Bathrooms.com uses a mixture of free and paid-for services
Suzie Larcombe speaks to bathroom design company owner Ian Monk of Bathrooms.com to find out how they monitor what customers are saying about them.
In this article you’ll find out:
- Why the business monitors what customers are saying about them
- How they do it and
- The value their strategy has added to their business
Bathrooms.com was founded in 2004 By Ian Monk and his wife to provide the UK and Ireland with affordable, accessible bathroom design. A core part of Bathrooms.com is the belief in nurturing long term relationships with designers and craftsmen to provide customers with good design at prices that will help them create more than they ever thought possible. The Bathrooms.com team are on a mission to democratise good bathroom design.
Why do you monitor what customers are saying about you?
We have always had a strong business strategy around customer service and we have invested heavily in our Customer Service team. Most recently the team has undertaken social media training and the results have been amazing with our NPS score doubling in the past 4 months.
We know that our customers’ satisfaction is key to what we do. We want to know how our customers feel, so that we can work out any potential issues. Bathroom furniture is a very personal product to buy, and often a big investment on the side of the customer. We want to make sure we are providing the best designs that they will love for years to come. Being able to do this at prices our customers can afford and all delivering great service is key.
When did you start?
We have always monitored what customers have said about Bathrooms.com and used traditional measurements like NPS score, and customer feedback. In the last year we have opened up social profiles to allow for a more casual and instant communication channel.
How do you keep up to date?
As our consumers buying behaviour evolves and develops, so has our approach to communications with them. We make sure we are listening to our customer’s needs and preferences and filtering that back in to the way we run the business. We ask all customers to submit feedback on our products. We also gather insights from external review sites like eKomi.
As an online retailer, social media is an effective way of listening to what customers are saying about us, but more importantly being able to respond and have two- way communications.
We have our own team of experts in social media, customer service and digital marketing to ensure that we are reaching people where they are already gathering but also targeting new groups of people with interesting things. I feel many businesses fall down by just responding direct to the customer who has provided feedback.
What we try and do is look at all the things our customers are telling us and use this to inform how we grow and structure the business. We also don’t just want to sell to people, we want to create a place where people can come and get ideas on bathrooms trends and style, which is why we launched the bathroom inspiration blog.
What software do you use?
We use a range of software across the business from Zendesk for customer service to eKomi and NPS for feedback using questionnaires developed in house. With social we use SproutSocial for monitoring and reporting, but we also do a lot directly on our social pages.
How much do you spend (time and money)?
I personally spend at least ½ a day a week reviewing customer service and feedback. We then have a dedicated Customer Service manager that lives and breathes this stuff. He wakes up thinking about our NPS score and goes to bed doing the same!
What are some of the things you’ve found out?
When the social channels were initially opened up there was an influx of customer comments. Social media is a very accessible and instant way for consumers to interact with a brand and so drives customer feedback.
By implementing a holistic approach to customer service management that involves a combination of social media, training for customer service staff and a dedicated manager for this area of the business; we have been able to combat any negative feedback.
What has added most value to your strategy?
Focusing on NPS score and getting the entire Operations and Customer Service team focused on one KPI which is (a) easy for them to understand and measure and (b) has acceptance within the industry that it is a good measure of customer satisfaction.
Please describe two or three different buzz situations: good and bad.
In June of this year, to celebrate the birth of the Royal baby, the designers at Bathroom.com launched a custom designed baby bath. We had one delivered to the Royal couple and sought expert advice from a midwife on baby bathing techniques. It was meant to be fun but also informative. Parent blogs, national publications and social media all fed into the conversation around what we were doing and that was great for the brand.
We also recently ran a competition on the Bathrooms.com Facebook page to win a ted baker bag. We knew that the Ted Baker brand would be favourable to a lot of our community, especially the female ones. With competitions you tend to see higher entry figures for smaller giveaways, as people feel more likely to win. We have seen this type of competition attract a lot of new likes and shares.
For more, visit www.bathrooms.com
Speak Your Mind