InformationWeek
Defining The Business Value Of Technology
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October 16, 2000 |
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The Complete Package
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"I was brought on to integrate customer service at all levels," Belew says. "Customer service has to be there at the front end to see what customers want, not just at the back end to handle problems or status requests. Frankly, we can promote as much as we want, but the key to success is execution throughout the customer's experience."
Like many E-retailers, CDNow is staffing up one of the most important and overlooked aspects of Web commerce: telephone support. CDNow is adding 80 telephone support reps for the holidays, an increase of 50%, and using software from Kana Communications Inc. (as is Tiffany) to route calls to the most appropriate service rep.
Sears.com established a dedicated call-center section exclusively for Web-site inquiries within its call-center operation in Des Moines, Iowa. For the holidays, Sears .com is increasing phone support personnel from 165 to 250. SmarterKids.com and Lands' End, in addition to a toll-free number, use Cisco Systems' Customer Interaction Suite (formerly Webline) to let customers launch an instant live chat session with a service rep or request a callback. Lands' End's implementation includes a feature called Shop with a Friend that lets browsers chat online with friends about what to buy.
"The early assumption that online ordering would make the phone call go away was wrong," Belew says. "It's a different kind of phone call, but you absolutely must be there to provide it."
Web sellers also know they need to improve E-mail response speed and accuracy. That's because no one wants a customer to have the experience that Cognitiative's Windham did last Christmas with a brand-name retailer.
Windham ordered gifts online to be delivered to her relatives' home where she was traveling to spend the holidays. She specifically chose a retailer that had a store location in the same town to accept returns. The delivery arrived in time for Windham to check and wrap the gifts, but with a note explaining that some items were out of stock--her first notification there was a problem.
"So I still had to run out to the mall on Christmas Eve," she laments. But the company's response to her E-mailed complaint was even worse--a form letter reading "'Thank you for your feedback about your good/bad shopping experience with us.' Obviously they didn't even read it," Windham says. "This year, I'm going to find somewhere else that has a store in that town."
That E-commerce nightmare before Christmas is something E-retailers are working hard to prevent. WineShopper.com in Napa, which is completing its merger with Wine .com this month, trains customer-service reps for a month on every aspect of wine and the wine industry. That's in addition to a thorough understanding of the site's shopping process, credit-card security, and delivery procedures.
"The search function is fine, but people still like to get on the phone and say, 'Help me find this,'" says Kristen Estheimer, customer-care supervisor at WineShopper.com. "The nature of wine is convivial. People want to talk about it. They might not remember what you said, but they sure will remember how they felt. And that's what makes them come back."
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Photograph of Amy Belew by Paul Harris
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