Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it. Are you a consumer interested in receiving great customer service performance? If so check out these Hyken customer service performance suggestions.
Or an online retailer wants to present consumers the same?
Either way, Hyken says you will be interested in STELLAService. Have you ever heard of them? With STELLAService, metrics, and customer care, you will be well on your way.
STELLAService twitter profile does a great job of describing who they are and what they do:
STELLAService is dedicated to a world with better customer service – helping consumers find it, and helping retailers achieve it.
Background
STELLAService was founded in 2009 with the dual goal of helping online shoppers make more informed purchasing decisions, while also helping online retailers grow their businesses through customer service data and marketing services.
The company boasts many known e-retailers in its customer portfolio, including e-commerce companies like Diapers.com, Zappos.com, and 1-800-Flowers.com.
There’s a big trend toward price transparency on the internet, with one company matching another one’s price more easily than in the past because of information availability. Eventually, there will be complete ubiquity in product assortment and price among competitors.
Why buy it from one over the other? Service, except you, don’t have any benchmark for determining what company has better service than another.
And that’s where StellaService comes in.
StellaService’s website offers a public database of e-tailers its guerilla force has tested, offering its summary of the service experience, service contact information, and basic shipping information. It also lists retailers with the top customer service in some categories.
Hyken customer service performance … operations
The company aims to test every angle of an online retailer’s customer service, using roughly 300 different metrics on things like shipping time periods, speediness at answering customer questions, product knowledge, and much more.
STELLAService pays for all products it purchases and relies on its staff of trained customer experience analysts to thoroughly test the (thousands of) companies it evaluates.
It operates through a legion of two dozen mystery shoppers, to test online storefronts using StellaService’s methodology. This process includes doing things like sending e-mails in Spanish, and calling morning, noon, and night, to ask questions on the products, delivery methods, return processes, and beyond.
It relies on this consistent, ground-up approach to rate businesses, beyond the polls and user-submitted reviews that sites like BizRate use to grade online stores.
These mystery shoppers test out the customer service practices of online retailers big and small on a daily basis. These employees/shoppers perform tasks such as buying products, returning them, emailing and calling with questions to put together a comprehensive rating of customer service. Stress testing the marketplace.
Our seal of approval.
Hyken customer service performance … seal of approval
StellaService has developed a testing method and sells the data that testing produced. And, to touch back on that transparency theme, online stores that passed the customer service test could display a seal from StellaService—named for the Italian word for “star”—signifying they had been vetted by a third party and were considered tops in customer service.
The startup, based in NYC’s Flatiron district, set out to get 10 to 15 of top 150 retailers it evaluated to display the StellaService seal last year. The company also tested the impact of the mark had on consumers who visited the sites displaying them and found that the seal influenced buyer behavior.
That experience suggests the seals help build credibility in the eyes of the uninitiated, but also with folks who have even more fundamental reservations. There is a significant percentage of the population that is still not 100% comfortable with shopping online. By letting them know the customer service is strong, it’s an additive measure to put the customer at ease.
Hyken customer service performance … monthly service ratings
Each month, STELLAService sheds light on the service performance of online retailers within their respective retail categories.
The companies are measured across four service areas: phone, email, shipping, and returns. STELLAService monthly benchmarks are designed to provide consumers with guidance for smarter shopping and retailers an independent, reliable benchmark for measuring and improving their customer service.
STELLA Monthly Benchmarks includes companies covered by STELLAService with at least $100 million in revenue, as well as the five largest retailers in each of the 11 most popular customer categories:
Current coverage (May 2013) includes 100 of the largest online retailers in the US, as well as the five largest online retailers in each of the 11 retail categories above, according to the 2012 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
Retailers are measured and ranked in four specific service areas in the STELLA Monthly Benchmarks:
Phone support – includes 12 distinct metrics such as Speed of Answer, Product Knowledge, and Professionalism
Email support – includes 15 metrics such as Response Time, Grammar and Spelling and First Email Resolution
Shipping performance – includes seven metrics such as Delivery Time, Package Fit and Product Accuracy
Returns and refund performance – includes nine metrics such as Return Notification Time, Refund Processing Time and Email Communication
STELLA Monthly Benchmarks displays the top five performing online retailers in each service area for each of 11 retail categories. Rankings are calculated based on the objective performance measurements taken by STELLAService analysts.
Hyken customer service performance … business model
While there’s a host of ways StellaService could bring in cash—from affiliate marketing, selling the customer service data, and allowing highly rated businesses to use the seal in display advertising, the business model is still evolving. Selling the data to online retailers is the current mainstay. But the business model is expanding.
STELLAService updated its website last week, with added features for both shoppers and businesses. Consumers can submit great customer service experiences they’ve had online, and StellaService will display it on the company’s profile on its site.
Because the StellaService is focused on its consistent, objective, a methodology for testing sites, these reviews won’t influence StellaService ratings for a merchant, though.
Businesses that have scored high on the StellaService system can request code to update their websites with the seal. And those who haven’t been rated yet can nominate themselves to go through the rating process and attract the support of customers who want them to get tested. (There are roughly 70 companies on the wait list at this point.)
Hyken customer service performance … partnerships underway
Partnerships underway.
Hyken notes StellaService has also been inking partnerships with comparison-shopping sites, like TheFind.com.
The whole rationale for e-commerce today is that prices are converging. The only thing now that companies can use to differentiate is customer service.
And a recently announced deal with Google is sure to get more attention.
Under the agreement with Google, STELLAService ratings will appear in online shopping search results and ads alongside retailers that carry the product consumers are trying to track down.
This is the latest sign of increased focus on e-commerce and the importance of customer service. More shoppers are starting online shopping searches on Amazon.com, the world’s largest Internet retailer, putting pressure on Google to respond.
Customer engagement improvements are worth the effort.
So, why not give it a try as a consumer or an online retailer. If you do, please share a comment on your experience.
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Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of a small business. Find him on G+, Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.
