While I have several brands of workout clothes, I really like Danskin for working out – yoga pants and tops for jogging and spinning. They’re stylish, comfortable, wick/perform well . What more could a girl ask for? How about a great online shopping experience?
Things have improved dramatically, but several years ago, I shopped on the old site. There were always challenges, things like trying to buy the same items in multiple colors, for example. This would never work. Any time I added a second color of the same item, it would cancel the original color choice. I liked the clothes so much that I’d place an order online, then immediately call customer service to adjust it to what I wanted.
Whenever I called, I’d get the order adjusted, then I’d tell the customer service rep that the site just didn’t allow ordering properly. I’d ask the rep to share my feedback, so the site would be improved, and invariably, the response would be that she didn’t know how or to whom the feedback should be submitted. Since these ordering problems happened every time that I shopped, I’d observe that they must be getting lots of calls from frustrated customers, which was likely pretty burdensome on the call center. Why wasn’t there some internal feedback channel from service to site operations?
Eventually, I took the next step, researched the corporate feedback email address and shot off some feedback directly. I never did hear back or receive an acknowledgement. The site was significantly improved though, so the company was certainly addressing challenges proactively based on feedback from somewhere. A complete redesign of look and functionality is a big undertaking, so it’s great the investment occurred.
Lack of a clear feedback channel from customer service to website operations is an issue with every large online retail store I’ve ever shopped. I’ve wondered why there isn’t a direct way to provide input when a live conversation occurs – a suggestion box of sorts. Why not a standard offer of, “would you like to participate in a website improvement survey?” If I’m taking the time to give input, I must care about the business a little more than I do about others.
While the structured “give us feedback” approach isn’t one I’ve encountered with smaller online businesses either, I can say that there have been some truly noteworthy personalized communications I’ve appreciated, like the email exchange with the owner of the Diamond Peak ski shop in Eden, Utah, who offered to tune new skis for me because he couldn’t ship them out the very next day. Thumbs up!
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