DESSANGE International Uses Yext to Put Customers at the Heart of its Digital Marketing Strategy

The only global beauty franchisor in the world, DESSANGE International is composed of three network brands and products, including Dessange Paris, Camille Albane, and Fantastic Sams, which bring together 20,000 professionals through a network of more than 1,700 salons worldwide, including 400 in France. DESSANGE International also encompasses an ecosystem of hair products, training centers, and cosmetics development and manufacturing sites based in France.

As part of its digital marketing strategy, DESSANGE International has been implementing an action plan aimed at developing the reputation of the Dessange Paris and Camille Albane salons in France. Over the past five years, the Digital Marketing department has set up "enchantment workshops" to train salon franchisees and management on reputation management, both locally and nationally. As an extension of this strategy, the need for a centralized platform for managing customer-facing information became obvious. DESSANGE tapped Yext, the Search Experience Cloud, to manage company data and customer reviews with the goal of increasing foot traffic to salons.

The brand had originally planned to develop an appointment scheduler and CRM integration, but the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the importance of providing accurate and up-to-date location data. Franchisees quickly became concerned about their salons' digital presence and simultaneously had greater availability due to nationwide lockdowns. This unique combination allowed DESSANGE to roll out a Yext-specific training program designed to enable salons on local listings and reputation management.

"In order to make the use of the Yext more efficient, we have encouraged the adoption of the platform and have developed training in order to assist our franchisees with their location and review management," explains Alizée Cybulski, Digital Marketing Project Manager for DESSANGE International. "To date, 60% of the Dessange and Camille Albane salons use the platform and 74% of those employees are active users."

A robust notification system informs franchisees whenever they receive a new review, which has helped salons quickly realize the value of Yext. Comments from unhappy customers are instantly surfaced, which gives franchisees the ability to engage in a constructive dialogue that contributes to both their own salon's reputation and that of the entire network.

In addition to its review monitoring functionality, Yext has made life simpler for franchisees with the development of templated answers that can be customized based on the welcome received, the team/staff, the service performed, the price of the haircut, and the reviewer's overall sentiment. After implementing Yext in January of 2020, Dessange saw a dramatic, 85% YOY increase in review response — more than 2,841 reviews have been responded to (compared to just 1,532 in 2019). This customer-centric approach helped lift the average rating across all brands, locations, and publishers by more than a quarter star.

Feedback from franchisees has been unanimous — the time savings provided by templated responses and the simplified management of location data, particularly during regular schedule changes, has made Yext an integral part of DESSANGE International's marketing strategy.

"Thanks to the support we have offered our franchisees over the past few months, we have allowed them to take control of their online presence. But, more importantly, they now understand that the customer journey is played out from the moment a user searches for information online," explains Grégory Balleydier, Digital Marketing Manager for DESSANGE International. "Yext provided us with a useful tool that is used every day by an increasingly important part of our network, and we couldn't be more satisfied with the partnership."