Caudalie elevates its customer experience with Zenedesk

Caudalie is a “French-style success story” born in the heart of the Bordeaux vineyards. In 1995, Mathilde and Bertrand Thomas discovered the antioxidant properties of grape seeds and decided to make them the foundation of a new approach to cosmetics.

It was a smart move. As consumer demand for natural products and transparency grew, Caudalie quickly gained international recognition.

Thirty years after its creation, Caudalie remains a pioneer of “clean” beauty. The company banned controversial ingredients from its formulas as early as 2005 and dedicates one percent of its revenue to protecting forests and biodiversity. Caudalie is also committed to fighting ocean plastic pollution through its “Plastic Collect” program.

Caudalie combines growth with sustainability, developing formulas in its Gidy laboratory in the heart of Cosmetic Valley in France’s Loiret region.

CX that represents the brand

At Caudalie, the customer service department is a powerful reflection of the brand and a key differentiator in a highly competitive market. Every month, its 14 advisors handle up to 60,000 interactions across Europe, from France to Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Customer inquiries come through a variety of channels: WhatsApp, phone, chat, emails, country-specific Facebook pages. Caudalie’s support team also manages reviews posted on the company’s website.

“We see our customer service as a showcase for Caudalie,” says Irina Agakhanian-Hallouin, Head of Customer Service Europe at Caudalie. “With their expertise in our products, my teams are there to guide our customers and convey our brand’s DNA.”

Before someone buys a product from Caudalie, 70 percent of customer service interactions involve information and advice. Prospective customers ask questions about products, formula composition, skincare routines, and loyalty programs. The remaining 30 percent of inquiries relate to after-sales, with issues tied to orders or delivery.

Zendesk, the choice of simplicity

As Caudalie scaled, it outgrew the scattered tools it used to handle consumer requests.

“The Easyware tool was archaic and it no longer met our expectations—either in reporting or processing speed,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “A good customer service team should not only be reachable, it must also be fast in handling requests.”

The brand looked for a solution capable of simplifying team workflows while reducing the number of daily tools.

“After reviewing several options, we chose Zendesk,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “It was recommended by our IT teams.”

Another key advantage of Zendesk is its ability to connect easily with other software in the Caudalie ecosystem.

“We were able to integrate Zendesk across all channels,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “Its simple interface and design immediately appealed to us.”

Today, except for phone calls, Caudalie’s customer service team uses Zendesk to manage all interactions.

“We have everything in one place,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “We can easily see if a consumer has contacted us through one channel or another—and that’s incredibly valuable.”

Caudalie’s customer service team also relies on Zendesk Explore to manage activity.

“Reporting has become more detailed and easier to read,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “With the previous system, I was operating somewhat blindly, with overly general data—especially for pre-sales.”

An assist from AI

Zendesk’s built-in AI capabilities have reduced the volume of repetitive requests.

“That was very time-consuming for our agents,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “Now, our agents have more time to spend on more complex inquiries from customers.”

Artificial intelligence has also improved the functionality of Caudalie’s website.

“AI automatically answers questions when the answers exist in our FAQs or product pages, saving us a huge amount of time,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “I don’t see AI as a replacement for customer service—it’s a tool that helps and relieves us. I see it as an assistant that allows us to automate tasks.”

Zendesk Copilot has proved invaluable for optimizing written messages sent to Caudalie’s customers. Now, Caudalie’s customer service team is using it to translate conversations with customers in more than 10 languages.

“Copilot already makes our daily work easier by automatically translating procedures originally written in French into other languages,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “And now, Copilot will enhance the quality of our communications with our customers across the globe.”

Results and optimization projects

One year after implementing Zendesk, the results are impressive.

“The feedback from my team is excellent,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “They love this tool—it has truly changed their lives. With Zendesk, they no longer have to switch between different software—everything is centralized and connected.”

As a manager, Agakhanian-Hallouin also notes a clear improvement in oversight.

“My activity reporting has evolved significantly,” she says. “Before, I was stuck when asked for figures or to compare data. That’s no longer the case. I’ll be able to introduce new KPIs, such as SLA.”

On key metrics like NPS, results remain high, with scores of 4.5 out of 5 on WhatsApp, 4.5 out of 5 on chat, and 4.8 out of five on the chatbot.

“What matters most to us is how quickly we handle requests,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “On that front, we’ve improved tremendously since using Copilot. We’ve clearly gotten better. In some countries, it used to take a month to reply to an email—now it takes less than a week.”

Agakhanian-Hallouin’s ambition is to continue customizing and optimizing Zendesk so her team can become even more responsive to customers.

“In the coming months, we’ll focus on strengthening the connection with our future in-house CRM to give advisors a complete view of customers—loyalty program, history, products used—directly within each ticket,” she says. “I also want to simplify categorization. Proper categorization is a major challenge—understanding why a customer contacts us saves a lot of time.”

Long term, Caudalie’s customer service team plans to better integrate ecommerce complaints, improve connectivity with markets like Turkey, and enrich the knowledge base.

“In my department, we are here to take care of our customers,” Agakhanian-Hallouin says. “If we don’t do it, a competitor will. And for us, Zendesk is the best tool to meet this challenge.”