Customer Service

You've seen the public apology video. But, the better story is how J.C. Penney is engaging with customers commenting on the mea culpa. It seems the company has clearly learned a valuable lesson: Listen to your customers. The company is letting commenters know their feedback is being passed on to internal teams such as the buying department. Two days after the video was posted it had attracted about 200,000 views and nearly 900 comments. J.C. Penney was commenting about 30 times an hour, mostly in reply to other comments - both positive and negative.

Customers who have contacted customer service have elevated expectations of the brands with whom they do business — as well as continued frustrations. These are the conclusions we reached following  a recent survey conducted earlier this year to learn customers' attitudes about the kind of service they receive. Last month I pointed out that 42 percent of customers told us that they would rather stand in line at the DMV than contact customer service. This fact, as well as other key findings from the survey, are highlighted in the infographic below.

Officials in Taiwan are investigating claims that Samsung paid people to post favorable reviews about its products online while at the same time offering up negative feedback on rival HTC’s products. The investigation launched after the Fair Trade Commission received numerous complaints on the matter. 

In the age of online shopping and city-sized warehouse stores, brand loyalty is at a crossroads. Consumer preference is now increasingly driven through new experiences like product reviews, social media and other forms of communication that both allow and empower consumers to compare prices, products and services. Best quality and best pricing are musts for consumers in the decision-making process. As such, brands and retailers must take a long, hard look at their short-term discounting strategies.

The average conversion rate on retailer websites sits in the low- to mid-single digits. In comparison, the average conversion rate in offline stores is over 60 percent. Closing this gap could represent one of the largest sources of growth opportunity for retailers today and yet our work with retailers suggests they're not focusing on the crucial ingredients to make it happen. Retailers have a secret sauce that many multicategory online retailers don't: high-quality, experienced merchants who are on the front lines and understand what their customers want.

Etsy launched a seller rating system called Customer Service Stats in February to the concern of sellers who feared Etsy would use them to affect their standings in search. Sellers also feared Etsy would eventually share the ratings with buyers, despite

Say you're going to start a company, and the first thing you want to do is provide amazing customer service. Are you going to hire the brilliant person who alienates customers? Or are you going to hire the friendly person who can't solve a problem? You probably want both qualities

Recently, we learned that Amazon gives special treatment to its own merchants. The site expunges reviews that criticize Amazon's own shipping, fulfillment, and packaging. The practice flies in the face of all the best practices for hosting website consumer reviews — and isn't that risky? The reality is that because of its size, market dominance, and generally sterling customer service reputation, Amazon might be able to get away with this conduct. Smaller companies, however, shouldn't try to do the same.

As the country's oldest retailer (established in 1818), Brooks Brothers has had its fair share of customers over the years. In that time the men's business and casual apparel retailer has learned that to continue its legacy as one of America's most respected brands, it must listen to what those customers have to say and then make changes based on that feedback. At the National Retail Federation's Big Show in New York City yesterday, Ken Seiff, executive vice president of direct and omnichannel at Brooks Brothers, discussed his company's customer-centric philosophy.