Good customer service is also an important ingredient of Sears Canada's success. Their customer service puts them head and shoulders above the competition. What customer service tips does Sears provide that we can apply to our own small businesses?
1) Make it easy for your customers to buy your product or service.
You don't have to go to a Sears outlet to buy Sears' products (although you can if you want to). And although Sears is the King of the catalog retailers, you don't even have to flip through a catalog nowadays; you can shop online if you prefer. Couple that availability with the capability of 24 hour a day, any day of the week telephone shopping, and you've got unbeatable customer convenience.
2) Establish clear return and refund policies that provide customer satisfaction.
When you shop at Sears, you know that you can return what you’ve purchased with absolutely no questions asked for a full refund. Before they computerized their catalog system, if something you ordered wasn’t available, they would substitute an item of equal or superior quality – normally, superior. These two aspects of their customer service endeared them to many customers, and set them apart from the competition. (Now that their system is computerized, it’s even more convenient, because they tell you right when you order it if the item is in stock or not.)
3) Develop a dependable supply chain and/or delivery system.
The third aspect of Sears' customer service that puts them at the apex of Canadian retailers is Sears' delivery system. Because of their delivery infrastructure, they can deliver the goods customers order to almost anywhere in Canada within three days. Quite an accomplishment.
Currently, Sears is busily providing lessons for online retailer wanna-bes. What does Sears have that many other online retailers don’t have? Customer service. Unlike many e-commerce web sites trying to sell online, Sears spent a great deal of time (and money) putting together their backend before they went online.
True, Sears was ideally suited to become an online retailer because of the nature of their business. My point is that even if Sears didn’t already have such an intensive delivery infrastructure set up, they would have to set it up before they tried to be an online retailer, expecting to sell and deliver goods all over the country.
Too many e-commerce web sites treat delivery logistics as an afterthought; they seem to want to put the glossy catalog online and “see how it goes” before bothering to develop the backend. These are companies that offer customer dis-service instead of customer service!
Small businesses can pick up a lot of customer service tips from bigger businesses such as Sleep Country Canada and Sears. Put yourself in your customer's place. How easy is it for him or her to find out about and purchase your products or services? What policies do you have in place to deal with his or her problems in a way that will satisfy the customer? And how is your customer service "better" than the customer service provided by your competitors? Improving your customer service can also improve your business' bottom line.
