L.L. Loyalty

L.L. Loyalty: "

"We treat customers like we'd want to be treated," says Terry Sutton, vp of customer satisfaction at L.L. Bean, in a BusinessWeek piece by Michael Arndt (3/1/10). For Bean, founded some 98 years ago, this has meant big changes, most of them digital. "Wherever they want to shop, we have to be there," says Terry. For openers, this means "a website that makes placing orders intuitive and package tracking simple." Bean has also "opened the site to customer ratings and reviews of its wares, even if they are negative."

The Bean site offers instant messaging and email with call center agents, and plans are to add a "click and call" button "that will prompt a help call within two minutes to any online shopper who wants more information." Even more impressively, Bean "switched to a new bank that agreed to split the cost of free return shipping to holders of the L.L. Bean credit card." None of this should be surprising, given the retailer's famously "liberal return policy and folksy sales staff."

The surprise is the extent to which it has transformed Bean's business: "This year, for the first time, internet sales will top catalog orders." This change has not come without significant disruption at Bean. With phone orders declining, it is closing "one of its four call centers," although the center's employees will continue to work either from their homes or other sites. What Bean won't do is offshore its back-office, or cut benefits; the philosophy is that "happier employees mean better service." As Terry says, "The technology has changed the game, but the basics haven't changed."

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