CornerHardware.com goes on call to assist customers HAVING TROUBLE finding Dad the perfect power tool for his birthday? Kitchen sink backing up because you’re not sure how to replace your broken garbage disposal? Can’t sleep to the gentle dripping of the bathroom sink?
Relax. Now there’s a handyman in the house 24/7 at CornerHardware.com (www.cornerhard ware.com), a San Francisco-based home improvement site that has offered live customer support online since December.
CornerHardware’s customer service is outsourced to eSupportNow, which has 300 reps in its Boston call center and a growing number of reps in its new Oakland, CA, facility. The reps handle customer service for approximately 40 Web accounts, and an average of 16,000 transactions daily, including chat, VoIP, e-mail management, teleservices and application hosting.
VARIED TOOL KIT Training for eSupportNow reps varies based on the complexity of the account they’re handling. Depending on the level of skills required, some accounts have dedicated reps while others are handled by a variety of reps.
“The challenge for us is that they have to be able to work with the computer and be proficient on the Internet,” says Susan Macri, vice president of client services at eSupport Now. “It’s a different set of skills.”
For CornerHardware, the goal for eSupportNow’s reps was to transform site visitors into leads, sales and repeat customers by providing knowledgeable customer service, assisting with orders, and offering tips and advice on home-improvement projects. Since the program’s launch, CornerHardware’s 45 tele/ online reps dedicated solely to this account assisted more than 22,600 visitors over chat, phone and e-mail. This assistance included everything from tracking orders to helping customers choose the correct tool for a job by leading them to pages where they could view various products, to walking customers through fixing a toilet in an online chat session.
“In the CornerHardware program we have two different levels of reps,” says Macri. “Our generalists – trained in site navigation and procedural questions – and then resident experts for how-to and product questions. We were able to hire retired people with experience in various fields, contractors, builders, electricians or those who have attended technical schools. So as a part-time job they can not only help customers but also help train our associates.”
CornerHardware experts also conduct training programs with the reps, giving them a hands-on opportunity to become familiar with their products.
“If the reps don’t know an answer, they elevate the question to someone at eSupportNow who can answer it,” says Peter Hunt, co-founder, president and COO, CornerHardware. “And if that doesn’t satisfy the customer or they don’t know answer, they e-mail us and we go directly to the customer with an answer from one of our internal specialists.”
In the first three months of the program, the volume of customers requesting assistance using the site’s live Internet chat tool increased threefold, the volume via e-mail increased fivefold and the volume calling customer service increased fivefold.
TRACKING RESPONSES CornerHardware receives daily transcripts of all chat and e-mail customer service inquiries to help it gauge customers’ needs and benchmark quality. “We know who’s buying what and when, and what conversations people have been having using the telephone, e-mail and chat,” says Hunt.
That information also allows CornerHardware to monitor the handling of customer service problems and to get an idea of how the reps drive sales.
“We know when someone calls and the call center has actually pushed them to a page. We know that it drives sales and we can track that,” he says. “It is difficult to judge ROI on customer support. All we can really say is that our repeat business is doing very well which suggests that people like the overall customer experience.”
The site features how-to articles, buyers guides, tips, a tool advisor and message boards that aid customers in their projects and purchasing decisions. CornerHard-ware also offers services independent of eSupportNow to help customers local contractors, project advisors and service professionals for home improvement projects. “We give our customers a complete experience, which lets them attack the problem any way they want,” says Hunt. “We get tons of e-mail from customers telling us that they have never come across a company providing such wonderful customer service,” says Hunt.
BUILDING BONDS “Our concept is to be the home improvement customer service vehicle of choice,” he says, “and the way we satisfy that is by always giving the customer a human being to talk to if they want one. We’re just here to help.”
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