OUR GOALS
With everything we do at Coolblue, we have 2 goals: setting the bar for customer-centric entrepreneurship (NPS) and creating value (EBITDA). They are of equal importance and although optimizing NPS and EBITDA might seem like 2 contradictory goals, in practice, we see that they reinforce each other.
In order to realize our goals, we measure everything. We use the data to build value trees to map out the impact of every underlying driver of the NPS and EBITDA. This way, we clearly see what we can improve for each step of the customer journey. Not only does this lead to the most cost-effective approach on an operational level, but it also results in happy returning customers, who come back more often and recommend us to others.
The customer journey
We offer roughly 1,000 product categories we know we can distinguish ourselves in by offering leading product journeys from start to finish. To do so, we have built our own digital and physical infrastructure in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. It consists of our own central warehouse and depots, nationwide delivery networks, installation services, and physical stores. To support this, we have built an extensive technology and software stack. Our technology platform is continuously optimized by our 65 development teams. They improve the way our website, app, and other applications contribute to the customer journey.
Our infrastructure
Package Park
In Tilburg, we have our own 88,000m2 solar-powered warehouse: our Package Park. Here, we store, pick, and pack all our products. Thanks to our highly automated and mechanized processes, we can make super fast, super efficient delivery propositions. From our Package Park, we ship to our 26 hubs, 32 stores, and 4 million customers in 3 countries.
Delivery and installation networks
For the last mile, we have our own delivery networks in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. We deliver white goods and other large products through our 1 and 2-man delivery networks, through which we also offer placement, installation, and mounting services. For smaller products, we have our bike delivery network. Around our bike depots, we deliver up to 90% of the smaller parcels. Our delivery networks allow us to constantly deliver on our promise and achieve a high NPS.
Stores
In our 32 physical stores, we offer customers the opportunity to experience products, pick up their online order right away, and get advice from one of our experts about the best product choice for them. Our experts assist with the use of a product, carry out repairs, and help customers with returns. In this offline environment, we still allow our customers to benefit from all the digital advantages we offer. The Coolblue App’s in-store mode automatically registers customers in our queueing system as they come in. It also gives customers easy access to the online information about displayed products and logs them in at the stores.
The website
On our website, customers can find elaborate product information, expert advice, and customer reviews. We highlight the best and most energy-efficient products for their use case with the Coolblue’s Choice and Coolblue’s Green Choice labels. With constant optimizations, we ensure the best possible customer experience. Additionally, we enhance the Self Service capabilities on a frequent basis, giving customers more control over their order.
The Coolblue App
The Coolblue App offers our full range of products and services to more than 1 million users. The app allows us to go one step further in the customer product journey, whether it is virtually placing a TV in a customer’s living room or checking a phone’s compatibility with a phone case in the customer’s shopping cart. It helps us to offer a smoother customer experience by allowing easy track and trace, easy registration of a return, and quick answers to frequently asked questions.
Customer service
We have our own multilingual customer service in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. Customers can reach us until midnight every day of the week via phone, email, social media, and our website. Additionally, customers can easily find the right answer to their questions on our customer service page.
Coolblue customer service teams
Coolblue customer service teams are specialized in a specific product type, like washing machines, or a specific stage of the customer journey, such as payments. On top of expert advice, these specialist customer service teams offer an improved customer experience, prevent unnecessary returns, reduce customer effort, and lower operational costs overall. They do so from their own homes, which adds to the flexibility and scalability of our customer service.
Coolblue Energy
Coolblue Energy is our energy-saving company. We help customers save energy through full-service energy installations and energy contracts. With both, we not only offer customers green electricity and gas, but also always give them a discount on energy-efficient products. This allows us to supply energy and help Coolblue Energy customers save on their energy consumption. Customers can get energy advice online and in increasingly more Coolblue stores.
Energy contracts
Customers with a Coolblue Energy contract gain various advantages. For one, they get a discount on energy-saving products. This way, they save not only on their new washing machine or smart plug, but also on their energy bill. We also offer them Dynamic Hourly Rates. With this, customers pay an energy price per hour. When there is a surplus of wind or solar energy, this energy price becomes lower or even negative. And we stimulate the use of green energy even more with Free Washing. Customers can do their laundry between 12:00 and 15:00 for free, if they have a dynamic energy contract and a suitable washing machine.
Full-service energy installations
Next to green energy and CO2-compensated gas, we also offer complete solutions for solar panels, charging stations, and heat pumps at our customers’ homes. For example, if we install both solar panels and a charging station, customers can charge their electric car for free, using their self-generated energy. And with Smart Charging, customers can set a schedule for their charging station in our app. This way, they can benefit from low energy prices or the energy they generate themselves.
Business Journeys
We have built multiple business journeys, to help our variety of business customers in the best way possible.
Freelancers and small businesses
Freelancers and small businesses can quickly and easily order products that help them make their customers happy, like a business laptop, phone, or tablet. We aid them in their professional choices on our website and in the Coolblue App with our Coolblue’s Choice label, via our customer service, and in our stores. Of course, we also help them with their administrative work. Freelancers place orders in their company name, see prices excluding VAT on our website, and easily download invoices for their tax returns. Already hundreds of thousands of freelancers have placed orders with Coolblue.
Home Office Stores
With a Coolblue Home Office Store, we offer business customers the best home office supplies in an all-in-one solution for their employees’ home offices. We do this for 100 companies, including ING, KLM, and Exact Software.
Cafeteria plan
Belgian customers can easily arrange a cafeteria plan via Coolblue Business. The customers decide what products their employees can choose from their own online environment. We take care of all the practical matters: from logistics to a clear collective invoice. We do this for all social secretariats and 780 companies, including Cegeka, Brussels Airport, and Argenta.
Complete IT solutions
We also offer complete IT solutions from start to finish. With Mobile Device Management, we supply laptops and mobile phones with the right software for remote installation, management, and protection. This way, end-users can immediately use their product and we relieve the customer’s IT department.
CULTURE
These are our core values. They describe who we are, what we represent, what unites us, and how we interact. Our core values define our culture and help us make choices for the future. We use these values for every decision, no matter how small, to see if it would suit us or not.
Unconventional
We are proud of our real, unconventional Coolbluers. That is why they appear on our websites and in our commercials, just the way they are.
Being unconventional means that Coolbluers can and dare to be themselves, regardless of whether they are outgoing or a little more quiet. Although this may sound contradictory, it is precisely this unconventionality that unites us.
We are all doing this for the first time. We might not have all the answers right away, but we will surely try. Because only by doing what no one has done before can we be truly unconventional.
People who are true to themselves are hard to copy. That is why we always ask ourselves with everything we create whether it really suits us. If we were to cover our logo and the remainder cannot be recognized as Coolblue, it needs to be more unconventional.
Friends
There are few companies where so many colleagues are friends as well. Friendship is our strength because together, we know more, we can achieve more, and we have more fun.
People take notice. Such as our customers, who happily visit us again and our suppliers, who view us as long-term partners. We are always honest and direct, even if it is difficult at times. We keep our promises and we are open to feedback.
Friendship can only prosper between equals. That is why ties are the least-common item worn at Coolblue, why Coolbluers honestly speak their minds, and why we are always honest, direct, and open to our customers.
Go for it
Our no-nonsense, entrepreneurial attitude can be phrased in many ways. Less talk, more action. Actions speak louder than words. At Coolblue, we simply refer to this attitude as go for it.
An idea only becomes valuable when given a follow-up. We got to where we are now by preferring immediate action over endless discussions and by doing things a little bit better every day. We improve step by step and detail after detail. Not everything works the first time around, but we take the risk and go for it. We make mistakes and learn from them.
Flexible
We are constantly changing, either because we can or because we have to. Coolblue has had a flexible structure from the start to support our rapid growth. ‘This is how we have always done it’ is never a valid reason for us.
Our flexibility shows in our Coolbluers who do not mind working with a sudden change of plans or team. It also shows in Coolbluers who continue to learn outside of their own expertise. And lastly, our flexibility is reflected by the systems we build that can handle twice the expected load.
Flexibility is also key in our obsessive focus on customer satisfaction. We gladly go the extra mile for our customers and are convinced that exceptions exist to be made. ‘Just because’ is also a valid reason to us.
Simply Amaze
The words simply amaze appear to be contradictory, but describe exactly who we are as Coolblue: both unconventional and down-to-earth.
The term simply speaks volumes. We have simply built a straightforward website where customers can quickly and easily place an order. We then simply package that order in a bag or box and simply ship it to our customers. For free, of course.
Amaze means that we need to exceed expectations and that we need to go the extra mile to surprise our customers, to make them smile. A smile might be a common gesture, but it often requires something amazing.
