Customer Service

Customers are angry at Hudson's Bay after the company cancelled some of their online orders, purchased at a deep discount by combining multiple rebate codes. Over the weekend, customers were sharing the discount codes on popular consumer forums such as Redflagdeals.com. Customers said they were able to purchase items at a major discount. In one post on RedFlagDeals.com, a user said he was able to purchase a Vitamix blender that regularly sells for $530 for 45 percent off. 

Our experts walk you through opportunities to not only cut shipping costs, but also improve shipping service to your customers.

L.L.Bean has done it again. For the third time this year, the Freeport, Maine-based apparel and outdoor gear retailer has topped the customer service charts. According to StellaService, a customer service benchmarking company, L.L.Bean was rated in the top 25 in all categories, earning the top spot for best overall customer service in July 2014.

A day after announcing a disappointing second quarter, Wal-Mart has made an aggressive holiday promise to its customers: the world's largest retailer says it will staff every cash register from the day after Thanksgiving through the days just before Christmas during peak shopping times. Wal-Mart's "checkout promise" is aimed at addressing lengthy waits in checkout lines. "We feel good about price and having the top gifts of the season, so the next priority is about getting customers in and out of the stores quickly," Duncan Mac Naughton, Wal-Mart's chief merchandising officer, said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Does the senior team at your company talk about superior service and the importance of going the extra mile for customers? If so, how many actually walk the talk? To steal an immortal line from the former Texas governor Ann Richards used when describing George W. Bush, it's typically "All hat, no cattle." Or more aptly, "All PowerPoint, no action." I recently received a message from a good friend named Eileen Scully. She shared a heartwarming story from her friend Michael John Mathis. Michael had posted the following message on Facebook recounting an episode of lost glasses on a train.

The ability to better understand customer buying behavior, and then being able to actually use that knowledge to create optimized (i.e., personalized) marketing campaigns, is a key differentiator for retailers in today's hypercompetitive market, particularly when it comes to reaching and communicating with consumers online. 
With this in mind, Macy's has invested in a predictive analytics solution from SAP. The national department store chain, and specifically its e-commerce operation, Macys.com, deployed SAP's InfiniteInsight solution in the first quarter of 2014.

Today's digital age has become impersonal.  Sure, we still get greeted online and retailers know our preferences thanks to cookies, but the human element is gone for sure. Within this impersonal, digital world we live in, however, there are huge opportunities for retailers to step back and become more personal. Consider the following customer service tips as you prepare for the busy holiday shopping season: 

Vintage Marquee Lights (VML), a Myrtle Beach, S.C.-based retailer of marquee lights available in letters, numbers and symbols, converted its website visitors into Facebook fans and brand ambassadors as well as drove customer acquisition thanks to a social commerce program it implemented this past spring.

In line with its usual philosophy of extreme customer service, Zappos has introduced a new service that can help consumers track down any fashion item — even if the company doesn't sell it. Called Ask Zappos, the service provides a digital personal assistant who takes requests in the form of images and finds the exact item, while also providing links to some alternatives. Zappos has been testing the service since the beginning of June, but started promoting Ask Zappos on its mobile homepage last week.

Kohl's department store is opening a customer service operations center this week in Dallas and plans to employ 1,500 people in four years. The center has a health care clinic, an idea that more companies are adopting to increase productivity. It also has an on-site cafe. The Wisconsin-based retailer said it's hiring full- and part-time workers at the 240,000-square-foot facility.