A little bit about our customer service
Hi guys!
We are Getwear . Here you can create your own jeans according to your own design and measurement, and then order them with home delivery, show your friends and put your design on sale on the site.
Buying clothes online is simple, but a little risky, especially if you are not sure whether it will suit you or not. Therefore, we have gained some experience working with “uncertain users”, which we will be happy to share with you.
Our customer service stands on three pillars: a free exchange, a willingness to apologize, and translation of communication into email.
We exchange jeans for free to users if they don’t suit or don't like them. In our opinion, this is normal practice in areas in which the buyer may be subjectively dissatisfied with his purchase (that is, in almost all).
A customer dissatisfied with a purchase will never return and will not buy yet. Therefore, refusing to change his jeans for $ 100, we lose hundreds, thousands of dollars that he will never pay us in the future.
This approach is very well described in Karl Sewell’s book “Clients for Life” (by the way, we highly recommend this is one of the best books about client service):
Of course, we are not an elite clothing store, but we felt the positive effect of the returning client.
Often, people who write disgruntled letters with foam at their mouths and wanting to throw unwanted jeans directly over to Getwear's employee instantly calm down when they hear that jeans can be easily changed. We have clients who have promised never to have business with us again, however, upon learning of the possibility of exchange, they left jeans to themselves and bought again.
You must also understand that a satisfied client will tell a dozen of his friends about us, and a dissatisfied one will not be too lazy to glorify several hundred of his social contacts.
Practice shows that no more than 5% of customers decide to exchange jeans. This is quite a lifting figure for us. Moreover, recently we even decided to introduce a long-term guarantee.
By the way, an important thing - we do not give new jeans, but change them. This means that non-liked jeans must be sent to our St. Petersburg office (you can by Russian Post), and send us photos of the receipt of payment. This is a small precaution against the possible desire to receive second jeans as a gift.
We try to apologize to our customers more often, even if we feel it is wrong.
Most people rarely order custom clothes, and do not always trust the usual online stores. In his actions there is a certain echo of uncomfortability, fear - and all this is exclusively our area of responsibility.
If the client was mistaken, did not understand or did not - it means that we did not double-check, did not explain or did not tell why this was necessary.
Despite the fairly streamlined process “Order → Production → Delivery”, sometimes overlays occur. For example, due to rechecking by quality control, jeans were sent by courier not on March 10, but on March 12.
Two days is a significant difference and it is only our fault. Therefore, we do not hesitate to apologize, even if the jeans were sewn faster than the target date.
How can you be proud if you make mistakes yourself?
It’s great to back up an apology with something tangible. For example, we use the practice of partial refund in case of delayed jeans. Once, due to the total load of production, the production dates for several pairs fell short. Then, in compensation, we had to return the full cost of the jeans and send the jeans themselves for free.
We have corporate accounts in all popular social networks, we are happy to communicate with customers in them, but we transfer all communication on the case exclusively to e-mail. Why?
The main reason is that for the customer service we use a ticket system that is tied to CRM. So we see all the details of the order, the history of communication with users. All this on social networks is not.
In addition, the style of communication on social networks and email is very different, how do communication on the street and in the office differ. In social networks, it takes a long time to figure out what the problem is, and all correspondence by mail becomes clear.
Another important aspect is the personal account and other personal items we have attached to email. Therefore, a letter from the correct address and with the correct order number immediately convinces us that the client introduced himself correctly.
By the way, we do not consider the phone as a means of communication with customers - it is long and ineffective.
This is how our customer service organization system looks like in brief. Next time we’ll talk about the ticket system and its binding to CRM.
We welcome your advice, comments and suggestions.
We are Getwear . Here you can create your own jeans according to your own design and measurement, and then order them with home delivery, show your friends and put your design on sale on the site.
Buying clothes online is simple, but a little risky, especially if you are not sure whether it will suit you or not. Therefore, we have gained some experience working with “uncertain users”, which we will be happy to share with you.
Our customer service stands on three pillars: a free exchange, a willingness to apologize, and translation of communication into email.
Free exchange
We exchange jeans for free to users if they don’t suit or don't like them. In our opinion, this is normal practice in areas in which the buyer may be subjectively dissatisfied with his purchase (that is, in almost all).
A customer dissatisfied with a purchase will never return and will not buy yet. Therefore, refusing to change his jeans for $ 100, we lose hundreds, thousands of dollars that he will never pay us in the future.
This approach is very well described in Karl Sewell’s book “Clients for Life” (by the way, we highly recommend this is one of the best books about client service):
The seller of an elite clothing store tells the story of what happened to him in the early days of his work in the store. One lady bought a ball gown decorated with handmade lace. She took him home, put it on once, and, according to Stanley, “brought him in such a state as if she had fought in him, and asked to return her money.”
Stanley returned the money to her - with a smile, reasoning that replacing a client would be much more expensive than a dress for 175 dollars (this was in 1932). He was right. “For many years,” Stanley writes, “this woman spent $ 500,000 with us.”
Of course, we are not an elite clothing store, but we felt the positive effect of the returning client.
Often, people who write disgruntled letters with foam at their mouths and wanting to throw unwanted jeans directly over to Getwear's employee instantly calm down when they hear that jeans can be easily changed. We have clients who have promised never to have business with us again, however, upon learning of the possibility of exchange, they left jeans to themselves and bought again.
You must also understand that a satisfied client will tell a dozen of his friends about us, and a dissatisfied one will not be too lazy to glorify several hundred of his social contacts.
Practice shows that no more than 5% of customers decide to exchange jeans. This is quite a lifting figure for us. Moreover, recently we even decided to introduce a long-term guarantee.
By the way, an important thing - we do not give new jeans, but change them. This means that non-liked jeans must be sent to our St. Petersburg office (you can by Russian Post), and send us photos of the receipt of payment. This is a small precaution against the possible desire to receive second jeans as a gift.
Willingness to apologize
We try to apologize to our customers more often, even if we feel it is wrong.
Most people rarely order custom clothes, and do not always trust the usual online stores. In his actions there is a certain echo of uncomfortability, fear - and all this is exclusively our area of responsibility.
If the client was mistaken, did not understand or did not - it means that we did not double-check, did not explain or did not tell why this was necessary.
Despite the fairly streamlined process “Order → Production → Delivery”, sometimes overlays occur. For example, due to rechecking by quality control, jeans were sent by courier not on March 10, but on March 12.
Two days is a significant difference and it is only our fault. Therefore, we do not hesitate to apologize, even if the jeans were sewn faster than the target date.
How can you be proud if you make mistakes yourself?
It’s great to back up an apology with something tangible. For example, we use the practice of partial refund in case of delayed jeans. Once, due to the total load of production, the production dates for several pairs fell short. Then, in compensation, we had to return the full cost of the jeans and send the jeans themselves for free.
Email Conversation
We have corporate accounts in all popular social networks, we are happy to communicate with customers in them, but we transfer all communication on the case exclusively to e-mail. Why?
The main reason is that for the customer service we use a ticket system that is tied to CRM. So we see all the details of the order, the history of communication with users. All this on social networks is not.
In addition, the style of communication on social networks and email is very different, how do communication on the street and in the office differ. In social networks, it takes a long time to figure out what the problem is, and all correspondence by mail becomes clear.
Another important aspect is the personal account and other personal items we have attached to email. Therefore, a letter from the correct address and with the correct order number immediately convinces us that the client introduced himself correctly.
By the way, we do not consider the phone as a means of communication with customers - it is long and ineffective.
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This is how our customer service organization system looks like in brief. Next time we’ll talk about the ticket system and its binding to CRM.
We welcome your advice, comments and suggestions.