Seeing Customers Clearly
When did you first start using Kampyle for feedback management? When we launched EyeBuyDirect.com, an online destination for prescription eyeglasses, three years ago, we relied on Google Analytics. But we couldn’t track the behavior—and, more important, the wants—of individual customers. So seven months ago, as we worked to improve our customer interaction, we implemented a solution from Kampyle, an enterprise feedback management vendor, to get a true sense of our customers’ experiences on our Web site. We saw immediate value within 24 hours of implementation. We can learn things from our customers now that we’ve never been able to before.
What is EyeBuyDirect.com’s biggest challenge when it comes to collecting, analyzing, and acting upon customer feedback? Our business is dependent upon a high level of product personalization, and EyeBuyDirect.com is designed to provide that. When something gets in the way of that personal connection, we need to know about it immediately. We want our customers to share their experiences with us in a quick, easy manner that shows clear value to them.
How does Kampyle ease those burdens? The feedback mechanism is inviting to customers; the Kampyle ribbon is available on the bottom of every EyeBuyDirect.com page. A customer can click on an emoticon to describe her experience, choose from a series of pull-down menus related to her issue, or write a quick note if she chooses—and she’s done. Kampyle has increased our interaction with customers by 10 percent, and the feedback we’re getting is 100 percent actionable. We’ve discovered EyeBuyDirect.com customers are very keen on communicating with us if they have an easy way of doing that.
What’s the biggest customer insight you’ve gained? How have you applied that to business processes? We now know why customers make the choices they do when they visit EyeBuyDirect.com. Thirty percent of our business comes from merchandising, and feedback analytics reduce our margin of error in terms of choosing what items consumers want to purchase. We make the right frame-purchasing decisions in regard to sizes, products, and materials because we base those decisions on direct feedback from customers rather than on trial and error. Since Kampyle’s launch, the site’s conversion rate has increased by 30 percent.
Another benefit to EyeBuyDirect.com is the quick alert we have to bugs on the site. One or two or 20 customers might come across a bug, and now they can communicate directly with us on the specifics of the problem. Before Kampyle, we had to rely on expensive testing to find those problems. Kampyle enables us to route customer feedback directly to [the technology department] and address issues in a quarter or a fifth of the time needed before.
The biggest evolution with feedback management will be in our use of Kampyle to conduct customer surveys around key questions on EyeBuyDirect.com, including targeted surveys to understand how customers perceive and rank experience with product-related items.
In what ways does EyeBuyDirect.com empower its customers to reach out when they want and to give their feedback when and how they’d like? The EyeBuyDirect.com “Wall of Frame” is an open and unmonitored channel for customers to rate frame styles and trends and/or demand frames and styles that they’d like us to offer. Kampyle feedback forms take only two minutes of the customer’s time, but provide a wealth of valuable insight into the customer’s thoughts. The call for feedback enhances transparency, communication, and, most important, trust with customers. We get direct feedback, in an easily digestible and actionable format. Also, our site offers “100 percent satisfaction guaranteed.” If you’re not satisfied with your order—for any reason—you can simply return it for a full refund.
FIVE FAST FACTS
Implementation date? May 2009.
Who was involved in the decision process? Just me. I saw Kampyle’s presentation at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition and signed up on the spot—even paid for a year in advance. It made sense, we needed it, and it proved to be a very important channel for customer communication and feedback.
What’ve been your best ideas? The EyeTry [virtual “try-on” feature], the Wall of Frame, and the implementation of Kampyle.
Biggest challenge? Aggregating a large amount of customer feedback; synthesizing it so that clear, actionable items become obvious; and then implementing those items.
Advice for other companies? Feedback management is a must. Companies that don’t have it are blind to a tremendous amount of valuable and indispensable data. I have seen a few solutions, and Kampyle is by far the best.