Garnet Hill Looks to Score on Customer Satisfaction

Through a software analysis program, Garnet Hill, an apparel and home décor cataloger, has gained a greater ability to measure its customers’ satisfaction. The Franconia, N.H.-based cataloger’s customers are asked to rate their satisfaction levels based on one question: “Would you recommend us to a friend or colleague?” The corresponding numerical response ranges from zero to 10 — least to most satisfied.

In a session at the NEMOA Conference in Cambridge, Mass. a couple of weeks ago, Matt Glerum, vice president of marketing and business development at Garnet Hill, discussed this program, called Net Promoter by Satmetrix, and how it has helped his company increase customer loyalty, improve the customer experience, influence word-of-mouth and strive to make all of its customers a 10. Here’s a sampling of what Glerum had to say.

* The surveys are sent out monthly and are active for three weeks. Nonrespondents are sent single reminders a week after the initial e-mail. Garnet Hill limits its contact using Net Promoter surveys with customers to once every six months, Glerum said. The company aims to learn from its customers’ feedback, rather than bombard and annoy them with frequent survey requests.

* Surveys are sent to customer segments, including recency, channel (phone, Web), product and price categories, Glerum said. The results are obtained in real time.

* Glerum said the top three comments in response to the question, “What could Garnet Hill do to earn a higher rating?” were to improve upon out-of-stock products, price and shipping.

* Focus on the promoters (customers who gave Garnet Hill a score of nine or 10 on the Net Promoter) to learn what they like about the cataloger, Glerum said.

* When the company receives a rating of zero to four, a triggered e-mail is sent to those customers to determine what can be done to improve their experiences, Glerum noted.

* The company has begun to send back-in-stock e-mails to customers when they’ve ordered or shown interest in out-of-stock items, Glerum said. Garnet Hill has also begun to institute back-by-popular-demand e-mail campaigns when it brings back formerly popular products.

* To address negative consumer feedback regarding the high pricing of Garnet Hill products, the company seeks to emphasize the value benefits of its products, including featuring the benefits of the product in the copy, Glerum said.

* Garnet Hill has offered certain category-specific products with free shipping to help lower the instances of low ratings and negative feedback regarding shipping, Glerum added.

* The survey has helped Garnet Hill create benchmarks for itself regarding customer satisfaction and loyalty, Glerum said. This has allowed it to compare performance to previous business practices.

In order for any type of program like Net Promoter to work, Glerum said, you need to gain the support of upper management. At Garnet Hill, that’s been there, as Net Promoter has been “made part of the fabric of Garnet Hill,” Glerum said.