Humanize Your Web Customer Service
by Kim M. Bayne
e-Business Advisor magazine
August 2000
As more e-tailers fall by the wayside, it's increasingly apparent that
customer service drives e-commerce success. Learn from Lands' End: put customers
first.
In 1994, Lands' End was one of the first catalog-based apparel companies to grasp the e-commerce concept, register its domain name, and get online. Recognizing from the start that customer service was key, the retailer knew it would somehow need to marry its established offline personality with a new and emerging online one.
"Our sales reps aren't really sales people as much as they are customer service people. They are there to answer questions," says Jeremy Hauser, research and analysis specialist with Lands' End's Internet Business Group. This was the philosophy the company wanted to translate to the Web.
Call center history
In its favor, Lands' End initiated 24-hour customer service operations in 1980--one of the first retailers in the industry to do so. Its 800 number, 24-hour call center has more than 300 phone lines and handles 40,000 to 50,000 calls per day. During peak season, from mid-October through New Year's day, 1,100 phone lines handle more than 100,000 incoming calls daily.
The service program comprises nearly 3,000 people in three locations in Wisconsin. One thousand sales representatives are based at company headquarters in Dodgeville, with another 1,100 and 840 sales reps or "phone center staffers" in Cross Plains and Reedsburg, respectively.
Hometown attitude
Long-time customers view Lands' End staff as "very knowledgeable, very accommodating, extremely friendly. It's a reflection of where we are," says Hauser. Located in south central Wisconsin, Lands' End employees are "a lot of small town people working the phone lines who know that you have to be able to get along with your neighbors." Customer service staff view the person at the other end of the phone as "someone they're going to meet at the market later that weekend," according to Hauser. The company's Web presence doesn't neglect that concept.
Lands' End also concentrates on accurate and quick order delivery. Another concept that can make or break an e-commerce business is fulfillment. If your customer buys from your online catalog, you must be able to pick the product, wrap it, and ship it accurately and quickly.
"There's no way to sugar coat that. You must be able to get the right product to your customer on time," emphasizes Hauser. When an order for an in-stock item is placed with Lands' End, whether through the mail, the telephone, or the Web, the customer knows from experience that Lands' End will fulfill the order properly. If not, customers can connect with a real human being who will listen to them and correct the problem.
Competitive analysis
Wanting to maximize its brand identity and continue its quality of service, Lands' End's Internet Business Group identified what would make its Web site (figure 1) stand out from the growing list of online clothing retailers: live features and functionality. Such functions could help "humanize" the company's Web presence and carry over its "hometown" feel to the Web.
[Figure 1 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
Lands' End Live was conceived to help customers ask questions and get answers immediately. The retailer didn't want customers waiting for e-mail replies or having to interrupt the online experience to talk on the telephone.
Similar sites often miss focusing on real-time customer service, Lands' End believes. Product focus is their main thrust, missing the customer's viewpoint--and needs--altogether.
"If that's your only focus, you're putting the cart before the horse. If you focus on making the experience as fun as possible, [customers] will buy products," says Hauser.
Application research
One reason many sites have been slow to offer interactive "live help" capabilities is that available technology has been lacking. In spring 1999, when Lands' End began its search for packaged applications in help desk technology, they were disappointed in the choices. The few applications that existed were primarily targeted to a business-to-business, rather than business-to-consumer, e-commerce environment.
The Internet Business Group evaluated dozens of online support models. One was Dell Computer's online university, which Dell was using for end user training. Another was the customer interaction feature in place at Buy.com, which let customers ask questions in real time. But Buy.com's solution was "buried in their site and we wanted to make ours more prominent [on the home page]," Hauser says.
Lands' End found that most applications at the time fell short in meeting an individual's retail shopping needs. One major objective for Lands' End Live was to "replicate for online users the type of experience they would have in a store," says Hauser. The company wanted to help the online customer much like a live sales clerk who finds and takes clothes off the rack to show them to a shopper.
Most help desks were limited to delivering presentations and pages, but no one had tapped into them as a general help feature resembling the Lands' End Live concept, says Hauser.
Although Lands' End technical staff had considered developing a custom application, they decided to remain focused on the company's core competency.
"What we do best is give customer service and offer products people want. We're not necessarily a development firm or the type of firm that would build custom applications," says Hauser. "We can do it if we need to. What we look for is the best of breed. A company that really knows what it's doing and has worked with a number of different clients."
After evaluating the limited list of choices, Lands' End decided that WebLine Communications had the most to offer.
The WebLine application lets Lands' End staff share Web pages with an online customer. For example, if a visitor sends a message to the customer service representative (CSR) that he's stuck on a Web page, the CSR can take control of the browser and push a new page to him. WebLine helps the CSR put things in a customer's basket as well. However, for credit card and order security, the customer must still check out with the order on his own.
The WebLine product uses Java, which promises several functional possibilities. Java is very easy to upgrade or add features to because it's modular. Plus, Java is "very cross platform, because it isn't running natively on a machine. It gives you the option of running on a Mac, PC, or other computer system," says Hauser.
Development process
By April/May 1999, Lands' End began working with WebLine on upgrading Landsend.com. WebLine technical staff had "a very go-getter attitude. [They were] willing to make the project work for us," says Hauser.
During the development phase, Lands' End had eight people on its Internet team. Five were from Lands' End, and WebLine supplied one primary resource and two part-time team members. Within six months of Lands' End's use of the WebLine product, in November 1999, WebLine was acquired by Cisco Systems. Despite the merger, the newly blended enterprise was readily available to service Lands' End's needs.
"There was no impact for us, and the same people are still assigned to our account," says Hauser, noting that Lands' End continues to pay for ongoing technical support, "at least for the initial couple of years" to ensure they're still entitled to Cisco Customer Interaction Suite updates.
Implementation
According to Hauser, putting the original hardware and software in place "was not a massive undertaking. It wasn't particularly difficult to get installed and optimized." Nonetheless, the program needed a project leader, a database administrator, and a systems administrator. In addition, a couple of employees contributed programming resources part time.
During installation, there was little to no impact on service operations. The application complemented Lands' End's major infrastructure, allowing the company to continue business as usual. Lands' End CSRs already had "Internet access and it worked alongside our existing hardware and software," says Hauser.
Primary installation and configuration of the new system was handled by Cisco Systems. Hauser remembers that it was "surprisingly easy to implement. [Cisco] did very little customization work," suggesting that the technology, in and of itself, wasn't an issue.
The WebLine application suite was fully integrated with Lands' End's existing call center operations, incorporating its telephone switching and routing functions. Taking calls off the Internet, WebLine seamlessly connects customers with the next available operator.
"If we have twenty people who are currently answering, it makes sure that the next appropriate person gets the call," says Hauser. The application lets a CSR either send a chat message or obtain a home telephone number for a callback.
Since Lands' End didn't have to dedicate many resources in this area, they could concentrate on what they do best: customer service. The next step was training staff to use the application.
In-house deployment
"Our employees were pretty excited about this. They had been asking for this application for so long," says Hauser. When the time came to implement the new Web-based solution, Lands' End opted to deploy the solution in-house rather than contract with an outside service bureau. The reason: no one could express the same enthusiasm or know Lands' End's products as well as the company's own staff, says Hauser.
"The key to good customer service is training your folks as well as possible. Our employees first learn how each product works--this fabric, that zipper--then we put them on the phone to help customers," he says.
From the day they're hired, Lands' End employees receive seventy-to-eighty hours of intense product and computer training, with an additional 24 hours each year.
Outside service bureaus want to prove their worth to the customer. In some cases, they'll count call volume as representative of this value. In contrast, inside Lands' End, timing individual telephone calls isn't even an option.
"We're trying to keep people on as long as they have questions, so [this philosophy] fits in naturally with Lands' End Live," says Hauser. Whether a catalog or online buyer, "all [customers and] orders are treated the same way." Lands' End customers are accustomed to spending 30-to-40 minutes with one of the cataloger's sales reps.
Technical training
Now that the company had a new communication vehicle in place, they needed to quickly resolve technical training issues.
"It was such a new product. Cisco hadn't used it in this capacity before so they had to improvise," says Hauser. As a result, Cisco was closely involved in training from the beginning. Cisco created the training curriculum for Lands' End employees, which included one day of onsite training using the application with a customer.
Post-launch promotion
After launching the live help function in late September/early October 1999, the job of informing and educating the consumer began. Lands' End wanted to reach the same audience that buys through the mail order channel.
"Our catalog buyers and our Web buyers are the same," says Hauser. Twenty percent of Web site visitors are new, while 80 percent are established customers. "If we target those folks [repeat catalog customers], then they'll be the ones to use it [the live application] on the site," Hauser says.
In addition, Lands' End created a television campaign to attract prospective online visitors. New TV ads focused more on application than image, to demonstrate to consumers that the new Web features were easy to use.
Lands' End's marketing team also leveraged its print presence in catalogs to advertise the Web site upgrade. Web site visitors found Lands' End Live prominently positioned under the "What's New" section, complete with a detailed description of helpful features.
On the Web marketing side, the Lands' End Affiliate Network helps drive online traffic and sales, offering finder's fees plus a five percent sales commission to participating Web sites. Lands' End declined to comment on how many affiliates are members of its program.
Lands' End also targets major portals such as America Online and Yahoo!, ensuring that online shoppers can easily find the Web site.
"We're not heavy users of banner advertising. Banner ads establish the brand. We're already an established brand online," says Hauser.
Lands' End has successfully leveraged its brand identity to make sure its online channel doesn't pale in comparison to its offline, or mail order, reputation. The company rang up US$1.3 billion dollars in sales last fiscal year. Web sales accounted for US$138 million, equal to about 10.5 percent of overall company sales. From Feb 1, 1999 to Jan 30, 2000, Landsend.com had 38 million Web site visits--up from 15 million visits the previous fiscal year.
Continued development and promotion
Months after its initial launch, the company continues to promote Lands' End Live in its catalogs and at its Web site as a major part of its Help feature. Based on positive customer feedback, the company has no plans to back down on future development. For Lands' End, as with other successful business-to-consumer e-commerce companies, customer service is a key competitive differentiator. Lands' End plans to append its Web site with more features to meet online customers' needs and maintain their loyalty.
"We're going to keep adding more functionality, including sharing [more] applications with the customer while she's online," says Hauser. Today, Lands' End Live includes "pushing down pages and sharing forms, but you can't share an application like `Your Personal Model' on the Web site. We need Cisco to focus more on this and we'd love it yesterday," Hauser says.
Are live features an important element for your e-commerce Web site?
YES!
* Give customers the "human" touch
* Stand out from the crowd. Only one percent of e-tailers offer live customer support, according to market researcher Datamonitor
* Improve online loyalty and increase sales
But ...
* You can't meet customer needs with technology alone. Good customer service starts with people and processes
* Technology has been scarce and isn't cheap. Options, however, are increasing in instant messaging, call center, and chat technologies
* Some gaps remain, such as sharing full applications with users instead of just pages and forms
Lessons Learned from Lands' End
* The Internet is another sales channel--make it consistent with your existing sales channel experience.
* Make sure you have a strong customer service infrastructure already in place.
* Technology isn't a magic bullet, so train, train, train your employees on good customer service.
* Leverage your brand identity in traditional advertising and print media. Focus more on the practicality and ease-of-use of your online application, rather than image.
* Give your customers options for interacting with the company the way they want to when they want. Live features on your Web site help to humanize the online buying experience and make it comparable to the offline world.
* Don't forget order management and fulfillment--a common pain point for many e-tailers. Getting the right orders to the right customer at the right time is critical--and a key competitive differentiator.
* Help Web site visitors understand how to make the most of your Web site. Give them a detailed description of helpful features.
* Don't stop. Continue to review your site and survey customers to see what needs improvement. Add functionality based on customer needs, and promote new features on an ongoing basis.
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