Communications That Count

THE WAY A CATALOG REACTS TO CUSTOMERS CAN AFFECT ITS whole business. That said, it's a wonder more catalogers don't dedicate far more money to stellar communications. Some messages make consumers loyalists; others just turn people off.

Case in point: While collecting information for this column, the two once-independent catalogers I was researching — Lands' End and Home Decorators — responded to inquiries entirely differently. So much so, in fact, that my opinion of both books was strongly, and I expect lastingly, affected.

Here are my latest good-guy/bad-guy learning experiences.

LANDS' END (OWNED BY SEARS)

• What they did wrong

  Got excellent PR in one of the highest-circulation women's magazines. What could be wrong with that, you say? The customer service representative who answered Lands' End's 800 number had no idea what I was talking about when I tried to buy the slacks shown in that magazine.

• What they did right

  The rep immediately and politely transferred me to someone she subtly implied was higher up in the customer service chain. That person speedily and considerately found the item. Further, the original rep stayed on the line and, as soon as the item was located, smoothly offered to take my order. The result: Lands' End is on my list of must-read print catalogs and must-visit Web sites.

• How they could've avoided the problem

  It would've been ideal if the CSR had full knowledge at first contact of the item I inquired about. According to PR director Michele Casper, this is exactly what Lands' End strives for.

Through a process of daily product-placement notifications, Lands' End tries to keep track of every item it promotes in various publications. Clips are scanned into documents sent to customer service supervisors, who in turn can discuss variables such as size or color with each CSR. Casper explained that some reps don't work every day. So the person I spoke with might've just begun to catch up on everything new at her workstation. A reasonable assumption…and bottom line, the rep handled the matter in a way that was friendly, professional and netted an order.

• Unexpected happening

  In the course of my research on Lands' End I was directed to a real person who responded to inquiries quickly, resourcefully and thoroughly.

I walked away from the experience feeling that although Lands' End was now part of a much larger firm it was still the same personable company it always had been.

HOME DECORATORS (OWNED BY THE HOME DEPOT)

• What they did wrong

  After trying several times to be taken off Home Decorators' e-mail list through a supplied link, the messages just kept coming. This made follow-up e-mailing and phoning necessary — and a nightmare.

• What they appeared to do right

  After I e-mailed a complaint, a CSR replied with an apology and promised that my name would be taken off the e-mail list in a few days.

Weeks went by and it wasn't done. Calls to the customer service number listed in the print catalog resulted in a plethora of useless automated options.

After being kept on hold for almost eight minutes (and this during the slow season), I tried a different 800 number, one listed on Home Decorators' Web site. Same automated routine, except this time I stayed around for a truly annoying announcement that went something like this: “Sorry you've had to remain on hold. Due to the success of our recent catalog we've experienced increased sales volume.” Hmm, I thought, maybe I can help make sure you're never again busy enough to ignore my customer service calls.

Another eight minutes later I finally got through to a live rep who found that my address was still on the e-mail list. She swore she'd remove it. And after way too much time and effort, that really would be nice.

• How they could've avoided the problem

  The Direct Marketing Association offers online marketing tips (see www.the-dma.org/guidelines/onlineguidelines.shtml), which Home Decorators could have posted on its Web site. But obviously, it's one thing to make such information available and another to actually follow it.

There have been several billion words written about employing the right systems for e-mail marketing, but I wanted to cut through all that and get to the specifics.

I asked the mucho-experienced Ernie Schell, founder of catalog-systems consultancy Marketing Systems Analysis, what he thought Home Decorators' biggest problem was.

“Companies need to run their rented e-mail addresses against their own in-house don't-e-mail list before they send out any [messages]. Because response to e-mail is so small, many folks get a tad lazy about maintenance. In this case that could be more problematic because of possible input from a Home Depot list. [The cataloger might] opt instead for big mail volumes.”

I also talked with online retail guru Alan Rimm-Kaufman, president and chief technical officer of online marketing consultants The Rimm-Kaufman Group, who concurred with and elaborated on what Ernie said.

He made the following points:

1. Mailers don't purge e-mail rentals against their house never-e-mail list (or an update didn't get into the purge in time).

2. The customer is forwarding e-mails through different accounts and the CSRs flag the wrong message or can't locate the original e-mail to flag.

• Unexpected happening

  While I was having difficulty getting through to Home Decorators, I tried contacting The Home Depot for an explanation of why this problem seemed insurmountable.

My call to customer service seemed to wind up in India with a very polite CSR who efficiently supplied an Internet-division phone number that popped me into a no-way-out automated answering loop with entirely wrong options.

Seconds after hanging up, the phone rang again and the very same gentleman was on the line, offering what he felt was a better number. Happily, it was the one I'd asked for to begin with — public relations.

I phoned and left a message. Sadly, no one's ever bothered to call back.

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KATIE MULDOON (kmuldoon@muldoonandbaer.com) is president of DM/catalog consulting firm Muldoon & Baer Inc., Palm Beach Gardens, FL.