Customer Service

More Retailers Agree to Halt ‘On Call’ Scheduling
December 20, 2016 at 12:06 pm

On Tuesday, six retailers agreed to stop the practice of on-call scheduling after they received inquiries about it from a group of state attorneys general. They join a growing number of retailers that have vowed to ditch on-call scheduling and give their employees more predictable hours. Aeropostale, Carter’s, David’s Tea, Disney, PacSun and Zumiez all said…

5 Tips for Dealing With Stressed Holiday Customers
December 15, 2016 at 10:17 am

Long lines, impossible parking lots, the overall stress of the season — it’s no wonder you see frazzled, frustrated customers during the holidays. And who can blame them? Well, apparently retailers can. In a recent survey by alldayPA, 76 percent of respondents complained about brands’ reluctance to apologize for problems, while 47 percent said they…

Nordstrom Uses Chatbot to Help Holiday Shoppers
December 12, 2016 at 11:45 am

Nordstrom is expanding on its efforts to engage with mobile shoppers, using the holiday gift-giving season as an opportunity to launch its first-ever chatbot. If you can’t decide on the perfect gift for your mom this holiday season, for example, the bot is a click away on Facebook Messenger as well as Kik. Nordstrom teamed with New…

Lands’ End's Multichannel ‘Santa for a Day’ Campaign
December 8, 2016 at 9:07 am

Santa and his elves work year-round making sure all the good girls and boys get the Christmas gifts they desire. Lands’ End is embracing that spirit of Old Saint Nick, giving shoppers the opportunity to become Santa for a day for the company’s feel-good holiday 2016 campaign. “We’ve always embraced the spirit of giving,” explains…

Keep Your Return Policy Focused on Customers This Peak Season
December 6, 2016 at 11:12 am

Online sales continue to grow as a proportion of overall retail sales, and returns are growing at an even faster rate. With the holiday peak season upon us, retailers will need to focus more than ever on handling returns in ways that avoid alienating their customers — and consequently losing future sales. Given the rising…

Wal-Mart Adding ‘Holiday Helpers’ to Shorten Checkout Lines
October 28, 2016 at 12:48 pm

Wal-Mart is deploying “Holiday Helpers” to all of its 4,500 or so U.S. stores during the upcoming months. These workers, clad in yellow vests to make them easily identifiable to customers, will be tasked with speeding up checkout time by, among other things, fetching items that shoppers may have forgotten, so they don’t lose their…

5 Ways to Improve Your Customers’ Experiences
October 26, 2016 at 9:57 am

This is an actual story. I’m pretty sure you’ll be able to relate: I call an online service provider and I get auto prompts requesting more information “to serve me better.” I punch in my phone number, my social security number and my account number. I follow more prompts and punch in more numbers to…