Goggles4U gives us a special way to contact them
1 comments Posted by Ira at Thursday, January 22, 2009
Steve at Goggles4U popped in to the forums this afternoon to offer help to a customer in need -- and left a great (insider) way for all of us GlassyEyes users to get in touch with their customer service.
There have been hundreds (thousands?) of satisfied customers with Goggles4U through the GlassyEyes site in the past 2-plus years and when someone from the GlassyEyes flock has trouble things usually get worked out.
If you're having a problem with an order, get in touch with them at following, easy to remember address:
If that doesn't work, drop me a line.
Thanks Steve!
I'd like to see more of this kind of thing.
Time to Grow Up Eyeglasses Retailers! Here is your Technical Roadmap for 2009.
1 comments Posted by Ira at Monday, November 10, 2008
Ever since I left the comfort of the steady paycheck to forge my way trying to build a company with an old friend, I started giving blood regularly. Every eight weeks I head to the Red Cross Blood Donation Center in Bloomington, Minnesota and open up a vein. I've learned a lot in the process about humanity -- and even more about effective tracking processes.
Each and every one of the people running these online eyeglasses establishments ought to go give blood -- today, like put down whatever you're doing and dial 411 for the nearest location. I think they might notice a few ways to make a big difference in their businesses. The Red Cross Blood Donation Centers are a people-heavy workplace, but the procedures that they've implemented protect against a few of the things that all businesses must address with their people:
- Complacency
- Staff turnover
- Bad press
- Customer dissatisfaction
- Legal "difficulty"
You retailers are delivering a solid product at a good price, but you can do more to make the process accessible to the millions yet to punch up your URLs. There are mixed reviews for all of you. I, like the vast majority of people, have had great success and will never go back to the mall, but I've never once felt like I knew when my new glasses would arrive.
I've been asking for retailer reviews since the site started in November, 2006 and one of the pervasive themes is that there is little by way of notification of the status of orders. Often, even a call to customer service will yield at best, little more than frustration and a sense that no one seems to give a damn, and at worst hostility.
One of the things that the internet affords us is efficiency through the use of software. It's possible that all but the most incredible need for customer service can be handled in an automated fashion. After some of the calls I (and others) have had to endure, it'd be a better alternative to the current condition.
- Send an order confirmation with expected timeframes, contact information, prescription verification and billing information
- Define the production stages and log events when the glasses enter and exit each of these stages
- Create a way for your customers to get status of their orders online -- whenever they want it
- Email the customer upon shipment of the order -- again with contact information
There are two schools of thought on how important customer service is to the fledgling online eyeglasses industry. Some people in the forums are adamant that expecting any customer service on products with prices such as these is wrongheaded.
Kmart rode the "sell cheap, screw 'em if they complain" strategy right into Chapter 11. They've emerged as an even more depressing shadow of their massively depressing prior self.
I'm a firm believer that customer service isn't optional -- for any business.
You can look at it two ways, economically speaking; it's expensive, and it's an investment. If you're selling a selling a a truly custom product like prescription eyeglasses, your direct customer service costs are going to be higher than the costs associated with selling a "one-size-fits-all" widget.
What do I expect?
I expect the following:
- The order process should be simple - Reduce the number of steps necessary. Don't try to upsell me on an eyeglasses case. There is no way that enough people bite on this to muddy every one of the orders. If you've got 5 steps, make it 3. If you've got 10, you're in the wrong business (and drop me a line for some consulting).
- Clean up the spelling and grammar - I know you sell good products. I've gotten quality from all of you, but the literate guy who is discovering all of this tonight for the first time is going to be concerned about your professionalism. This isn't rocket surgery. At the very least, dump your content into Word and look for squiggly lines -- it's a great first step.
- The payment process should be secure - Show me how secure it is. I want to know that the information I'm giving you isn't being stored improperly.
- Email! - One upon order, with details, a printable receipt, and a link to view the status of my order. Another one upon shipping with my shipping information. Provide a tracking number.
- Modern, effective contact options - You may think that this "Liveperson" stuff is state of the art. Two words for you, "it sucks." It's never "online" when you need it to be and frankly there is no benefit of this over timely email responses or a quick phone call. I've tried to leave a message on three different sites and gotten a response only once. Note: A "Fax" is not an acceptable primary contact method.
If you're a boutique selling a few pairs of high-priced eyeglasses a day, you can get by with a competent human to provide customer service. I don't cover places such as this.
If you're selling 50 pairs of glasses a day, much less 10,000 pairs a month, you better have some systems in place or you're going to drown. These systems are mandatory (and should be as automated as possible):
- systems to facilitate a higher percentage of error-free orders (simplify!)
- systems to notify customers of status changes
- systems to notify shipping information
- systems to facilitate repairs, replacements and refunds
If I have to call or email customer service to find out this information, and particularly if these are the only options, you're going to lose money on me (here's where it gets interesting), but only for that order. If I get kick-ass, accurate and timely customer service, I'm likely to purchase again. I'm also likely to tell everyone who will listen what a wonderful experience I had with you.
But what if I NEED to call?
Give me the option -- even if it's not toll-free. Post a number, tell me what languages I can use and if it's important enough to me, or your email system fails (as is the
I've gotten much email on phone conversations had with customer service people at the retailers listed over the left. It seems that nearly every site (with a phone number) has at least one decent customer service person and at least one closer to horrible. Do yourself a favor, fire the bad ones. This afternoon, if possible. They're customer poison.
Wake up out there. Time to start thinking about the big picture.
If you can't see it, you might want to get your prescription checked.
I got a call from what appears to be Pakistan this afternoon. I'm honestly not sure how they got my phone number, but I'm glad they did. I've been attending to family business in Fargo for nearly a week and have been trying to get things worked out over the now nearly ubiquitous WiFi connections in the hotel, hospital and coffee shops.
Goggles4U has been a solid choice, and one of the first places I've tried since I was thrust into all of this. I've been concerned over the past few weeks at what seemed to be a dramatic drop of the ball when it came to dealing with customer problems.
One thing I've seen from G4U is that they always seem to either solve the problem or refund the customer's money when there is a problem, and that hadn't necessarily changed. It was just taking much, much longer to get a response (if one could be gotten at all).
I had a couple of people ask for my assistance and I was finally able to punch an email through to them. The customers seem now to have been contacted and hopefully this "clog" has been cleared for good. The person I spoke with talked of spam filters acting up and replacing the system they were using (it was supposedly even blocking some of the email from their own "contact us" form).
Regardless, things appear to be getting back to normal.
They assure me that all attempts at contact using the form on their site will be answered within a day or two. Please let me know if that is not the case in the coming weeks.
It appears that a few of the retailers that were having such issues a month ago have gotten their collective acts together. The number of problems posted in the forums, has dropped significantly in the past few weeks. I've sent a number of emails with a concerned tone to them and have gotten replies that lead me to believe that they are at least trying to improve.
I'm thrilled with that -- and hope the trend continues.
I read somewhere (and really wish I could find it again) that people are something like 10 times more likely to complain about a product in a public forum than praise it -- which makes you wonder about Amazon ratings.
---
NOTE: I'm working on a few things to help you out. One will be made known to the forum users in the next few days and the other will have to do with service level/customer satisfaction trends.
Keep your eyes open!
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