Lightburn has won the 2009 Communicator Award of Excellence for the best website in the Consumer Electronics competition for their work on Flanners.com.
Lightburn was selected by Flanner’s in 2008 to redesign their website in an effort to continue their focus on customer service. The new site features a completely web-based content management system (CMS) developed by Lightburn to allow Flanner’s to control all aspects of their website including an always up-to-date product catalog.
The winning submission can be viewed at flanners.com.
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I’ve had a lot of clients ask me lately about Twitter. What is it and why would I want to use it? Well, I think David Spark’s recent blog post “Sixteen Great Twitter Moments” explains it pretty well.
Also, you can follow the Lightburn on twitter at twitter.com/lightburn
Milwaukee’s iconic Kopp’s Frozen Custard has selected Lightburn to design and build their new web site. The new site will feature an innovate Flavor of the Day calendar and allow customers to sign-up for email alerts so they never miss their favorites again. We’ll also be building a dedicated mobile version targeted at iPhone users.
In addition, the new Kopp’s website will feature a custom designed online ordering system allowing fans from across the country to purchase Kopp’s custard for home delivery. Recently featured as one of Oprah’s Favorite Things – Kopp’s has experienced tremendous demand from customers from across the country.
The new Kopp’s website will launch in time for the 2008 Holiday season. What’s your flavor?
Recently I received an email from one of my favorite companies, Netflix. Here is what the email said:
I didn’t even know there was a problem! I hadn’t noticed that my recent batch of DVDs was late, but knowing that Netflix was taking care of it put me at ease before I even became upset.
Our current proof-of-concept site, Cooper Safety Supply, is going to take a page from the Netflix playbook. Occasionally, Cooper runs into issues with items being out of stock. This is a problem because it causes orders not to ship on time. In the past, we would wait for an angry customer to call wondering where their order is. Now, we are going to begin sending them emails (similar to this one) letting them know that there is a problem and we’re working on it.
It is far easier to keep a customer happy when they are never upset to begin with. What a great idea.
I’ve been buying stuff online just about as far back as I can remember. Mostly from well known retailers such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Office Depot. Recently though, I’ve been buying more and more from lesser known online retailers. I’ve also started to notice that many of them are using the UPS Quantum View notification emails to communicate back to me the tracking numbers. This is great, I place my orders, I get my tracking number and I’m a happy customer.
The thing that has been bothering me though is that these retailers are missing a great opportunity to get their brands, their products and their offers in front of me one more time. Think about it, how likely are you to open an email from a merchant when it contains the tracking number for an order that you’re eagerly awaiting? If you’re like me (and I think most people are) the odds are somewhere in the neighborhood of let’s say 95% to 100% of the time.
Now how many other emails can you say have that kind of open rate? Order confirmation emails? Nope… Not even close. Based on our research the open rate for an order confirmation email is in the range of 30-50%. Not bad, but it’s not 100%. Why is this? Think about it, you add items to your cart, you see an on screen confirmation of quantity and price and then you buy. Moments later you get the confirmation email, but as we’ve found many people simply file these emails away without even opening them. They already know what they’ve ordered.
So if you’re one of those retailers, why not ditch the UPS Quantum View email and replace it with your own branded and personalized shipment notification email? Use this unique opportunity where you have your customer’s undivided attention not only to provide the tracking information, but to get your brand and future offers in front of them.
We’ve taken this exact approach with our Cooper Safety website, and send all our customers a coupon towards a future purchase. We even use this email to promote new product lines from time to time and I can say that we’ve enjoyed a very healthy return on our efforts.
Give it a try. I think that you will be pleasantly surprised by the results. However, be careful not to over do it! After all, the customer still wants their tracking information.
© 2012
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