Retailers get real with high-touch service

In a session at the Internet Retailer Conference and Expo 2018 in Chicago (IRCE), Ryan Lane, founder of Dream Beard, gave some advice about creating a high-touch customer service experience online that steers clear of automation and social media marketing.   

Mr. Lane described moves the male grooming supplies company has taken since he and his wife founded it in 2012 geared to stress authenticity. The most recent, and perhaps riskiest, was to step away entirely from posting on the company's 200,000-follower Instagram account for a full six months in favor of developing a podcast. 

"Social media and social marketing had become nothing but noise to the customer and they were beginning to tune out altogether," said Mr. Lane. "They were just tired of it ... a great picture just isn't enough anymore."

Within two weeks the company was in the top 200 in iTunes and now have close to a half-million monthly listeners. 

"The only way you are truly going to captivate your audience now is to stop producing noise and start playing a song that cuts through it," Mr. Lane said.

[caption id="attachment_81447" align="alignleft" width="666"] Source: Dream Beard[/caption]

Since its inception, the company has prided itself on its "realness." Mr. Lane has sent more than a million handwritten notes alongside orders. He also places a premium on live chat customer service.

"If I have to pay someone $15 even $20 to sit there and have real human interactions with people, it's paid off time and time again," said Mr. Lane. "For us it's been a 90 percent conversion rate."

Mr. Lane was joined on stage by Kelli Durkin, VP of customer service at Chewy. Like Dream Beard, and counter to trends in automation, Chewy places great importance on the humanity of the customer service interaction.

Call center employees are empowered to take creative leaps to make the customer happy. For instance, a customer mentioning needing a pet sitter for their wedding was sent a congratulatory bouquet. And when a customer offhandedly mentioned having a broken keyboard, a customer service agent dusted one off from the office supply closet and sent it.