Customer Service: “You had me at ‘Hi there.’”

Ever since my first job at 12 (paperboy), I have spent the past 28 years in some form of customer service. Building off the fundamental truths I learned back in the day (“Don’t let the product get wet.”), I have developed a keen nose (and healthy skepticism) for customer service.

So, imagine my surprise when all it took was one email to please me as a customer.

For Christmas, I decided to get my dad a shaving kit from Harry’s and see if he would like it. I think the shave club is a cool idea.

With a clean website (www.harrys.com/) and an easy to use UI, the process of shopping was pretty painless. After purchase, I got updates on my package as it went through shipment. It also arrived when they said it would. All around, a good eCommerce experience and the product hadn’t even been tried yet.

Then I got an email a week later.

The Email

“Hi there,

My name is Katie and I’m a member of the Harry’s team. I just wanted to reach out and say thanks so much for supporting Harry’s.”

With it’s ‘handwritten’ feel and no annoying email template faux pas (“Hi RAYMOND ,”), there was something about the email that made me want to read on.

“You are important to us and I am here to personally help you however I can. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any thoughts or questions about our products (or shaving or life in general.)”

I liked the personal touch and the humor. Most of this paragraph is run-of-the-mill customer service language but it still has a personal feel.

“Also, if you ever want more blades or other shaving supplies, I’d be more than happy to take care of that for you. You can just email me back or call me at (888) 212-6855 and I’ll place your order for you. And, of course, you can also always order more on harrys.com.”

That Harry’s wanted me to reorder supplies by either calling or emailing them took me by surprise. Though they offer their website, it’s clearly not the way they want repeat customers to interact with them. They have created another process for customers to reorder. No logging in, having to pick a product, go to the shopping cart, and go through the checkout process. Just send an email and it’s done.

Customer Service

This is concierge-level eCommerce (or, at the least, the appearance of).

And I feel like it’s something that’s been missing from eCommerce. We can go to a Brick and Mortar store and get that high-level personalized service, but ordering online often has a clinical feel to it.

Show that you give a crap

Regardless of whether Harry’s actually cares about their customers (I like to think they do), they give the impression that they do: they created a reorder process that’s even easier than the order process. Although we could argue as to whether Katie is a live human being (I haven’t needed to call yet) or if she personally wrote the email, Harry’s delivery is personal. And it feels like good customer service.

Your email is marketing.

Though this seems like a no-brainer, I can’t begin to tell you how many emails that I get from companies that are pretty lifeless. Your brand is every point the customer interacts with you: from a website, logistics, product, and all communications. Those communications have to give the impression that there’s actually a human being at the other end and that this is the start of a wonderful partnership. Like Katie said: “I just wanted to reach out and say thanks so much for supporting Harry’s.”

Katie from Harry’s had me at “Hi there,” but she sealed the deal with “thanks so much for supporting Harry’s.”

FYI: I do no work for Harry’s (so I’m not trying to promote them) nor did they know I was writing this post. Instead, I help companies write web content that does just this.

Let’s talk.