Crutchfield’s Tweak Week: Supporting the Post-Purchase Experience
December 27th, 2006
When designing an experience, we have to consider all the interactions the customer has with our brand. In the case of e-commerce, the interactions don’t end when the SUBMIT ORDER button is pressed, but continue with receiving the purchased product and, if all goes well, using it.
Crutchfield understands this. This week, they are conducting Tweak Week, a series of quick tips aimed at people who’ve recently purchased electronic products to help them get the most out of their products.
Crutchfield customers (interestingly, including those who haven’t purchased anything this season) received an email introducing Tweak Week:
When users clicked on the GO button, they landed at a table of tips for everything in the Crutchfield catalog:
Clicking on Digital Cameras gave a list of tips about getting the most out of your camera:
Supporting the post-purchase experience is difficult to do well. Crutchfield has made an interesting first attempt at doing it–something a lot of e-commerce vendors don’t even attempt.
There are lots of benefits of doing this well. If the vendor provides quality post-purchase support, they’ll see higher brand engagement going forward. It gives the customer a reason to keep coming back to the site, giving the vendor the chance to sell more product.
For example, the section on Managing home A/V cables suggests the purchase of flat, paintable speaker wire, a product Crutchfield happens to sell:
My fear is the library of tips at Crutchfield are a little too generic and simplistic for most of their customers to really do the trick. Yet, building out a serious library of tips and techniques for the wide spectrum of customers they have would be a very expensive proposition.
However, I think it’s a good start. If they can keep it up, it’ll provide a real advantage over the many competitors in their space. If 2006 has proven anything, it’s that there is an economic advantage to providing a quality customer experience.
December 28th, 2006 at 2:16 pm
Nice article about a company that really ‘gets it’ on many levels. Crutchfield really understands that the buying process doesn’t begin at the counter and doesn’t end with the purchase. They carry the customer experience all the way through from entry into one of their outlet stores - and the expertise that their staff has regarding the products they carry - all the way to the installation of the products they carry (with the installation guides they provide at no cost). This also carries over to their website, which I’ve made many hassle-free purchases on.
It seems like very few companies truly understand how to blend solid customer service across all segments of the user experience. Nice to see they’ve taken it even one step further with this new service. I agree that it may be slightly on the elementary side, but it’s a nice addition nonetheless.
February 22nd, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Interesting, I’ve been a Crutchfield customer since 1994 and I didn’t get an email about this. It is certainly a great idea. I’ve always like the fact how Crutchfield always provided the necessary adapters and such to get a product installed that you purchased from them.