Bonobos customer support philosophy.
I just bought a new suit from Bonobos to replace a 10 year old suit that I dusted off only for weddings. I went to Nordstrom, Macy’s and Men’s Wearhouse. The customer service there was mediocre. They took my measurements and pushed me to find a suit because they were having a sale. I even tried finding suits online at Indochino or Albert Ming. What won my business with Bonobos started with a little chat popup that said “Want to talk to a Ninja?”.
Allowing Direct Contact
I found a suit that I liked, but I had no idea how it would fit me. I’m usually too lazy to email or call the company to ask for more details. Bonobos had the option of doing an instant chat with a customer service ninja. It was anchored on the bottom of every single page. Great! Now I can start asking away.
You can experiment with this on your site too. Giving your customers the option to contact you instantly will get you a ton more sales. Without it your site only caters to one type of customer — those who are ready to buy. What about those who aren’t sure yet? Don’t you want an opportunity to convince them? Try something like Olark or SnapEngage.
Give a Few Different Options
Bonobos doesn’t make any of their suits in ‘short’, but I was curious how well their ‘regulars’ fit. The ninja told me their suits were slim fitting. Now I had to make a decision on whether to buy it or not. He had a few tricks to persuade me to make the purchase.
He suggested that I could order the suit and see how it fits. They have 2-day shipping for free. Returns were also free. So I really had nothing to lose just to see if the suit would fit me.
Now I’m another step closer to making the purchase. The ninja proceeded to tell me that customers say the suits tailor well. This sounds like another great option.
I’m already pretty close to pulling the trigger, but the ninja continued to offer more options. Bonobos would even allow me to return the suit even after getting it tailored. I had no more reasons to not purchase.
Having a lot of options gives your customers a feeling of control. They know you’re willing to do anything it takes to make them happy.
Keep Pushing Customer Happiness
I thought the free returns with a tailored suit was already awesome. Bonobos didn’t stop there. They gave me 20% off of my purchase because I asked if there were any discount codes.
When the suit came it wasn’t slim fitting enough for me. I gave customer service a call. We agreed on a solution to try getting the suit tailored. They proactively sent out another pair of smaller pants to see how those fit. They didn’t want the original pants back yet. Bonobos also proactively gave me a $30 credit toward tailoring.
I brought the suit to a tailor and they got it to fit perfectly on me. The bill came out to be $89 and Bonobos credited me some more.
Now I had to return the original suit pants. The box they shipped it in already came with a return shipping label. I slapped the label on and dropped it off at a UPS location and it was done.
What do you do to continually make your customers happy? Why are you willing to invest the time and money into customer support?
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