Jewelry is one of those items that can difficult for online retailers. Shoppers want to see a ring shine, feel the weight of a bracelet or know if the piece is comfortable to wear.

So, to help with this online shopping challenge, BaubleBar.com called in the S.W.A.T. team. Or, rather “Service With Accessorizing Talent.”

These members of the customer service team have a detailed knowledge of every piece of jewelry sold by the company and can connect with shoppers to better understand their tastes to recommend the perfect piece.

“We want the team to have an identity beyond customer service,” said Nina Robins, BaubleBar’s director of customer experience. “I’m hiring top notch grads with communications degrees that can be passionate about what we’re doing here.”

BaubleBar works hand-in-hand with leading jewelry designers to curate a collection of pieces across different styles. The company aims to provide quality fashion jewelry at an unparalleled value, while …

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With reports of a possible sale and ouster of its chief executive, J.C. Penney is scrambling to find ways to right its business. And, it seems the 110-year-old department store chain has an opportunity to improve its customer service.

Comparing the retailer’s performance in the fourth quarter to six other department stores, including Nordstrom.com, SaksFifthAvenue.com, NeimanMarcus.com, Kohls.com, Macys.com and Bloomingdales.com, there were several areas where J.C. Penney could work to best the competition.

The company is one of two in the category that does not offer Live Chat as a service channel. And, for phone support, the company was slowest in the category to connect customers to a live agent during the fourth quarter.

They were also the only company in the category to ship a damaged product during that timeframe. Package quality was adequate or better 67 percent of the time, compared to an average of 94.5 percent for all other department stores, according to STELLAService …

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As several major retailers experiment with same-day delivery initiatives, a new study suggests that consumers are more interested in delivery price than speed.

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) surveyed 1,500 U.S. consumers and found just 9 percent of the sample group said same-day delivery is a top factor that would improve their online shopping experience, while 74 percent cited free delivery and 50 percent cited lower prices.

EBay, Nordstrom, Wal-Mart,  and many other retailers are beginning to offer the same-day delivery option to consumers in selected markets. These retailers face growing pressure from Amazon.com, which has been offering same-day delivery of selected items in certain cities since 2009.

The survey did find that “affluent millennials”—ages 18 to 34 and with a household income exceeding $150,000—who live in urban areas might be an attractive market for same-day delivery. While these consumers make up only 2 percent of the market, their online spending is …

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Direct marketing isn’t just arriving in mailboxes anymore unsolicited. It lands on doorsteps paired with new sweaters, cooking utensils and children’s shoes customers purchase online. The experience, retailers believe, is more like being handed an ice cream sample in a grocery store and less like the piles of unwanted mail in the recycle bin.

This month, of the roughly 30,000 packages Cooking.com will ship, each will include a sample of Ghiradelli chocolate and coupon, a Starbuck’s coupon and a $100 voucher toward a case of Laithwaites Wine.

Peter Gibbons, vice president of merchandising for Cooking.com, said they work with advertisers to connect with brands that will be relevant to their customers. For example, Cooking.com carries several Starbuck’s products and a Ghiradelli cook book.

“Unlike a traditional store where they could have sampling in their bricks and mortar locations, we can’t do that,” Gibbons said. “This is our way to do …

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Zendesk, a company that provides customer support software, has resolved a security breach that exposed customer support information from Pinterest, Tumblr and Twitter.

“As soon as we learned of the attack, we patched the vulnerability and closed the access that the hacker had,” Zendesk Chief Executive Mikkel Svane said in a blog post. “Our ongoing investigation indicates that the hacker had access to the support information that three of our customers store on our system. We believe that the hacker downloaded email addresses of users who contacted those three customers for support, as well as support email subject lines. We notified our affected customers immediately and are working with them to assist in their response.”

Svane said the company has taken steps to improve their procedures and will continue to build even more robust security systems. “We will continue to diligently work with our affected customers to mitigate any impact,” he said.

The company is also …

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Retailers in January faced the crush of returns and refunds processing that followed the busiest ecommerce season on record, while also handling new online sales that increased more than 15 percent over the same time last year.

STELLA Monthly Benchmarks for January shows some retailers were well prepared, either keeping service levels consistent or making significant gains in service areas where competitors were not as equipped.

Gilt.com had an impressive month, topping three of four service areas. The Mass Merchant retailer had a big January in phone support, jumping from out of the top five to the top of the category. The company also had the second best time to live agent and the best product knowledge among other Mass Merchant retailers.

Gilt.com significantly improved its returns process in January, speeding authorization by three days. The retailer’s average time from initiation to refund was best in category, or eight days faster than the category average.

Shipping was a …

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A new study suggests says that 37% of tweets mentioning a retailer are customer service related.

The research conducted by NYU Assistant Professor of Communications Liel Leibovitz analyzed 11,723 tweets mentioning four major U.S. brands – Costco, Kroger, Safeway and Walgreens – during the 24-hour period of January 8th, 2013. The study was commissioned by Conversocial, a company that builds software to monitor and manage customer service efforts on social media.

“Our research proves that there is an immense amount of conversation surrounding retailers on Twitter, and much of it consists of consumers voicing concern or requesting assistance with a variety of issues,” Leibovitz said. “This might sound obvious, but our analysis provides a rarely-before-seen level of depth by looking at a day in the life of Twitter and analyzing a significant number of individual tweets.”

The four brands examined in the study saw a total of 4,367 customer service-oriented tweets, a …

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February 14 is definitely one of the most emotional days in retail, particularly for the customer service teams at flower retailers.

And, if you were a consumer looking for help with a flower order, it seems social media was your sweetheart this year.

STELLAService analysts monitored the service performance of nine online flower shops from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Valentine’s Day, logging how quickly the businesses were connecting with customers via phone and Twitter. Calls were placed in three separate time blocks and abandoned if the wait time exceeded 20 minutes. All Twitter interactions were monitored and samples were pulled from the same time period.

Businesses included were 1800Flowers.com, 48Longstems.com, CalyxFlowers.com, FlowerShop.com, FromYouFlowers.com, FTD.com, JustFlowers.com, ProFlowers.com and Teleflora.com. All are rated STELLAService EXCELLENT or ELITE.

The most standout performance was 1800Flowers.com’s interactions via Twitter, which clocked an average response …

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You were just getting comfortable with your Twitter strategy and now you have to think about a world where orders are placed via hashtag.

American Express announced this week a new social commerce experience that turns Twitter hashtags – words or a phrase prefixed with the symbol “#” – into purchases. Retailers like Amazon.com, Microsoft and Sony are already experimenting with the service.

American Express customers who sync their eligible cards and tweet special hashtags can buy American Express gift cards and products from participating retailers. Card Sync first launched on Twitter last March to deliver savings to cardmembers who tweet special offer #hashtags from merchants.

American Express offered $25 gift cards for $15 by tweeting #BuyAmexGiftCard25. The remaining catalog of products goes on sale today. The full list of special product #hashtags will be released and highlighted as “favorites” on the @AmericanExpress Twitter page. Cardmembers can sync …

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You’re most likely a professional on the go, gripping a smartphone that serves as your mobile command center.

It’s all possible now that software that would have previously kept you at your desktop is now smarter, lighter and largely available on mobile platforms.

For instance, Zendesk, the popular provider of cloud-based customer service software, builds a mobile app that enables users to view, update and create new tickets all from the palm of their hand. Among the company’s supporters is Twilio, whose director of marketing’s testimonial reads, “I use Zendesk daily and couldn’t live without it, so having access to all my tickets and being able to triage from my iPhone is crucial. Now, I can run my support desk remotely from anywhere in the world.”

Freshdesk is another platform for managing customer support that has now made its way to customers’ pockets. The application – built on HTML5 and available in-browser – offers enhanced support for all customers via …

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