Bijenkorf’s digital transformation: A smarter, more personalised shopping experience

For over a century, de Bijenkorf has been the most iconic luxury department store in the Netherlands: synonymous with quality, creativity and customer care. With 7 stores in the Netherlands and a strong online presence, the company’s mission has always been clear: to be the most inspiring and surprising department store, where everyone feels special.

As customer expectations evolved and digital interactions grew, de Bijenkorf faced a new challenge: how to deliver the same personalised, high-end experience across every touchpoint. With thousands of customer interactions each day, fragmented data and disconnected systems made it increasingly difficult to offer seamless and consistent service. That’s where Gen25 came in.

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The challenge

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De Bijenkorf’s service teams worked across multiple systems to manage inquiries, purchases and customer histories. Without a unified system, hosts (customer service employees) had to switch between platforms, slowing response times and limiting personalisation. They faced several key challenges:

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Technology & platform innovation: Fragmented data across systems such as e-mail, chat and order management.
Cost control: service hosts spent time switching between tools instead of focusing on customers, leading to limited efficiency.
Customer & market focus: de Bijenkorf strives for excellence in customer service and in times of quickly rising customer expectations, the company wants to maintain their consistent and personal assistance through all channels, including WhatsApp, chat, e-mail and social media.

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To uphold its luxury promise, de Bijenkorf needed a single intelligent platform that combined personalisation, automation, and omnichannel service.

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The solution

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Together with Gen25, de Bijenkorf embarked on a digital transformation powered by Salesforce Service Cloud and AI. The goal: empower hosts and elevate the customer experience.

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Unified customer view: All service channels, including e-mail, phone, chat, WhatsApp and social media, were integrated into Salesforce using Coosto, a package that connects social platforms directly to Service Cloud. This gave hosts a complete 360° customer view, allowing them to respond personally and consistently.
Intelligent service automation: Einstein AI delivers next-best-action recommendations and automated case classification. This helps hosts resolve issues faster and with greater accuracy, while ensuring every inquiry reaches the right specialist.
Centralised knowledge & support: With a central knowledge base and Einstein-powered article suggestions, new and experienced hosts alike can provide expert-level service. The system guides them through workflows, helping maintain premium quality even during peak periods.
Real-time insights & efficiency: Smart dashboards and reporting allow de Bijenkorf to track service performance, monitor satisfaction and identify areas for improvement: reducing manual work and empowering teams to make data-driven decisions.

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A significant milestone in this journey is the launch of AI agent Co, introduced by Gen25 and de Bijenkorf in August 2025. Co was built with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and Salesforce Data Cloud to reduce Average Handling Time (AHT) and improve service quality. At this stage, Co assists internal service employees by answering natural-language questions and providing grounded, citation-based responses from de Bijenkorf’s knowledge base. A proof of concept is underway to extend Co into the de Bijenkorf app, where it will become customer-facing and support shoppers directly in real time. Future plans include exploring Agentforce Voice, allowing customers to interact with Co via voice in a natural and human-like way.

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The results

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The impact of Gen25’s implementation has been significant on the fol

Technology & platform innovation: every communication channel, from e-mail and chat to Instagram DMs, is now managed seamlessly in one system.
Cost control: case handling time reduced by 70 seconds per chat and first-contact resolution reached 75 %. Moreover,over 18,600 next-best-actions were completed in 2023 based on Einstein’s recommendations and by implementing AI agent ‘Co’, AHT lowered and employees work more efficiently.
Customer & market focus: Net Promoter Score for damaged-item returns rose from 25 to 55 points, clearly showing higher satisfaction.

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By bringing Salesforce Einstein and Service Cloud together, de Bijenkorf set a new standard for luxury retail where efficiency and empathy go hand in hand.

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Conclusion

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By partnering with Gen25, de Bijenkorf transformed its customer service into a connected, intelligent ecosystem that enhances both efficiency and the personal touch customers expect. Every host now has the insights and tools to deliver the brand’s promise: making everyone feel special.

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Want to discover how Gen25 can help your organisation transform customer service? Get in touch with us today.