Customer Service vs. Being Accommodating
We had a conversation here at Sewell the other day about the differences between an internet retailer offering good customer service and being accommodating.
Basically, some companies (B&H, Crutchfield, etc.) really go out of their way to make sure that people are always treated well - this obviously involves huge payroll expenses and training. Other companies have extremely liberal return policies (sometimes even shipping you a return label with your order) - some examples include Buy.com and Zappo’s.
To be honest, I’m not sure whether most customers prefer good customer service, or easy-to-use self-serve tools. My hunch is that a frequent online buyer would value an accommodating company above a company with top-tier customer service, but there are obviously room for both online (and some companies probably do both well).
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Well, in my opinion, the only time that you will really have to deal with that question is when there is a problem. Taking that in mind, you’d have to try to take in the customer’s mind set for that particular situation. But in my opinion, as a person that doesn’t like to interact with people all that much, and orders and does pretty much everything online, if I have a problem with a product that I’ve ordered and I’ve found that there isn’t any self-serve tools to assist me, then my mood is more than sated by a helpful, live customer service representative…
Also, in my opinion, I don’t think people have a whole lot of faith in online self-serve tools, when it comes to returning a product… I think they feel more confident that they’ve spoken with a real person to ensure that they have done everything correctly and that the company is aware of their issue.
So what it all boils down to, in my opinion of course, is that I feel its an unneccessary expense when weighing on your ROI, to place to much focus on self-serve returns. My rule of thumb has always been customer service above all else.
Comment by Mike — March 31, 2008 @ 9:04 am
I guess it’s semantics, but I don’t think that a customer accidentally ordering a pair of shoes that are too small is necessarily “a problem” - it happens when you’re shoe shopping and most people expect it.
Rather than put you on the phone with a service rep, though, Zappo’s allows you to process a return online which is then delivered within a couple of days. That’s scalable (since a computer is doing the work) and probably keeps most online shoppers happy. Requiring that they authorize all returns orders with a customer service rep creates scalability problems.
Comment by admin — April 2, 2008 @ 4:30 pm