Article

Capture the voice of customers to improve the online retail experience

Phone, web and social channels all provide insight into customer wants and needs.

August 5, 2010

In the competitive world of online retailing, delivering a unique customer experience is critical. Since online retailers can’t provide the kind of personal in-store experience that brick-and-mortar retailers can, it only takes one bad experience to lose a customer for life. Therefore, it is even more important to make the most of every customer interaction and consistently deliver positive experiences to keep buyers coming back.

To generate a winning customer experience strategy, it is essential to effectively capture the voice of the customer. By this, I mean listening to customers whether they reach out via the phone, web or social channels, and capturing that feedback to quickly and proactively respond to customer needs. It’s not just about collecting data, but in turn using that data to better engage with customers to identify their issues and hot spots and in turn give them the best experience possible.
 
The first step in capturing the voice of customers is to go straight to the source: customer service representatives. They are on the front lines and have a direct line to what the customers are saying, receiving a steady stream of incoming phone calls and emails from consumers highlighting popular products or flagging top concerns. Empowering customer service representatives and providing them with a direct line of communication to management is a great way to elevate customer voices to deliver superior experiences.

For example, recently at Overstock.com, a customer service representative communicated that they had received feedback from multiple customers that a top selling product was not being delivered correctly. This information quickly alerted Overstock to an important issue and they were able to take action, work directly with the product carrier and manufacturer to make immediate changes. Since then, the top selling product has one of Overstock’s lowest "not delivered" percentage rates. By empowering agents to capture valuable customer feedback and escalate it to the appropriate business channels, organizations are able to seamlessly address issues and improve customer experiences.

The social web is also proving to be a rapidly growing channel to capture honest customer feedback. Social channels like Facebook and Twitter help organizations listen to customers and engage with them to learn how to improve their experiences. Beauty.com has effectively created a niche in the social media world that uses a different approach than most. Beauty.com has linked a "Chat with a Beauty Advisor" function right into both of their Twitter Accounts, @beautydotcom and @BeautyAdvisor. This offers customers a convenient, on-the-spot option to get in touch with a live customer care representative who can readily advise inquires ranging from a personalized skin care regimen to an issue with an order.

This integrated social approach allows Beauty.com to promote special offers, feature videos, beauty tips/trends and use specialized searches to hear what our customers are saying. Establishing a presence on the social web and using it to have proactive conversations with customers will help hear customer discussions about brands, address pain points and incorporate the information into business practices and services.

Capturing the voice of the customer via multiple channels is important, but it is equally vital to integrate the insight into an overall business process. It is important to consolidate customer feedback into a central information repository. This helps organizations provide a consistent experience to customers, no matter what the communication channel. It is also important to have a customer-centric team putting the necessary pieces in place so that when problems do occur, organizations are able to loop it back to the team that can influence it throughout the business.

By engaging with customers to identify and understand their issues, online retailers can better react to these issues and provide customers with the best experience possible. Not only does this help build customer loyalty and sales but it also is a key element in differentiating one’s brand in a competitive environment.

Andrew Hull is the director of product marketing for software company RightNow. (Photo by Keith Williamson.)