The impact of a more authentic customer experience

The Impact of a More Authentic Customer Experience – How one brand combined the immediacy of real-time interactions with the power and passion of brand advocates.

One Brand’s Problem – With customers who have come to trust you to understand their needs for over a century, how do you keep that trust alive when so many interactions are happening on computer screens with the click of a mouse?

As Carhartt, known for its rugged, customer-geared work apparel, saw more customers going to their website to purchase products, they worried that live interaction was missing.

Since its founding in 1889, Carhartt has been committed to the mission of honoring the trades and craftspeople by respecting their hard-earned dollar.

Recently, e-commerce had become a big part of meeting those customers’ needs, including email and a toll-free number...

An Opportunity for Interaction – But one popular contact channel was still not an option on their site.“Live interaction was something we felt was missing from the site. We saw the benefits it could offer to both our sales and our customer service.”-Steve TiberioDirector of Customer Service

With real-time product answers for those browsing their site, live interaction could engage online shoppers and keep them willing to buy.

The Carhartt Advocate - Carhartt started looking at live chat vendors and eventually came upon Needle, an advocate-powered live chat platform.

“What grabbed my initial attention was the idea of the Carhartt advocate. What could be better than to have someone who could speak with passion about Carhartt, holding our products in as high esteem as we do?”

-Steve Tiberio

Director of Customer Service

In late summer of 2013, Carhartt decided to partner with Needle because:

-Real Carhartt advocates would be manning the live interactions

-They would have the flexibility to ramp the platform up and down as needed

-The platform’s impressive reporting capabilities would keep them abreast of the advocates’ performance

-It could all be up and running before their high-traffic fall season

Advocates Hold Their Own – Jumping in headfirst, the Needle team worked with the Carhartt to get implemented fast and meet their Labor Day deadline.

As promised, the Needle platform was up and staffed with advocates by the deadline.

Soon, Carhartt advocates found themselves online, answering questions, during a grueling, yet rewarding, busy season.

“Even during the incredible busy season we had, the advocates held their own.”

-Steve Tiberio

Director of Customer Service

Advocates Deliver – At the end of Needle’s first 90 days with Carhartt, the team reviewed the platform’s performance.

31% Average Order Value Lift

7x Conversion over Self-Service

65% Net New Revenue

+12% Conversion Rate

+9 CSAT Average

“Questions are getting answered in a timely fashion. That is driving the potential of the sale and customers coming back to make future purchases.”

- Thadd Tucker

Director of eCommerce

EXPANDING THE BENEFITS - Today, Carhartt sees further opportunities to expand the benefits of the Needle platform. Integrating more in-house customer service teams with the power of advocates and the platform is at the top of that list. Together, with Needle, they are confident they can continue to shorten their response times. More importantly, they can keep driving the customer satisfaction that is represented so well by the Carhartt brand.

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