Customer Service

Learn best practices for omnichannel integration and how live video can bring the in-store experience to e-commerce channels.

Ace Hardware has always been known for its "helpful hardware folks" motto, but now the company is taking its customer service knowledge global. The retailer has launched the Ace Center for Excellence, a new division designed to share the strategies and key principles of the brand's unparalleled commitment to customer service with businesses and organizations around the world. According to Ace, the center's goal is to help companies improve upon their customer experience based on Ace's award-winning approach through customized solutions, such as keynotes and workshops. 

Walgreens will no longer require its cashiers to send each customer off with the words, "Be well." A spokesman said the campaign had run its course, though the company didn't elaborate on why the effort, launched several years ago, was dropped. "It's accomplished its goal of reinforcing our branding," spokesman Michael Polzin said. "We'll continue to build our relationships with customers in other ways."

Meijer is turning a past headache at the checkout lanes into a $10 coupon that customers can use Friday or Saturday. The coupon is good for $10 off a $50 purchase on grocery, health and beauty items or general merchandise. Frank J. Guglielmi, senior director of communications for the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based retailer, said an outage affected the retailer's ability to process credit cards. He noted it was an internal IT issue. The glitch in late February disrupted the point-of-sale system at stores for debit and credit card purchases.

Customer experience management is the marketing team's responsibility for most retail companies. Many aspects of customer experience do fall in the marketer's realm of expertise, but in order to deliver truly exceptional customer experiences, you must look beyond the marketing department. It's imperative that the modern retailer looks at customer experience in omnichannel terms. To do so, you must go beyond the marketing team, implementing these five key requirements:

Online price matching is a tactic that brick-and-mortar retailers use around the holidays to save as many sales as possible. Blick Art Materials, the nation's largest art supply retailer, is launching its own online price-matching program — with a twist.

Cabela's social media response plan was a mess: Someone posts a complaint, the social media manager takes a screenshot, emails it to the customer care team, the customer care team tries to find the customer in its database (and most often they don't), then 72 hours later the social media manager responds. That social customer service system left two-thirds of Cabela's customers’ posts unanswered and a lot of people unhappy. Cabela's wasn't just dropping the ball on customer complaints, it was also missing big opportunities to build relationships.

Every year around this time, consumers begin their search to find the perfect gift for loved ones. With Black Friday and Cyber Monday just around the corner, consumers must navigate through the frenzy of the season while brand marketers and retailers simultaneously offer extreme deals in a bid to reach them and drive sales. There are several ways brands and retailers can cut through the clutter to make a positive, and lasting, impression on consumers that will keep them coming back long after gifts are unwrapped. Consider the following three tips:

Kate Spade has been all over the news recently. Whether it be for its partnership with Gap Kids, clever "under construction" window shopping or viral holiday ads featuring Anna Kendrick, the handbag and accessories retailer has had a busy last few months. Not to mention the company posted a 48.7 percent increase in net sales in its latest fiscal quarter. However, while its marketing strategy is smart, it's Kate Spade's excellent customer service that's going to win over shoppers this holiday season.

It’s not April Fool’s Day! Just before the holidays, Lowe's really is introducing two robotic shopping assistants at one of its Orchard Supply Hardware stores in San Jose, Calif. According to a press release from the home improvement retailer, the autonomous robots — called OSHbots — were developed by Fellow Robots, a technology company that specializes in the design and development of autonomous service robots, in partnership with Lowe's own Innovation Labs.