Flying off the shelves

Anyone with a stake in good customer service – and, let’s face it, that’s all of us – can learn from I Want One Of Those. According to its charismatic co-founder Tim Booth, the internet retailer started life in 1999 “as a conversation in a pub between a bunch of mates and a cat”. It is now a nominee for the WOW Awards – the Oscars of customer service.

Tim, now brand and creative director, says that the company, which sells “stuff you don’t need… but you really, really want”, was born “in a blaze of optimism”. Originally run from a small bedroom with start-up capital of just £15,000, the company started trading in January 2000.

Today, I Want One Of Those Ltd (www.iwantoneofthose.com) is one of the UK’s leading multi-channel retailers, with 16 million page views a year. Having moved into mail order and business sales, last year it had a turnover of more than £10 million.

The entire business was built on the customer service differentiator. So what’s their secret?

Is good customer service something that just happens with the right team and offering, or do you have to focus on it from the beginning?
Right from the start, it’s got to be key to your thinking. It was actually one of the reasons we decided to start this company in the first place; we just couldn’t believe how badly most of the companies out there that were selling over the web were handling us as customers! Everyone was just aiming to sell and forgetting about their customer service. That’s not the way to build a business. We wanted to get as close to our customers as possible.

Did you have any role models?
There were one or two: Amazon, as an online retailer at that time, was amazing. Think about the terms of delivery they offered: up to that point, we were all used to the ‘28 days for delivery’ small print, and they turned around and got your order dispatched to you the next day. And in terms of actual interaction with customers, I was blown away by First Direct. They were a bank, but I was amazed at the quality of their customer service: they picked up their phones immediately. You felt special. I remember thinking, “Why can’t everyone be like that?”

But customer service is quite hard to pin down. How did you go about setting your own benchmarks?
A lot of it is just common sense: what experience would I like to have as a customer myself? If you know that, there’s no excuse not to provide that experience. Every company sets out with the best intentions, but when even new companies get bigger, there’s a switch. They start thinking about profit margins and start cutting into the areas that they think they can get away with – and customer service is often one of them. But you can’t get away with it for long without it affecting the way you get and retain customers. I’m determined not to get to that mindset, ever.

So what happens as IWOOT gets bigger and bigger?
Then it’s all about the team. Maria Constantinou, our customer services manager, is going up for the WOW Award. She not only does the core part of the job amazingly, she takes every customer’s experience very personally! She’s always there reminding the rest of us exactly what we need to keep focused on. That’s what you need as you grow.

There’s a saying that most unhappy customers never complain, they just walk away and never use you again. How do you monitor satisfaction – or dissatisfaction?
Closely! We solicit feedback at every stage and we get an incredible response. Having said that, most people will only get in touch when there’s something to get in touch about – that is, when things have gone extremely well, or badly. But we keep as close to them as we can: we send out two million catalogues a year, and I send a letter with each one and put my personal email address on the bottom. I get a lot of emails – not two million, but a fair picture. We follow every order and dispatch with an email keeping the customer in the loop, and ask them how that stage of things has gone. And then, of course, we ask for personal feedback on every completed transaction.

And what about staff? How do you make sure they buy into all of this?
Of course we have benchmarks – we monitor very closely the number of calls taken, time to answer, dropped, successes, callbacks and so on – and that’s in all areas. But it’s also about a spirit, and that’s why it’s got to come from us. Customer service isn’t something that just follows from having good products and fulfilling orders quickly. It’s something you have to work at!

Service stars

First Direct
HSBC’s telephone banking arm inspired Tim Booth and set a new bar for in-house call centre management with its commitment to personalised, committed customer service by phone.

Amazon.com
The original ‘instant’ internet retailer. Its rating system, revolutionary at the time, is now an established format.

Singapore Airlines
The first to introduce in-flight meals when you want them (rather than when the cabin staff are ready to bring them round), Singapore Airlines has pointed to its focus on customer service in every single ad campaign it’s run since the 1970s.

One way insurers can set themselves apart from the competition – and help brokers win business – is by going above and beyond the call of duty. Hiscox Approved Services, which gives clients access to a range of carefully selected product and service providers throughout the UK, is one such offering.

The services range from locksmiths to fire alarm fitters to forensic coding suppliers – even keyholders who will visit the clients’ home while they are away. All companies have been vetted by Hiscox to make sure that they are trustworthy and, what’s more, policyholders benefit from a special discount.

Neil Guild, head of Risk Surveying and Valuation at Hiscox, explains: “This is an excellent value-added tool for clients as they know that the suppliers are reliable. Brokers should certainly advertise this service to help them win business.”

To find out more about Hiscox Approved Services, visit www.hiscox.com/services or call 0870 008 4715/6

< previous | next >