Orvis Company

What better way for a tips-oriented business magazine to wind down 2006 than with the top 50 tips of the year? My staff and I spent the past several weeks going through every article that’s run so far in Catalog Success and the Catalog Success Idea Factory e-newsletter this year to bring you the ultimate how-to “cheat sheet.” Throughout these pages, we’ve synthesized the year’s best tips, summarizing, and in some cases quoting directly, from stories and/or the sources themselves, where noted. Below each, you’ll see the industry expert who offered the tip. We reference the issue from which the tips originate so

Using promotions excessively can be like dealing with the devil. Promote too much, and you not only give customers the impression that you’re an off-price bargain house, but also your profit margins can tumble. One of the livelier sessions held during the New England Mail Order Association (NEMOA) conference in late September was a staged debate in which panelists and audience members argued about the need for catalog promotions. To fuel the fire, response data from a recent Mokrynskidirect catalog client survey was thrown into the mix for each issue tackled. The debate brought out some issues for all to ponder. Below, are the

Tune up your contact center. A contact center without calibration is like a car without a tune-up: The car still runs, but not at peak performance. Calibrations are an opportunity to gather your team, tune in to your customers’ experience, and make sure everyone shares the same expectations of your representatives. Calibrations are a contact center’s tune-up. Calibration sessions ensure your team connects the vision with the reality. While quality assurance should lead the discussions, all frontline supervisors, floor leads and representatives should be included. Input from reps is critical, since they can help contact center managers understand why boardroom strategies fall short when implemented.

Understaffing often is an issue for developing departments. Management would prefer that existing staffers handle emerging needs, leading to lost opportunities, due to a lack of available bodies. Nowhere has this been more prominent within the catalog business than on the Web. Brad Wolansky, director of e-commerce at outdoor gear catalog Orvis, explained in a session at the recent eTail conference in Philadelphia how he convinced management to bolster Web staff, leading to increased sales on Orvis’ Web site. Following is his step-by-step strategy. 1. Identify an issue and a possible solution. “Eighty percent of companies use just 20 percent of their data,” Wolansky said.

Sometimes it’s the little things that can make a significant difference in your holiday marketing plan. That was the topic at a session on testng last minute site enhancements during the busy season at last week’s eTail conference in Philadelphia. Here are some of the tips and strategies catalogers and online retailers shared: * Keep a close eye on paid search: In addition to making sure your paid search buys don’t exceed your budget, keep on eye on your inventory for products you advertise using search engine marketing, said Brad Wolansky, director of e-commerce at outdoor sporting goods merchant Orvis. “If your inventory is low,

As you analyze the results from your last busy season, have you discovered what you need to know in order to improve your contact center for the next spike in calls? Contact center managers from Omaha Steaks and Orvis offered several ideas to improve the ramping up process for your next peak season in a session during the recent NCOF in Orlando, Fla. Cheryl Holtzen, Omaha Steaks’ customer care manager, recommended the following strategies for catalogers to implement shortly after their peak season: -hold post-mortem sessions; -get front-line employees involved because they know who your customers are; -immediately identify improvements that need to be made; -categorize projects; -look at the

Joined Orvis: 2001 Greatest initial challenge: Prioritizing. “There was so much opportunity in the contact center, it was tough to decide what to work on first.” She recalls that almost all call center functions back then were done manually, and she encountered some resistance to change. Plan of action: So far Wolfe has improved: * new agent recruitment and training. * organizational aspects, such as combining the sales and customer service departments. * the contact center’s technology tools. These in turn have helped enhance efficiency. “Several supervisors were not even PC-trained,” Wolfe recalls. She also co-developed and introduced a customized agent-tracking

As the economy improves, labor markets no doubt will begin to open up in some regions, and turnover may become an issue in some catalogers’ contact centers. “Many customer service reps feel they’re undercompensated for the value of the job they do, that is, in relation to the energy they exert on the job and the stress they encounter in dealing with customers all day,” recounts Liz Kislik, president of Liz Kislik Associates, a management consultancy based in Rockville Centre, N.Y. “If they think they can get slightly higher compensation elsewhere, and they have a family to support, they’re almost obligated to leave.”

How the catalog started: Demand from outside of its market for products from parent company King Arthur Flour, coupled with the company’s commitment to the American tradition of home baking, provided the impetus for the introduction of The Baker’s Catalogue in 1990. “Calls were increasing from people who had previously lived in the New England area,” says Steve Voigt, president of King Arthur Flour, a 213-year-old company. “They’d ask us to send them some flour. It didn’t take too long to see there was a business there.” Grew up in: Westport, CT Education: After receiving bachelor’s degrees in mathematical economics and German, Voigt