Customer Service — The QVC Way

By Erin Harris, associate editor

Since 1986, QVC has offered a mix of merchandise similar to that of a high-end department store. QVC reaches more than 98 million U.S. households and approximately 200 million cable and satellite homes worldwide. QVC is the world's leading video and e-commerce retailer broadcasting live 24 hours a day, 364 days a year. The multimedia retailer is number one in the home shopping space and continues to forge the future of retail through highly-tailored mobile, tablet, and interactive TV experiences. Although QVC is best known for its on-air programming, its online counterpart, QVC.com, which generated $2.2 billion in revenues in 2010, attracts more than 6 million unique visitors each month and has received numerous honors and awards, including an award for excellence in customer service at this year's NRF Convention & EXPO. Even as the success continues, QVC's core philosophy — to exceed customer expectations at every opportunity — has not changed. I recently had the pleasure of chatting with John Hunter, executive VP of customer fulfillment services at QVC, about how the multimedia retailer handles customer service in the age of the connected customer. Here's what he had to say.

What are some of the ways QVC excels in customer care?

Hunter: To create great customer service, you need to always give the customer more than they expect by providing that extra level of care. Then, when the customer is accustomed to that level of care, you should continue to surprise and delight them with new, added offerings.

We always try to raise the bar on the level of service that our customers come to expect, so it's a never ending cycle, because we then need to rise to the challenge of once again exceeding those expectations.

It touches every aspect of our business, but one example of that service commitment is how we leverage technology to ensure that the customer can always contact us in the way that's most convenient for them. When we first launched the business, we took phone orders. Then we launched a voice response unit (VRU), and found that the customer really likes using it because we are able to take an order in as little as 25 seconds, so it's an added convenience for our customers.

It's also about providing choices for how the customer wants to interact with and be served by you. We went against conventional thinking in customer service to provide the customer with two phone numbers; one number provides the customer with direct access to an agent. The second number goes to the VRU. Most platforms force the customer to use the VRU first, and then be transferred to an agent. This was done solely around the concept of giving the customer choices and trusting them to determine how they want to be served.

Now we have numerous points of access through e-commerce, mobile, and tablet apps, and we even serve our customers through text messages. We try to be everywhere our customer is to make their lives just a little bit easier.

Do your TV-presence and your e-commerce platform differ in any way with regard to customer care? If so, how?

Hunter: We've always focused on ensuring that we have our customers' trust — it's one of the pillars of the QVC brand.

QVC's first day of filming was on November 24th, 1986 — 25 years ago. Ten years later, in 1996, we launched our e-commerce platform. This was in the days when most people didn't even have a computer. We've always been customer centric when it comes to new technology. The important thing that we've always done with our approach to new offerings is to make our customer service number one — across all platforms.

When we launched the e-commerce site, most websites were selling or renting their customer lists and we always said we would never do that, and we never have. Keeping our customer trust, ensuring their privacy, and protecting the security of their information are our priorities — and they always will be.

We've maintained that same focus as we ventured into today's new platforms. As we continue to grow and when we launched QVC operations in Japan, Germany, U.K., and Italy, and as we launch new experiences for our customers in tablet, mobile, and social networking, we've continued to make customer service our commitment to our customers, anywhere and everywhere they may be.

What is your advice for retailers looking to improve their customer service efforts?

Hunter: The best way to improve your entire organization's service effort is to build a "customer keeping" culture in which service is a priority. This always starts with making your employees your number one priority. If you treat your employees great that will translate in how those employees feel about their job. In the long run, it's going to affect how they approach the customer.

QVC has always had that approach in managing our workforce. We created a culture where employees act as advocates for the customer. So in team meetings, you're likely to hear people saying, "We should be doing X for the customer," or, "Why aren't we doing Y for the customer?" Every employee at QVC — from the customer service representatives to the VPs — is focused on being an advocate and seeking the next great thing that will surprise and delight the customer.

The bottom line is that if you're looking to provide excellent customer service, it needs to be ingrained in the entire company; it needs to be a part of your organization's culture. It's not the function of one department — everyone in the organization needs to be a part of it.