked so queries get picked up and answered promptly instead of queuing.
SuccessCX also trained Chef Works support team on the new setup. Together they built a program for handling difficult conversations with empathy and clarity, with the relevant customer data on screen so agents could make the response personal.
Conclusion
Working with SuccessCX and moving onto a combined customer service and sales CRM platform, Chef Works successfully transformed its customer experience and delivered the personalisation and service it set out to.
Tailored product recommendations, styling consultations, proactive service, loyalty rewards and personalised campaigns changed how the brand shows up for its customers. Chef Works became a supplier chefs deal with by choice, not just a place they buy jackets.
Having the CRM in one piece also gave the team customer insight it did not have before, and that is what keeps the service consistent.
Customer stories
More customer stories
Ready to start?
Your customers are waiting for better.
Your team is ready to deliver it.
With the right strategy, Zendesk setup, and AI support, your team can reduce repetitive work, move faster, and keep the human touch where it matters.