October 7, 2009 at 15:34Improving the service on the example of “Custom shirt”
It will be about the project “Shirt to order” . There was already an article about him on Habré .
The business itself, in fact, is offline, but its marketing and service components are based on the Internet. The project is actively developing, and I wanted to use it as an example to talk about the importance of continuous improvement and working to customer expectations. The article will have more of a marketing component than a technological component, but in my opinion, this is no less interesting.
When a customer came to us with such a “bold” idea, I reacted to it with skepticism. But we tried to do our job (website design and the interface of the shirt designer) as well as possible, after which the customer asked: "How do we promote our brainchild?" We got down to business and thus were fully involved in the project and were witnesses and participants in its development.
Initially, the idea of the authors of the project was this: we do the shirt designer on the main page - this is the main feature of our site. Users will play with it and then gradually move on to registration and ordering.
Subsequently, it turned out that such a service, saturated with various features, offers, and, in addition, unusual for a Russian user, cannot exist without a promotion page. It was decided to create this page. It was based on “tasty” photographs of products and an explanation of all the charms of the service. For example, the customer did not attach importance to Free delivery by Russian post. But in our opinion this is a decent help in increasing customer loyalty, so we put it in the first screen for the description of the service. An interesting and useful feature was “recently ordered shirts”. Together with reviews, they make the site live. We see that many people order shirts, we see what kind of shirts they are, this is credible. Also, we can put any of these shirts into the designer, slightly change (or not change) and order a similar one.
The last shirts ordered are not generated (which, in principle, could be implemented for the same purposes), these are real orders.
There is no point in telling more about the main page. The main conclusion is that a good promotional page significantly increases conversion.
As far as I can tell, this issue does not leave the mind of the creators for even a minute and this is the main driving force of the project.
The online studio service is completely new to Russia. And we are faced with the problem of customer distrust. And above all, it was necessary to fight fears. So, let's begin.
Fear: I don’t quite understand what kind of fabric it is, and suddenly it will not be what it is on the screen, not what I imagine.
Solution: A free catalog with fabric samples was created, which is sent at the request of the client (this delays the purchase time a bit, but as a result, we have guaranteed customer satisfaction with the selected fabric. Since he “felt” it even before the purchase, without paying anything)
Fear:The sizes of a shirt will not suit me, I may take them off incorrectly or they will sew in a wrong way.
Solution: A test shirt has been created. This is a shirt made of the cheapest fabric at the lowest possible price (390 rubles). You measure yourself, order this shirt, try it on yourself and make sure that everything is fine or adjust the dimensions in the profile a little. In my opinion, this is almost the most important feature.
Problem: I don’t quite understand how to work with the shirt designer himself.
Solution: A video instruction has been created (on the main page), which tells you step by step what and how to do it.
Concern: An order is sent only after 100% prepayment. What if they deceive me.
Decision:Here, in my opinion, only the image of the company works. Everything that is done by the company, how serious it looks, how responsibly it approaches all issues: to the site, to service, to customer consultations. This all adds up to a single picture and the user no longer has doubts.
Problem: I do not have a measuring tape at home. I can not take measurements.
Solution: On the site, you can print the tape on sheet A4, cut and glue it. It will not help those who do not have a printer, but we will cover some part of the audience.
From the first publications and discussions on the Internet, various wishes from users have been showered. Each of them is discussed and a decision is made on the appropriateness of its implementation. (For those who read 37Signals' Getting real ", this will seem commonplace, but for some reason not all projects are so jealous of the wishes of customers)
Conclusion: Clients themselves form a service for themselves. This is beneficial to everyone: customers get what they want, service - loyal customers.
I did not mention the changes that relate to the quality of products, since this is not entirely my competence. I think it is clear that without the quality of the service itself, all marketing and technical efforts would be in vain.
In conclusion, I will say that all these measures, as well as competent promotion and uniqueness of the service itself (for Russia) inevitably lead to an increase in its popularity. There is much to learn.
The business itself, in fact, is offline, but its marketing and service components are based on the Internet. The project is actively developing, and I wanted to use it as an example to talk about the importance of continuous improvement and working to customer expectations. The article will have more of a marketing component than a technological component, but in my opinion, this is no less interesting.
When a customer came to us with such a “bold” idea, I reacted to it with skepticism. But we tried to do our job (website design and the interface of the shirt designer) as well as possible, after which the customer asked: "How do we promote our brainchild?" We got down to business and thus were fully involved in the project and were witnesses and participants in its development.
Improving the project.
About the main page
Initially, the idea of the authors of the project was this: we do the shirt designer on the main page - this is the main feature of our site. Users will play with it and then gradually move on to registration and ordering.
Subsequently, it turned out that such a service, saturated with various features, offers, and, in addition, unusual for a Russian user, cannot exist without a promotion page. It was decided to create this page. It was based on “tasty” photographs of products and an explanation of all the charms of the service. For example, the customer did not attach importance to Free delivery by Russian post. But in our opinion this is a decent help in increasing customer loyalty, so we put it in the first screen for the description of the service. An interesting and useful feature was “recently ordered shirts”. Together with reviews, they make the site live. We see that many people order shirts, we see what kind of shirts they are, this is credible. Also, we can put any of these shirts into the designer, slightly change (or not change) and order a similar one.
The last shirts ordered are not generated (which, in principle, could be implemented for the same purposes), these are real orders.
There is no point in telling more about the main page. The main conclusion is that a good promotional page significantly increases conversion.
The main question is "How to make our service better?"
As far as I can tell, this issue does not leave the mind of the creators for even a minute and this is the main driving force of the project.
The online studio service is completely new to Russia. And we are faced with the problem of customer distrust. And above all, it was necessary to fight fears. So, let's begin.
Fear: I don’t quite understand what kind of fabric it is, and suddenly it will not be what it is on the screen, not what I imagine.
Solution: A free catalog with fabric samples was created, which is sent at the request of the client (this delays the purchase time a bit, but as a result, we have guaranteed customer satisfaction with the selected fabric. Since he “felt” it even before the purchase, without paying anything)
Fear:The sizes of a shirt will not suit me, I may take them off incorrectly or they will sew in a wrong way.
Solution: A test shirt has been created. This is a shirt made of the cheapest fabric at the lowest possible price (390 rubles). You measure yourself, order this shirt, try it on yourself and make sure that everything is fine or adjust the dimensions in the profile a little. In my opinion, this is almost the most important feature.
Problem: I don’t quite understand how to work with the shirt designer himself.
Solution: A video instruction has been created (on the main page), which tells you step by step what and how to do it.
Concern: An order is sent only after 100% prepayment. What if they deceive me.
Decision:Here, in my opinion, only the image of the company works. Everything that is done by the company, how serious it looks, how responsibly it approaches all issues: to the site, to service, to customer consultations. This all adds up to a single picture and the user no longer has doubts.
Problem: I do not have a measuring tape at home. I can not take measurements.
Solution: On the site, you can print the tape on sheet A4, cut and glue it. It will not help those who do not have a printer, but we will cover some part of the audience.
User satisfaction
From the first publications and discussions on the Internet, various wishes from users have been showered. Each of them is discussed and a decision is made on the appropriateness of its implementation. (For those who read 37Signals' Getting real ", this will seem commonplace, but for some reason not all projects are so jealous of the wishes of customers)
What was done at the request of customers:
- Payment by plastic cards
- Increase the assortment of fabrics
- Gift certificates
- Reviews (Here, too, an important fact should be noted - all comments are laid out, regardless of whether they are good or bad. This requires a certain amount of courage and, I am one hundred percent sure, positively affects the confidence in the service on the part of customers.)
What is planned to be implemented in the near future?
- Payment Yandex.Money, WebMoney, etc.
- Photo gallery of finished shirts
- Delivery to the CIS countries and abroad.
Conclusion: Clients themselves form a service for themselves. This is beneficial to everyone: customers get what they want, service - loyal customers.
Some unreported facts
- Change the name and logo
- The creators of the service have made an affiliate program for webmasters. She is already working and orders are coming for her. I also registered to try it, and if you were interested in reading this article, and you decide to order a shirt, you can follow my link (I, of course, do not really hope so :-)
- In the reviews you can find a couple of heart-breaking stories about how the service saved the custom sizes of grooms from the fate of appearing in front of the topless altar.
I did not mention the changes that relate to the quality of products, since this is not entirely my competence. I think it is clear that without the quality of the service itself, all marketing and technical efforts would be in vain.
In conclusion, I will say that all these measures, as well as competent promotion and uniqueness of the service itself (for Russia) inevitably lead to an increase in its popularity. There is much to learn.