Customer Service

Etsy faced a backlash from angry sellers after announcing a major overhaul of its feedback system late last month, and this week it modified one of the more unpopular features of the system. Etsy

The warehouse is the last step in preparing a package before it lands in the hands of a customer. It's responsible for the last impression of the customer's overall buying experience. While this means it should be a key place to differentiate your brand's messaging, not many retailers recognize that order fulfillment represents an opportunity to capitalize on brand awareness. The fulfillment opportunity is responsible for the last impression of the customer's overall buying experience.

According to Brand Keys Customer Loyalty Engagement Index, the purchase decision-making process is about 70 percent emotional and 30 percent rational. If your brand isn't emotionally connecting with consumers, there's a good chance that you're missing out on a huge number of sales.

In front of 6,000 Wal-Mart associates at the company's annual holiday meeting Wednesday, Chief Merchandising and Marketing Officer Duncan Mac Naughton introduced free layaway with no opening fee. Beginning Sept. 13 through Dec. 13, layaway will kick off the retailer's official start to the holiday season. "Times are tough and it's not easy for many Americans — they're watching every penny," said Mac Naughton. "All year long, but especially during the holidays, our customers need a low price leader. This year, we're committed to doing everything we did last year to help Americans save money — plus more." 

How can the retail customer experience matter when your customers are locked into buying from you? To get the answer, we need to back up a step or two: When you're a retailer, there are two possible commercial relationships you can have with your customers:

With the paradigm shift from brick-and-mortar to online retail, too many business owners think that great customer service has lost its importance. A customer, however, is always a customer, and whether the purchase process takes place in a store or on a laptop, in order to get repeat business, you want to give your buyer the easiest, most enjoyable experience possible. If you're unsure how to improve customer service online, follow these helpful pointers:

Customer service-focused companies pay attention to the needs of their customers. Such companies are amazing. They empower their employees to avoid such negative phrases. They hire the right people, train them properly, and motivate and praise them when they come up with solutions to their customers’ needs and problems. In other words, they empower their employees to come up with solutions where they can say, "Yes!"

In a session on Wednesday at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago, Eli Gurock, co-founder and head of e-commerce at Magic Beans, a cross-channel retailer of baby toys and baby gear, detailed how his company is dealing with showrooming — a term referring to the practice of consumers examining products in-store but without making a purchase, then going online to find the product at a lower price. 

PalmBeach Jewelry, a cross-channel retailer of fashion jewelry based in Boca Raton, Fla., is seeing its customer acquisition rates nearly double thanks to a cross-channel acquisition program it implemented last year. The program, which is based on eWayDirect's CertainSource 2.0 solution, works across

While the rise of digital media channels (e.g., social media sites, blogs, YouTube) in recent years has resulted in a distracted and fragmented consumer audience, it's also provided retail marketers the opportunity to engage customers and prospects at all times in multiple outlets. During a keynote session at IBM's Smarter Commerce Global Summit 2013 in Nashville yesterday, Jay Baer, president of social media and content marketing strategy firm Convince & Convert, laid out how brands can deliver highly personal and relevant experiences to consumers across all channels and touchpoints.