While on the face of it customer service on the web may seem like a ridiculous concept. If you think about it from a different perspective you might realize just how important customer service over the web is. Just like an automated sales force, your web presence represents your company. Much like direct selling, one slip up and there are 30 more vendors in line waiting for your customer.
Even ultra high end retailers like Tiffany’s have at least a dozen strong web competitors. I bring up Tiffany’s for many reasons. Years ago a friend gave me some great advice saying “You can’t go wrong with a blue box” when I asked what I should get my wife for her birthday. How right she has been. While overseas on an extended military tour, my wife had all the burdens of our business, home, pets and all the other things that we take for granted in our lives. I decided for our anniversary to surprise her with a small grouping of gifts.
I knew that in a few days she would be heading out of town to look at some new homes. After being recalled to active duty my business had all but died. We decided to re-invent and relocate it and ourselves over chat session. She had decided to go house hunting in Texas on her own and gave me a heads up.
My surprise anniversary plan was simple. Start with a gift from James Avery jewelers in Texas before she left. This gift was supposed to be a reminder of things that she likes from Texas. The second step was to have flowers for her hostess waiting in Texas when she arrived. The icing on the cake would be a “blue box” delivered to her while in Texas so she could see that we can bring some of the quality of life that we are used to in the Napa Wine country with us to Texas. I had it all planned out, found some time on the internet and made the purchases 10 or so days in advance of her trip.
As I sat in the desert waiting to hear from her on the first gift I got nothing. A little confused I e-mailed and asked her to run by our office on the way to the airport since I forgot some information. She did, no James Avery Box. I got the e-mail delivery confirmation the next morning. James Avery took 4 days to ship and sent it ground. Even with that it should have made it. I am starting to believe that UPS is slowing ground service to get more of the higher margin air service. Anyway it was too late to fix, since she was on her way to Texas. She arrived in Texas and the flowers arrived right on time. I then received the notice from Tiffany’s that they just shipped my gift. When I checked with UPS it was going to be 3 days late. After she had returned to California.
Now back to my point. Customer service over the web. Most of us have a pretty good idea how long UPS takes to get things places. I don’t think we expect Tiffany’s or any other web site to take 4 days to fulfill an order. Sort of the burden of doing business over the web. This is no longer the me society, it is the NOW society. 1800Flowers.com had a calendar on their website that calculated shipping based on the arrival date requested. My suggestion to James Avery, Tiffany’s and all other web retailers, get a shipping calendar and then select the least expensive shipping method for the date required.
When I was on the UPS website tracking my tardy package, I found a section that talked about re-directing the shipment. I tried to follow the directions and couldn’t. A quick e-mail to UPS asking them to redirect it to my house or speed it up was sent. In the note, I stated I would gladly pay for the extra shipping or next day costs. Two e-mails stating that there was no such service were received. Very frustrated and confused, I e-mailed UPS the text from their website. The response was “call Tiffany’s and ship another gift next day, then return the first one when it shows up”. Now I, the customer, have to do more work to get my plan to work.
This is what I mean about customer service over the web. First be clear on what you are offering and second make it easy to do. If you advertise a service, then you should have the service. How hard is that? UPS just needs to change one word in their “redirect” page. The word “shipper” should be used when regarding the person authorized to make the shipping changes. 1800Flowers.com set the standard for easy to use internet calendar shipping. Even if you are sending perishables, if you sell over the internet, you should add this feature.
While sitting on the net cursing myself for not getting the plan together, several of my crews came in for their daily schedule. One of them told me that he had the same experience from Tiffany’s and discovered “BlueNile.com”. I asked if the service over the web was any better, and he said “no, but the box is a similar blue, my wife likes the jewelry, it costs less so I can take it. I can’t see spending any more money for the same service at Tiffany’s”. I couldn’t agree more. If Tiffany’s website had given noticeable warning that it would be received 3 days after I wanted it I would have gladly gone for the upsell in shipping. I would also have thought it was a cool feature and told people about it. Instead I learned about “Blue Nile”.
Customer service over the web is just as important as customer service in the store or over the phone. The key difference here is that the website is the frustration factor. Not a human. Errors, if corrected should only be corrected once. Repeat issues from employee turnover, bad training or “bad days” don’t happen. Most Web users won’t put up with any difficulty more than once. After that, a quick jump to a search engine and off to the next company in line.
When building your automated customer interface that we call the internet presence, have real customers with limited internet experience use it. Also have them use your top three competitors sites. Do you homework. Shortcuts here will cost money. Have an open mind to changes early on as customers offer suggestions (read complain).
1800flowers.com has got it figured out in my book. Simple categories, simple interface, clear shipping billing and delivery options and secure checkout. I don’t know how much effort they put into it or what their growing pains were. Since they have done it there is no need for you to do it again.
As you create your business plan, treat your web presence like any other part of the business. Write a plan, use the plan and change it as you see what works and what doesn’t. The internet isn’t new so there should be lots of good options to look at as a starting point. Finally try to have your internal sales compete with your internet sales for customer satisfaction. Everyone wins with constant improvement in customer service. If you aren't 100% sure how you are doing, ask your customer.
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Thank you for your insights.