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Revolutionizing Customer Service: Wren Kitchens’ Dynamic Routing Solution Yields Substantial Savings

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Revolutionizing Customer Service: Wren Kitchens’ Dynamic Routing Solution Yields Substantial Savings

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Wren Kitchens, a prominent kitchen retailer in the UK, has recently implemented a cutting-edge routing solution provided by Descartes Systems Group, a global leader in logistics solutions. This dynamic appointment scheduling and route optimization tool has not only transformed their operational efficiency but also led to significant cost savings amounting to £2 million annually.

Lee Holmes, Transport and Logistics Director at Wren Kitchens, highlighted the company’s need for a more robust appointment booking system as they expanded their operations. With Descartes’ solution in place, Wren Kitchens now efficiently manages appointments, allowing for 2-hour time slots and optimizing the scheduling of surveyors’ visits to customers’ homes for project estimates.

The impact of this solution on Wren’s productivity has been remarkable. Surveyors are now able to complete 56% more customer appointments, resulting in a substantial reduction in the overall cost per appointment. The optimization of travel routes and schedules not only increases the number of appointments per day in a given area but also reduces mileage, fuel consumption, and associated costs. Wren Kitchens has achieved a 13% reduction in annual fuel costs, equivalent to approximately 354,000 fewer miles driven.

Descartes’ routing solution, a part of its cloud-based last-mile delivery suite, offers flexible and efficient time windows and delivery options to meet dynamic delivery requirements, including same-day delivery. By leveraging advanced optimization technology, the solution maximizes delivery capacity, enhances the productivity of mobile resources, and minimizes the distance driven per delivery.

Furthermore, the integration of GPS-based mobile applications ensures seamless coordination between drivers, dispatchers, and call centers, enabling efficient route execution and handling of exceptions. Electronic proof of delivery (ePOD) streamlines the delivery process, while self-service customer engagement allows real-time order tracking. Notably, the solution also contributes to delivery sustainability by reducing CO2 emissions, driving fuel savings, and eliminating paper-based manifests and documents.

Gary Taylor, VP Sales, EMEA, Descartes, emphasized the transformative impact of efficient routing solutions for companies like Wren Kitchens, which rely on service-driven vehicle fleets. Such solutions not only optimize operational performance but also enhance the overall customer experience, overcoming challenges associated with rising customer demands and labor shortages.

In conclusion, Wren Kitchens’ adoption of Descartes’ dynamic routing solution exemplifies a strategic investment in innovation to drive operational excellence and deliver exceptional customer service.

expectations Meta description: As supply chain disruptions continue, customer service still spearheads CX. Discover 7 customer service tips for your supply chain and how to approach optimizations.
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7 Customer Service Tips for your Supply Chain

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Between persistent worldwide labor shortages and supply chain disruptions, businesses are facing an unprecedented challenge. Almost 30% of directors surveyed by BDO identify chain disruptions as “their greatest business risk” ahead. Yet, increased customer demand and heightened customer service expectations remain factors to be addressed.

Supply chain strains in a new age of customer service

Saying that the global pandemic has strained supply chains would be a gross understatement. What Deloitte identified early as exposed vulnerabilities that “global supply chains at risk” is now verified and echoed by the U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who predicts that U.S. supply chain “challenges […] will continue into [2022]”.

Yet, between modern eCommerce’s sheer convenience and Amazon’s revolutionizing delivery, the average customer has come to expect excellence. Customer service strongly informs the Customer Experience (CX), with its effects rippling across satisfaction, retention, and advocacy. Studies find that 82% of customers expect supply chain transparency, consistent delivery updates, and swift, personalized customer service.

7 customer service tips for your supply chain

With this context in mind and seemingly no end in sight for global supply chain disruptions, customer service and supply chains must interweave toward a better CX. While the subject warrants intense
exploration, we may outline seven key steps in this process.

#1 Identify customer expectations and segment accordingly

As no two businesses or customer bases are identical, the initial step should be thorough data collection. For this phase, you may conduct surveys, engage in social media, and otherwise gather qualitative data on customer expectations. This will identify exact customer service optimizations you may deem desirable and profitable across your supply chain.

In addition, you may add customer service expectations as an additional segment filter for your audiences. Doing so will deepen your customer insights further, yielding more marketing and operational benefits even beyond customer service.

#2 Engage in business introspection

In turn, you may then focus your sights internally and examine your business’s inner workings. For this step, you will need to identify your business goals and positioning, so you may then weigh them against customer service optimizations.

Typical practices for this step include employee surveys and meetings with key partners and shareholders. How you do so will depend on your business size, scope, and goals, but you should, in all
cases, gauge your perceived customer service quality and supply chain collaboration levels, as well as the willingness to change.

#3 Align costs with service

Finally, before committing to changes to customer service across the supply chain, you may use your acquired insights to weigh costs against service improvements and expected gains. There is no quick
fix for the ongoing supply chain burdens, which you must account for.

This highly subjective step strongly hinges on your budget, exact customer needs and expectations, and internal sentiment. Still, going through it will help ensure you are not embarking on needlessly large- scale or otherwise ill-informed business journeys.

#4 Provide real-time order tracking

Once you have started implementing the changes you deemed appropriate, it’s highly advisable to provide customers with real-time order tracking. This practice is increasingly standard, but it also offers customers tangible transparency.

As regards CX, doing so meets near-universal customer expectations – as the aforecited MyCustomer study illustrated. It also helps combat the extremely common phenomenon of post-purchase anxiety. In combination, the two will, in turn, often ease the strain on your customer service departments as well.

#5 Automate customer service

Nonetheless, customer service queries will always pour in. For this reason, you may leverage technology to automate customer service and further ease the strain on your representatives.

For this step, you may consider chatbots, whose adoption rates and efficiency are increasing, live chat options, self-service resources, etc. Should your existing assets like Customer Relationship Management (CRM) allow it, you may also automate query acknowledgment and task delegation.

#6 Homogenize customer service across subsidiaries

As you do, you must ensure all subsidiaries offer a coherent experience regarding customer service. CX consistency is a critical component of customer satisfaction and can best inspire trust in a time when the Edelman Trust Barometer stresses it is sorely needed.

To do so, you may homogenize staff training and clearly and consistently communicate the values you want them to uphold. You may, by all means, adapt subsidiaries’ identities to meet unique location- based needs; still, customer service quality should remain consistent.

#7 Continue to monitor your efforts

Finally, as with all business endeavors, you should continue monitoring your post-implementation efforts. Doing so will help ensure you always have a clear overview of customer sentiment and brand perceptions, so you may correct your course as needed.

For this perpetual step, you may continue conducting surveys, collecting feedback across channels, and more. Combine qualitative with quantitative data, such as that collected in your CRM or other
databases, to refine and fine-tune accordingly.

In closing
To summarize, customer service across the supply chain has become a profoundly vital factor to consider. Customers expect transparency and swift, effective, personalized customer service more than ever before. For businesses, ensuring these qualities helps counterbalance the impact of supply chain disruptions on CX and customer satisfaction and retention. While rudimentary, this list hopefully substantiated this claim and outlined a safe process you may follow.

About the author
Brian Williams is a freelance copywriter and web developer based in Houston, TX. He is an avid SEO practitioner with a keen interest in CRM and its wealth of applications in modern business. He frequently contributes content to manhattanmoversnyc.com and other companies in the relocation industry, where he shares his insights on audience segmentation, branding, local SEO, and other valuable business practices. In his spare time, he enjoys the great outdoors no less than the vast digital world.

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3 Ways to Take Your Company From Product-Focused to Customer-Centric

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The data: Companies that focus on being customer-centric can position themselves better for success than companies that don’t. Research shows that customer-centric companies are 60% more profitable, people will spend 17% more for a good experience, and 76% of customers expect businesses to understand their needs.

The expert’s take: Dr. Debbie Qaqish (www.drdebbieqaqish.com), ForbesBook author of From Backroom to Boardroom: Earn Your Seat With Strategic Marketing Operations, says more CEOs and executive teams must figure out how to transform from being product-centric to being customer-centric in a digital world.

“For decades, companies took a product-focused approach,” says Dr. Qaqish, Partner/Chief Strategy Officer of The Pedowitz Group. “Marketing flooded prospects with product messaging and product conversations. Today, some companies are fleeing from this approach. The conversation is about customer problems and how they can be addressed.

“But many companies still struggle to know how to truly make customers the center of their businesses. It’s essential now in our digital world. CEOs need to realize that the customer is in control, and that companies can no longer win on product strategies alone. Business leaders need to create a corporate capability that allows the company to sense and respond to customer changes in real-time. They must have actionable customer data and use systems that track smart engagement with the customer.”

Dr. Qaqish uses a customer pyramid model to analyze how company leaders can transform their business from being product-centric to customer-centric:

-Change the mindset. To take on a customer-focused viewpoint, Dr. Qaqish says it’s essential that leaders first want to understand the customer. This could entail sitting in on customer service calls. “To get the entire company on board and engaged requires leadership implementing an action plan, including employees being empowered to make decisions geared toward customer satisfaction,” she says.

-Broaden the skill set. Dr. Qaqish lists four capabilities company leaders and employees need to become customer-centric: tech/data/analytics, marketing, business acumen, and customer knowledge and insights. “The shift to a customer focus is about building a strategic capability as a response to new strategic directions,” she says. “One big change is today’s digital customer. With a few clicks or swipes, the digital customer is firmly in control of their own journey with your company. In response, the company’s capability must include mapping, auditing, and optimizing the customer journey.”

-Sharpen the tool set. “The biggest changes in the tool set involve how technology is purchased, managed, integrated and administered,” Dr. Qaqish says. “The way your marketing technology is stacked is a highly visible indicator of your company’s true intentions regarding a customer-centric focus.” She suggests testing the marketing technology to see if it’s aligned to support and enhance the customer journey. “In the middle of a sheet of paper, draw a picture of your customer’s journey from being a prospect to a repeat buyer,” she says. “List the stages of the journey and note all of your technologies around it. Determine how much they support or enhance the stages of the customer journey. A similar exercise can be conducted with data. List the customer data sources and the type of data generated.”

“The digital age has changed the dynamic of the company-customer relationship, and businesses that don’t prioritize more attentive relationships with their customers will likely struggle,” Dr. Qaqish says.

______________________________________________________________________

Dr. Debbie Qaqish (www.drdebbieqaqish.com) is Queen of Revenue Marketing™,  a term she coined in 2011. She is ForbesBook author of From Backroom to Boardroom: Earn Your Seat With Strategic Marketing Operations and Partner/Chief Strategy Officer of The Pedowitz Group, where she manages global client relationships and leads the firm’s thought leadership initiatives. Passionate about marketing’s new role as a revenue creator and growth driver, Dr. Debbie inspires others to embrace revenue accountability in the customer-driven economy. She has been helping B2B companies drive revenue growth for over 35 years and is a motivational speaker, a columnist for numerous marketing publications, host of Get Real with Revenue Marketing, and teaches an MBA class at The College of William & Mary on Revenue Marketing.

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The Importance of an Omnichannel Approach for Great Customer Experience

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The omnichannel approach to customer experience has become an essential investment among companies focused on maintaining a strong brand reputation. It means providing a unified experience through all channels and platforms that consumers use to interact with the brands they use. In other words, it’s become more important than ever to communicate the same messages across all channels in which customers choose to engage. Done successfully, an effective omnichannel platform will deliver a resolution-centered, personalized experience to every customer – no matter how they connect with an organization.  

Seventy-three percent of consumers point to customer service as an important factor in their purchasing decisions, making the customer experience the number one driver of brand loyalty.1 While brand loyalty is an important factor in the success of a company, it is shockingly fragile. In fact, one in three consumers say they will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience. Most of the 32% of customers willing to abandon a brand after a bad experience are the Gen Z and Millennial generations, who assign lofty significance to how a brand treats and values them.1  

More companies should expand to the omnichannel customer service model. It has shifted from being appreciated to being largely expected by these market-driving generations of consumers. It promotes consistent brand messaging and enables brands to protect their customer relationships across multiple platforms. Right-place, right-time engagement can be the difference between whether a customer chooses your brand or a competitor – and whether they stick with your brand for their next purchase decision.

The Risks of Neglecting Social Media Customer Experience  

The average social media user has roughly 865 followers across all platforms.2 No matter how strong a company’s other means of communication – phone support, chat operations, self-service – a lack of social media engagement exposes your brand to the possibilities of neglecting customer questions and feedback, resulting in a bad reputation when it comes to customer service. All it takes is one consumer posting a bad complaint on their social media platforms for their 865 followers to see. Furthermore, 60% of customers who complain on social media expect an initial brand response within 15 minutes. Brands lacking a social media customer response strategy, or brands with understaffed digital engagement teams, have no way of redeeming social media brand perception to consumers in a time when there is a mass customer pivot to social channel utilization for customer care. 

Neglecting social media can also lead to inconsistent brand experiences that break customer loyalty, lose moment-of-purchase sales opportunities, and alienate buyers in the research and observation stages. By using omnichannel communication, a brand can avoid these mistakes and keep the company’s reputation in the good graces of loyal consumers.  

Social Experience Management Solution Sets 

Having consistent customer service across all channels can be greatly beneficial to a growing company, so it’s important to know how to do it right. Social experience management can be broken down into three solution categories: social care, reputation management and content/community moderation. Utilizing these three categories and correctly implementing omnichannel approaches is the best way a company can provide the customer service and experiences that consumers expect to receive from their favorite brands.  

Social care is the monitoring of all social media channels. The key is knowing when to listen and when to respond. It’s also essential to align all social media channels in messaging and brand voice. To do this well requires response teams ready to reply to all customer questions, complaints, and praise. Having sales conversion and cart value strategies for consumers are shopping through various media outlets is also important, as is detailed engagement and KPI reporting on engagement and brand performance 

A second specialized area of social experience management is reputation management, where companies complete all online reputation assessments and social media campaign activation. Screening for inappropriate or malicious content aimed at your brand can help companies get ahead of an issue before it escalates into a problem. It’s important to brainstorm brand, product, e-commerce, and retail-based strategies that focus on review response, as well as addressing questions at the point of digital sale. These efforts can determine whether a customer decides to buy your product or return to your location.  

Another key component to reputation management relates to incorporating the right social media customer engagement campaigns. A great campaign will align with the efforts of the marketing teams and agencies to maximize campaign reach and amplify the goals of current social promotions and objectives. Social media customer engagement campaigns can be fundamental to showing what values your brand has above and beyond basic digital customer care, which is another reason why it’s so important to incorporate into your brand’s strategy.  

Finally, content and community moderation is another integral part of ensuring the company’s presence is being represented accurately across all platforms and that community forums are being cultivated in a way that promotes brand loyalists and new advocates alike. Moderating uploaded user/brand content (video, text and images), flagged content review as well as promoting community guideline enforcement are of high importance to grow digital communities while still following brand standards. Brands that pull all of these digital skills together to monitor all social channels, brand sites, and third-party sites can see the benefits when measuring customer experience through social engagements can set themselves apart from competitive brands. 

As the omnichannel approach continues to rule customer experience strategies, having the best tools to measure interactions and implement company KPIs is of the utmost importance to ensuring a successful brand experience while boosting consumer loyalty.  

_________________________________________________________________

Roger Huff is Vice President, Digital Engagement Solutions at ResultsCX. His experience in the business process outsourcing industry spans 13 years, with 10 years of experience concentrated on social media customer experience management. Roger leads solution development and sales of social media and digital CX solutions that span social CX, digital reputation management, and content & community moderation services. He has worked extensively with digital, e-commerce, insurance, healthcare, and retail companies to deliver specialized solutions that elevate brand reputations.  

Sources:
1: https://www.pwc.com/us/en/advisory-services/publications/consumer-intelligence-series/pwc-consumer-intelligence-series-customer-experience.pd
2 : https://www.customercaremc.com/insights/national-customer-rage-study/2020-national-customer-rage-study/  

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What Is It Like Owning a Franchise?

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Are you hoping to be a business owner one day? Do you want to take charge of your financial future by becoming an entrepreneur, working for yourself and not for others?

There are many ways of making your entrepreneurial dreams come true. In the 21st century, starting a business is more accessible than at any other point in history.

But not all business paths are created equal. Many require long, difficult journeys to get from idea to startup to the first dollar in the bank. Owning a franchise, on the other hand, offers a very clear path forward. With a franchise, you are leveraging the assets of an existing business to take a lot of the guesswork out.

It’s the fast track to entrepreneurial success and should be a top consideration when you begin your own journey. Keep reading to learn what running a franchise is actually like.

Franchise Business Definition

A franchise is another branch of an existing business. It’s when you buy the right to use a particular business’s name, trademarks, branding, knowledge, and products.

Rather than having to build your own brand, developing your own product or service, you can use someone else’s. For example, you can become one of the 38,000 people who own a Mcdonald’s franchise worldwide.

When you do this, you pay for the right to sell McDonald’s products, using their systems and processes, their equipment, and their brand. This may be a much better option than starting a brand new burger joint with no reputation.

When you do this, you have zero customers. You have to build a brand reputation and a following from scratch. While it can work, it takes a long time.

With a franchise, on the other hand, you are leveraging the brand built by others, often over decades. When you start a franchise, you have customers from day one.

Owning a Franchise

Starting a franchise is a great option for first-time business owners. As a franchisee, you are going to get a ton of help. The franchisor won’t leave you on your own.

In fact, they’ve built out an entire program that will guide you to success as a franchise owner. The company wants you to be successful. The more successful you are, the more successful the franchisor is, too.

You get to use systems and processes developed by the original company. That means processes for hiring and managing staff. It also means processes and procedures for everything serving customers to cleaning, opening the shop to accounting, and pretty much anything else.

As a franchise owner, you have the freedom to manage the business as you see fit. However, you are in effect operating someone else’s business. You own it, but you have to play by their rules. You serve their products, wearing their uniforms.

A portion of your revenue goes back to the parent company. But it’s a small price to pay for the priceless education you receive and the quick profits you can expect to make.

Starting a Franchise

To start a franchise, you’re going to need some capital. Starting a new location can be quite expensive, though you may only need a portion of that yourself.

The parent company may cover half or more of the startup costs on your behalf. Generally, you can expect to need between 25% and 40% of the total startup cost as a down payment.

On top of that, you may need to take a franchisee course before you are approved to own and operate a franchise. This can take some time but is always worth the effort.

Is a Franchise Right for You?

Many people have dreams of owning their own company, under their own brand, serving customers in their own way. It’s an extremely rewarding path to take, but it’s one that is long and difficult.

Starting a business from scratch is much easier when you already have experience managing a business. As a result, it’s often best to start your entrepreneurial career by starting a franchise.

It’s kind of like business school, but instead of walking away with a degree at the end of it, you have a fully functional, cash-flowing business that you can keep or sell.

It’s an education that actually pays you, rather than the other way around. Plus, after successfully owning and operating a franchise, you will be in a much better position to start your own company one day.

You may have the cash needed to start your business without a loan. Or, since you have experience running a business, you’ll be more qualified to get a loan or investment in your new endeavors.

So whether you eventually sell your franchise to another aspiring entrepreneur, or keep it and pay a manager to handle the operations for you, owning a franchise is a good idea for most would-be business owners.

Best Franchises to Consider

The best thing about owning a franchise is that there are so many options available. When people hear about franchising, most people think about a restaurant franchise.

That’s just one example. If you like the idea of working in the restaurant business, franchises are a solid option. But there is so much more opportunity available.

There are retail stores like 7-11 or Ace Hardware. There are hotel franchise organizations like Marriott. There are real estate offices, accounting services, fitness centers, salons, carpet cleaning services, and many other franchise examples.

Many franchises will require a large number of startup funds, as you’ll need to buy or rent a building and outfit it with all of the equipment necessary to run a brick-and-mortar location. However, there are service-based franchises you could start for far less upfront.

With a service-based franchise, you would only need a vehicle and some basic equipment. That means you have a much lower loan and can start meaning a profit much sooner than with brick and mortar franchises.

Check out this article for more information on affordable franchises to consider. After all, the lower your startup costs, the sooner you can actually get started and start building the life you dream of.

Leverage the Success of Others

Owning a franchise is a smart move. It makes business ownership much more attainable, and it makes success much more likely. It allows you to leverage the success of others while you build an asset that you own.

Looking for other articles like this? Visit our blog today to keep reading.

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5 Practical Ways to Increase E-commerce Profitability

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E-commerce businesses continue to be an indispensable part of the retail industry. As more and more people continue to shop online, setting up an e-commerce store is relatively easy, especially when you have platforms like Amazon or Shopify. However, growing your e-commerce business, expanding your operations, and generating more revenue proves to be a challenge in a cutthroat industry.

It becomes harder to foster customer loyalty when there are hundreds of thousands of e-commerce stores, and it doesn’t help that customers are pickier than ever.

According to the US Census Bureau, e-commerce sales will continue to grow in the United States by a whopping 20% between 2018 and 2022 and it’s expected to reach 380 million by 2022. This is exciting news for e-commerce businesses but knowing which e-commerce stores will generate the maximum revenue during this period is unpredictable.

We’ve listed five practical ways to increase e-commerce profitability to increase your chances of generating maximum income and revenue.

1. Design a Great Website

It only takes less than a second for visitors to decide if they want to continue browsing your website or not. So, if your website does not have a clear value proposition that can hold your visitor’s attention longer, your bounce rate will be sky-high.

Effective visual communication is crucial to the performance of your e-commerce store. 80% of your visitors remember what they see on your website, while 10% never forget what they read. Pay attention to how your visitors navigate your website and use this information to improve your site navigation.

Another important factor you want to remember is the presentation of your products and services. You want to present them in a way that catches their attention and piques their interest. This could be in the form of images, videos, and website design.

Your About Us page should also catch your audience’s attention. According to Marketing Sherpa, around 7% of visitors on the Home Page click on the About Us next. And among those who click on the About Us, 33% are more likely to convert into potential customers.

2. Establish Customer Loyalty

Did you know that your existing customers are more receptive to your marketing efforts? Aside from that, they are likely to spend more money, order more frequently, and recommend your store to friends and family.

Customer churn – or losing your old customers to competitors – is a major problem among e-commerce businesses, so it’s crucial to prioritize customer loyalty when creating strategies for your marketing plan.

Focus on keeping your existing customers happy by offering discounts, loyalty cards, provide exceptional customer service, ask for feedback, and strive to continually improve. Before you may significant changes to your e-commerce website, be sure to consider your existing customers first. These strategies can help establish customer loyalty and ultimately improve your bottom line.

3. Consider Offering Subscription Products

The subscription business model has gained a lot of traction over the years. We’ve seen companies like Dollar Shave Club (razors), Blue Apron (meal kits), and Birchbox (beauty) connect with influencers to market their products.

If you’re not familiar with subscription products, here’s how it works: You offer a product or a curated set of products each month and encourage people to subscribe for a fee and receive the items.

Many people love subscription products because they love being surprised by deliveries, curating “random” or “assorted” boxes allows you to offload unsold items in your inventory, and the monthly revenue stream makes it easier for you to improve your e-commerce business.

4. Stay on Top of Your Finances

Regardless of the size of your e-commerce store, it’s important to adopt proper bookkeeping strategies. Keep records of all financial transactions and receipts and keep them organized. You can also use the best debt payoff app and bookkeeping software like QuickBooks to keep your finances in order.

5. Enhance Your Website Security Measures

Keeping your website secure should be one of your priorities. A complicated checkout process can likely expose your customers’ financial information. As a business owner, it’s your responsibility to keep your customers’ information safe. Plus, a security breach scandal is something a small business cannot afford.

Invest in professional security for your website and servers. This might cost you a significant amount upfront, but consider this purchase as a long-term investment that can help you and your customers in the long run.

Professional security services are effective in preventing data losses and hacks. A security company can also help your site in case of a malfunction.

What’s Next?

The key to running a profitable e-commerce store is to keep your customers top of mind. Structure your website in a way that’s easy to navigate. If your customers need to click 300 times to purchase something, they will likely shop with your competitor.

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Customer Service Tips Every Boutique Retailer Should Try

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Supplied makes it easier for small boutique owners around the world to access high-quality, affordable wholesale boutique items, whether to stock their physical store or IG shop.

Do you remember the last time you had a truly fantastic customer service experience?

Maybe a cashier complimented your earrings, or maybe the person at the drive-thru unexpectedly threw an extra taco in for free. Or maybe you were just really vibin’ with the enthusiasm you could hear at the other end of the customer support line. Whatever it was, chances are it made you more excited to return and support that company with your business in the future.

Now… think back to the last time you had an awful customer service experience.

Was someone being unnecessarily difficult while you were trying to return a sweater you’d bought a week ago? Or did someone leave you on hold for hours and hours? Or maybe someone just would NOT honor your coupon, even though you received it in an email yesterday?

Whatever that bad experience was… I’d be willing to bet it made you a whole lot less likely to go back anytime soon.

As Vince Lombardi famously said, “It takes months to find a customer and seconds to lose one.” One poor customer service experience could cause you to lose all of a valuable customer’s future business.

Offering better customer service skills often doesn’t cost a dime, but it can make a world of a difference for your profits. Studies show that acquiring a new customer can cost five times as much as retaining an existing customer. Plus, the success rate of marketing to a customer you already have is 60-70%, while it’s only 5-20% when marketing to a new customer.

If you haven’t been making great customer service a major priority in your boutique lately, now is the time to change that.

Read on to learn 25 powerful (but easy!) customer service tips every retailer should try implementing in their business.

(If you’ve hired someone else as the main customer service rep for your boutique business, send this article along to them as a reminder!)

Top 25 Customer Service Tips

Focus on the customer in front of you

As a boutique owner, you’ve constantly got about a zillion and one things that need your time and attention. But when it’s a customer you’re dealing with, zero in on them and their needs. Nobody likes feeling unimportant – make sure you give them your undivided attention while they’re talking to you, whether it’s over the phone, in person, or in your site’s live chat.

Be empathetic

Chances are, you’ve been in the exact same situation your customer’s in right now – whether they’re trying to figure out what size shoe to purchase or they’re trying to initiate a return for something that didn’t turn out the way they’d hoped. Do your best to see the situation from their perspective. You’ll be able to provide a better customer experience if you’re in touch with their needs and emotions.

Make an extra effort

Work tirelessly to solve your customer’s problems. If a customer wants a certain size that’s out of stock, double-check your inventory, let them know when they can expect that item to come back, offer them alternatives, or give them a discount code for their trouble. Your customers will appreciate you going the extra mile for them.

Improve systems

Customer service isn’t just about making your customer feel valued while you’re speaking to them – it’s also about providing a great all-around customer experience. Do a quick audit of your website and make sure it’s user-friendly. Is it easy to check out? Browse new arrivals? Search for specific items? Purchase using the payment method they prefer? If not, set aside some time to make some adjustments.

Identify their needs

There might be all sorts of things you could be doing to provide a better customer experience that you don’t even realize yet. Put together a short survey to send out to your customers about the checkout process and their past customer service experiences. It’ll show you what’s going well and what you could improve.

Use their name

Simple, but effective. Whenever a customer reaches out to you, take note of their name and use it. It’ll give your communications a more personal touch. (Don’t forget to introduce yourself by name, too!) Bonus points if you remember other personal details about them for next time.

Smile

Yes, even if you’re not talking to the customer in person! Make an effort to be friendly and positive, even if you’re just sitting at your desk at home – you can totally hear a smile through the phone, and it makes a difference.

Be generous

If you could spend $5 to secure a customer who’s loyal to you for life… would you do it? Sometimes, that’s all it takes. When a customer reaches out to you, your priority is to make them happy – offering free shipping or accepting a late return can do just the trick. And that’s not just common sense – research shows that accepting someone’s generosity makes you feel indebted to them, which can translate to return business.

Don’t say “I don’t know”

Sure, you’re not gonna immediately have the answers to every single one of your customers’ questions… but it’s kinda your job to know. So when you tell a customer “I don’t know,” what they hear is “I don’t care.” Not exactly the message you’d like to get across when you’re on the phone with a customer! Practice saying “Let me check on that for you” instead.

Celebrate birthdays

Acknowledging your customer’s birthdays is a surefire way to make them feel valued and appreciated. Ask your customers for your birthday as they sign up for your mailing list, then send them an email with a promo code for a free gift or a discount right before their special day.

Be clear about your policies

Your customers aren’t mind-readers – if you don’t let them know, they have no idea about how long shipping should take, where you ship to, or under what circumstances you accept returns. Be sure your shipping and returns policies are clearly stated on your website to avoid confusion. It’ll answer some questions before they’re ever even asked!

Honor your promises

Your customers need to know that they can trust your boutique to deliver the value it promises. Stick to the shipping and return policies you have listed on your website (unless you choose to go above and beyond them, of course!) Honor coupons and discount codes for as long as you said you would. Post any giveaway winners publicly in your stories. Trust is key!

Acknowledge frequent customers…

Let your return customers know how much you appreciate them! Whether you throw a quick handwritten thank-you note into their next order or you offer a discount code that’s good for their next purchase, it’ll definitely make them want to keep coming back.

But make sure new customers feel the love, too!

It’s a big leap to order from a company you’ve never purchased anything from before – make sure new customers feel super welcome. Acknowledge new customers by offering free shipping on their first order, sending a promo code when they sign up for your mailing list, or even sending a quick thank-you email for taking a chance on your shop.

Be transparent

Running a business is tough, and sometimes extenuating circumstances make it even tougher. Be open with your customers about the hurdles you’re currently going through, especially if it will affect shipping times or restock dates.

Sincerely apologize

We all make mistakes – especially when we’re doing huge, crazy difficult things like running a business. If you’ve made a mistake on a customer’s order, own your error, sincerely apologize, and do whatever it takes to make things right. It’s much more professional than shrugging off responsibility or blaming someone else. (Bonus points if you reach out and own up to it before the customer even notices!)

Make it easy to get in touch

Have you ever sent an email to a company’s customer service team… and then never heard anything back? Yeah, that’s the worst. Don’t be that company. Let your customers know the best way to reach you, whether it’s through Instagram DMs, email, or over the phone. If you want to go the extra mile, include a live chat feature on your website that’s available 24/7. (Also, word of advice: if you have a contact form on your website, make sure to check it every so often!)

Offer self-help customer service

If your customers can find their own answers to their questions, it makes their lives easier AND your life easier. Include a comprehensive FAQ page on your website that answers common questions about shipping, sales, returns, and more. For more complicated questions, you might want to write up an entire blog post to give your customers more information. Just be sure your customers still know that they can reach out to you with any questions they can’t find the answers to.

Plan for the holidays

Here’s a hot tip: over the holidays, things get BUSY. Even if you usually don’t have very many people blowing up your inbox about shipping questions, there’s a very good chance you will during the holidays. Make sure you’re prepared with multiple customer service reps helping respond to questions (if need be) and detailed holiday shipping info displayed on your website and social media pages.

Respond quickly

Make it a goal to respond to all customer emails within 48 hours whenever possible. No matter how busy you are, customers want to feel like their concerns and questions are a top priority. As for Instagram DMs, Facebook messages, and comments, try and get in a habit of responding to those right when you see them. (Your customers will like that and so will the algorithm!)

Hire the right people

If you’ve only recently opened your boutique business, you might be the only person your customers ever interact with. But as you grow and add more people to your team, make sure they’re people who are kind, friendly, and pleasant to interact with. Nobody’s perfect, but a positive attitude can make all the difference.

Be polite

Pretend you’re at the dinner table with your strict aunt – say lots of pleases and thank yous. Not only is it common courtesy, but it’s also good business. It’ll also help you still sound friendly and polite even when you’re communicating via messenger or text.

Set clear expectations

Sorry, but you’re not superwoman. When your customers approach you asking when they can buy an item you aren’t planning on restocking, or when they ask if you can make sure the package they just ordered gets to them by tomorrow, sometimes you just can’t give them the answer they were hoping for. Be realistic in your responses and don’t make promises you can’t keep. Setting clear expectations is also helpful in responding to emails – sending an automated email letting a customer know when they can expect a response is also helpful, even if they were initially hoping for a reply right away.

Be human

There isn’t a robot at the other end of all of those incoming customer emails – it’s bright, bubbly, sparkly you! Don’t be afraid to infuse your communications with your genuine personality. Strike up a conversation with a customer on the phone, ask about their day, say “top of the morning to ya” instead of “hello” when you feel like it. It’ll help forge a relationship with your customers!

Offer suggestions

Have you ever asked a waiter what you should order, only for them to respond, “I love everything on the menu equally!” Yeah, that’s not helpful – don’t be like that guy. When your customers ask for your opinion, politely give it. You’re the real expert on the products you carry – use your insider knowledge to guide your customers to the right decision for them.

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Joseph Heller is a small businesses expert and CEO of SuppliedShop.com

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

How to Effectively Communicate Your Value as a Logistics Company

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A company’s values are its ultimate selling point. Your services may be very much like every other logistics company’s, yet what will always set you apart are the values and belief system you nurture. 

The question that now naturally arises is how can we communicate this value with our customers? What are some of the marketing and PR tactics that can be employed to best showcase that deeper and more meaningful level of our business? 

After all, it’s very easy to promise you’ll store and ship item A from point B to point C in record time – and it makes you no different from your competitors.

Here’s what you can do to rise above the competition and show your customers what you’re really about. 

Know Your Target Customer(s) Deeply 

First of all, you need to truly understand what your customers are looking for. It helps if you target a very specific audience, as opposed to casting a wide net. The more specialized you are, the better you will be able to understand the unique needs of a customer. 

For instance, you may work with brands that sell a specific kind of merchandise. Let’s say this is the merch of famous social media influencers. What these kinds of clients will want is speedy shipping and a unique packaging experience, one that can be personalized to each individual influencer. 

By researching the online habits of your target audience and their requirements (via email, call, in person), you will be better able to tailor your services. You’ll have crucial knowledge to help you find that link that connects your values with their needs. 

Write Focused Web Copy 

One of the best ways to communicate with your audience is via your website copy. Ideally, you want it to focus on your customers’ needs, pain points, and desires, and how your solutions are able to solve them. Don’t go on and on about how great you are: explain how what you do solves their problems. 

Always speak in the language of your customers (which is where the research from the above point comes in). You can’t expect the same voice to appeal to international corporations and small local businesses.

Use superlative and comparative language where it makes sense. Phrases like “the most affordable,” “the most reliable,” “the longest-running,” etc. will help highlight what makes you stand out and how this can be beneficial to your audience.

Use Statistics and Social Proof 

You should also look to condense your key stats down into easily digestible bits of information. Numbers often speak louder than words. To add another layer of trust to your website, point out the number of satisfied clients you’ve worked with, the miles you’ve driven, the number of items you’ve shipped, and so on. 

Here’s an example from ShowMojo, which uses five simple statistics to underline the benefits of using their services. 

Of course, the challenge here is to top your competition. What if someone has been in business longer than you have? When this is the case, and it most often is, try to pinpoint those unique values that make you different. 

Choose to focus on one type of item or one type of service. Highlight something about your facilities that makes you stand out. Shine a light on your employees or even your customers. 

The copy you use can also be what puts you on the map. For instance, a phrase like “234 headaches averted” is more emotive than the customary “234 customers served”. 

Use Imagery to Communicate Better 

The other great way to communicate better with your audience is to use imagery and icons that strengthen your message. 

Consider every single visual element of your website: starting from the color story, to the images and the way the pages are structured. What can you improve that will make your customers both have a better experience browsing and better understand what you’re all about?

Visuals have an inherent ability to spark emotions and connections on a level that is much deeper than words. Just the use of different, better quality images that trigger a certain emotional response can improve your conversion rates. 

Your choice of imagery and visuals ties right back to knowing what your audience wants. What is the major challenge they are facing? And what are you doing that will make it better?

For instance, Haystack has a great animation that’s designed to make you feel a bit on edge at first. But then, they provide a solution in the same visual, illustrating how their services simplify operations and streamline processes.

Create Memorable Offers 

Sometimes it’s all about sticking in someone’s mind. You may not convert a visitor on the first go, but if you create a memorable offer that solves a particular need, they are likely to remember you and come back when they need that specific service. 

The future (and present) of marketing is in personalization and customization. Offers tailored to the needs of every individual customer are much more valuable and sell better than pre-made packages that only assume what they will need. 

If you’ve been in business for a while, you’ll be able to make the best of both worlds and create package-like offers that still allow for plenty of customization where it matters the most. Whether it’s storage solutions, pickup and delivery times, the duration of your services, or any other variable that can be tweaked per customer, offering a choice (but not too much of it) is what makes customers convert. 

Make sure you don’t fall into the trap of choice paralysis, and only allow your customers to tailor some elements of the offer. Too much choice and having to come up with the entire service from scratch will only cause more headache. 

Communicate Your Unique Value Proposition Wherever Possible 

Finally, you want to make sure there are numerous touchpoints between your customers and your values. Here are just four of them:

-Your web copy – Everything you write online, from your website copy to your social media captions should communicate your UVP. 

-Speaking to customers and prospects – In-person marketing is just as important as your web presence. After all, if you communicate one message online and then come off as a completely different company in person, you won’t be doing yourself much good. Ensure all company representatives are coached on the best ways of communicating your values and USPs. 

-Speaking with others in your industry – Word-of-mouth marketing is also an important aspect of customer communication. So, you want your values to shine through in your chats and emails with everyone in your industry, as well as your current customers. You never know who might send your next client your way. 

-When someone asks your employees about their job – Your staff (even the employees who don’t have customer-facing jobs) should know the values your company is built on. They can represent them when speaking to friends and acquaintances who ask them what it is they do for a living. 

Final Thoughts 

Communicating value comes down to reinforcing your core message and understanding what your audience is truly after. With enough research, a decent creative effort, and a lot of testing, you can come up with a formula that not only converts your leads but also makes them proud to be working with you. 

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Archives, Global Logistics, Global Trade Daily

6 Reasons Why Customer Service is Important in Business

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Improving your customer service snowballs into a host of benefits. From more satisfied clients to recommendations and better feedback, any brand flourishes after boosting its communication with the consumers.

If you’re a startup, you might need to cut costs somewhere. As a result, you end up not developing a reliable representative team. Perhaps you’ve been running your shop for a long time without paying too much attention to this aspect. It’s time for your approach to change.

Customer Service in 2021

Consumers now have an endless list of options at their disposal for any product or service. A bad experience leads to negative reviews, which anybody can see online and decide to go elsewhere.

Customer support can help. It comes in all shapes and sizes to mix and match per the company’s requirements. In turn, it can improve the various fields related to the way you run the business.

Self-Serve

You don’t need representatives to resolve all simple issues related to your services. So, publish a comprehensive FAQ section and sets of guides for the most common concerns. It’ll do half of the work for you.

Live Chat

An instant chatbox on your website provides instant solutions and prevents more significant issues from spreading like a forest fire. If you don’t have enough reps to match your website traffic, incorporate an instant chatbot for quick, automated responses.

Social Media

The majority of your target demographic is likely on social media. So, why let bad reviews simmer when you can take charge and respond, displaying transparency in the process?

Email

Many people might send queries to the official email address or use other email tools if their questions seem too complex for a quick chat. Have a rep monitor your account and answer salient issues quickly and politely.

Phone

Although it seems old-fashioned, phone support is still essential to businesses. Plus, the tech developments of the 21st century make it easier to bring your call center service to the future by introducing omnichannel routing, automation, or even AI.

Let’s see what kind of benefits introducing a mixture of these channels brings to your company.

1. Client Retention

Your rep team acts as a direct line of communication with your customers. They’re in charge of disclosing your mission and values and maintaining a positive brand image.

Think about it. If a person was satisfied during the first experience they had with you, and you keep displaying positivity, transparency, and high-quality, why would they switch brands?

Moreover, many consumers stay loyal to brands because of amicable, pleasant representatives. Even if you made a significant shift in the business model, a friendly rep can explain this new approach’s benefits, reassuring and retaining the customer.

2. Client Acquisition

Customer acquisition costs skyrocket when you don’t invest in a high-quality helpline. Today, most people will read company and product reviews before reaching out to a business.

On the other hand, one negative review can lead to doubts and mistrust, reducing the number of people who go for your brand. If there are a dozen, rarely will anybody decide that you’re worth their time and money.

Reputation management is vital to customer acquisition. It’s much easier to maintain by reacting to queries quickly and proactively than to do damage control after the fact.

3. Issue Identification

One of the primary responsibilities of any company is satisfying the buyers. You can considerably improve whatever you’re putting on the market by hearing out actual user’s suggestions.

While there’s merit to focus groups and analytics that examine potential customers’ needs, it’s sometimes even better and more valuable to listen to what your current clients are saying.

Collect, store, and regularly review all feedback your business receives through your support channels. If any issue comes up multiple times, fix it as soon as possible. Anything from the user interface to the packaging and product features can improve by listening to the primary consumers.

4. Increased Profitability

People are much more likely to continue purchasing your products after an initial positive experience with the brand. These small interactions are a deciding factor in whether they continue working with you.

Plus, surveys show that many are ready to pay more for a product attached to a positive customer experience. On the flip side, even a single negative experience can leave a lasting impression.

You can’t ignore these statistics, especially since other brands won’t. In the era where more companies are starting to invest in their support systems, any business that doesn’t follow suit is only to crash and burn.

5. Dispute Prevention

If you falter at any stage while providing a service, your customers might require their money back or a new product to replace a faulty one. Making dispute resolution as frictionless as possible reduces the potential for inflammatory statements or even legal trouble.

Make the issues easy to solve, and they’re much less likely to leave an angry review and harm your reputation. The online age makes convenience central to any client-centered business.

6. A Loyalty Boost

There are countless companies in every industry imaginable, making brand loyalty an essential but challenging goal to achieve. Repeat shoppers are more profitable and provide free marketing for your business.

However, customers will stay loyal only if you give them a good reason to do so. After all, there are plenty of options, so why should they stick to one that doesn’t provide value?

Proactively dealing with clients is pivotal for achieving loyalty. The company also seems much more human and trustworthy if it has friendly, genuine people ready to respond to feedback at the forefront.

Clients know that their purchase is your profit, but showing them that you see them as more than a number in a statistic through genuine desire to help incentivizes them to stay true to you.

The Bottom Line

Overall, as long as you’re aware that customer service stands as the backbone of any business involving communication, you’re on the right path. This aspect of your business operations makes the brand thrive in the long-run, and the costs effectively pay for themselves.

So, make that foundation robust. You’ll soon see new shoppers come in, positive testimonials pop up, and feedback improve your company structure. It’s worth the effort.

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Anna likes writing from her university years. When she graduated from the Interpreters Department, she realized that translation was not so interesting, as writing was. She trains her skills now working as a freelance writer on different topics. Always she does her best in the posts and articles.

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Archives, Commentary, Global Trade Daily

Keep Covid Stress out of Your Customer Communication

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Pandemic stress-related toxic communication can creep into your customer communication. Don’t let it! Set the example, nip toxicity in the bud, protect your team from incoming, build in rest, celebrate the good stuff, and codify that positive voice in your company style guide.

As we think about healthy communication at work, we’re reminded of the saga of Away. The direct-to-consumer luggage company experienced such massive growth that it couldn’t keep up with demand. As customer requests piled up despite the customer service team’s 16-hour workdays and canceled vacations, executives blamed the team for not keeping up. They reportedly became so toxic that the team virtually imploded, service quality plummeted, and the story unfolded in an unflattering media exposé.

This moment finds us with a different kind of anxiety. Pandemic-related stress is at an all-time high, and people are bringing it to work. It can show up in ugly ways, too. In a survey we conducted of 1,000 professionals, 38 percent said they experienced toxic workplace communication since shelter-in-place began. Yikes!

What about when that nastiness starts to seep into your interactions with customers? Even if underneath the surface, unhealthy customer communication can damage your satisfaction scores…and your brand.

Here are 12 steps you can take to help your customer success team stay positive and put all kinds of good vibes out into the universe.

Acknowledge the stress

Your customer success team are people, too. They’re dealing with the strain of a deadly pandemic, economic anxiety, and lots of “togetherness” with family members at home. Even if you can’t fix these problems, simply acknowledging the stress they undergo is a long way for their state of mind.

Care for your employees

Maybe it’s quaran-tinis every other Friday. Or a well-timed “wellness day.” Or a cupcake delivery to employees’ homes. Whatever your flavor, invest in ways to remind your employees that you value and care about them. In turn, they’ll value and care for your customers.

Be ground zero

As a leader in your company, you set the tone. Consider yourself “ground zero” for the kind of communication you want your customers to experience. The empathetic, upbeat, and kind words and messages you model to employees are the same your employees will use with customers.

Know what it sounds like

Know what unhealthy and toxic communication sounds like. Unhealthy communication includes words and turns of phrases that are exclusive, condescending, or passive-aggressive, and toxic communication.

Tool for it

There’s a raft of new tools out there to measure customer interactions, including Gong, Chorus, and Writer. Outfit your teams so you can address unhealthy or toxic communication. But give them a heads up so they know you’re doing it, and approach the oversight with sensitivity.

Nip it in the bud

As soon as you see or hear ugliness, call it out immediately. Approach the person in private. They may not be aware of their behavior, so be specific and help them understand the customer impact. Later, anonymize the example and discuss the topic more broadly with the team.

Enforce the rules

If the toxic communication persists, take action. Taking a hard-line right away sends a clear message and ensures compliance from the rest of the team. Let them know that, even if they are on the receiving end of ugliness, it needs to stop with them – no exceptions.

Protect them from toxicity

Any customer-facing team knows what incoming feels like. Equip yours with the appropriate responses and escalation processes to remove themselves from an abusive situation. They need to feel empowered to set boundaries and know that you have their back.

Create a pressure valve

Acknowledge the absurd and lower the team’s stress. Bill Gates describes a “Mail Merge couch” from Microsoft’s early days. Team members sat (or laid) on it while taking support calls related to the product’s frustratingly complex feature. The inside joke helped them blow off steam and laugh at their situation.

Let them rest

As we learned from Away’s cautionary tale, the stress of being on the front lines is exacerbated by lack of sleep. Prepare and plan for people to get the rest and downtime they need, even if you have to bring in temporary reinforcements or other teams need to chip in.

Recognize key moments

Just as you suss out the nastiness, find and recognize the good stuff. Amplify and celebrate examples – large and small – of the behavior you want. Especially call out positive responses in the face of negativity. Create a “good karma” award and make a big hoopla out of it.

Make it stick

Make healthy communication a thing in your company culture. Get on the same page with the other executives about the voice, tone, and behavior norms you want to promote internally and externally. Then, make them stick by codifying them in your employee guidelines and brand style guide.

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May Habib is co-founder and CEO of Writer, an AI writing assistant for teams.