“It’s rare to find a leader who elevates the experience for employees and customers to such a degree that other brands benchmark against his or her company. [...] Every action [Virgin Group founder Sir Richard] Branson takes and every word he speaks—whether the cameras are on or off—reflect his commitment to creating an exceptional experience for both his customers and employees. Here are 7 lessons that any leader can and should adopt if they hope to build a successful company.” [Source: Forbes]

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Quidsi, the Amazon-owned parent company to a collection of single word e-commerce domains including Diapers.com, Soap.com, Wag.com, Yoyo.com, and more, is today launching a new membership program called Familyhood Plus. The program offers consumers free two-day shipping with no minimum purchases, and other exclusive deals. [Source: TechCrunch]

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With the addition of 34 new companies, April was STELLA Monthly Benchmarks’ most competitive month yet.

The monthly pulse of customer service in the U.S., showcasing the top performers, now includes 100 companies.

The newcomers are already impacting the rankings with great customer service. LLBean.com has led the email category for six months, but JCrew.com rivaled the retailer in nearly every metric in April. It was a single email reply that escaped LLBean.com for three days that caused their drop in the rankings.

Meanwhile, Nordstrom.com continued its dominance in phone support in the Department Stores category. The retailer has topped this list for six consecutive months, offering the fastest time to a live agent and best product and policy knowledge in April.

With speedy shipping becoming a more competitive component of the ecommerce experience, REI.com created some happy campers in April with the top shipping performance in the Sporting Goods vertical. The retailer not only had …

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“The Senate passed a bill Monday night aimed at making it easier for states to collect sales taxes for online purchases, but its final prospects remain uncertain. [...] The bill, which passed the Senate 69-27, now heads to the House, where it faces an uncertain future because some Republicans view it as a tax increase. President Obama has said he supports the bill.” [Source: USA Today]

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“Sales at U.S. retailers unexpectedly advanced in April, helping ease concern of a sustained pullback in consumer spending that would stifle the economy. The 0.1 percent gain followed a 0.5 percent decrease in March, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. Retail purchases climbed by the most in four months minus receipts from service stations, where cheaper gasoline prices depressed the dollar value of sales.” [Source: Bloomberg]

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“The man destroyed the $423,000 Maserati Quattroporte in protest of the allegedly shoddy and criminal service he received at the hands of his dealership. [...] ‘I hope foreign luxury car producers acknowledge clearly that Chinese consumers are entitled to get the service that is commensurate with the brand,’ Wang told The Qingdao Morning Post.” Watch the video at ChristianPost.com. [Source: Christian Post]

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“The department store chain reported that net income fell by 113% for a loss of $348 million. The company also reported a 16.6% decline in same store sales [...] an improvement from the 32% decrease the company reported last quarter. Only time will tell, but it’s possible the ugliest days for JC Penney are over.” [Source: Quartz]

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The SWAT Team is now taking appointments.

We told you in March about BaubleBar.com’s “Service With Accessorizing Talent.” Now, you can get some face time with the fashion jewelry-seller’s service team .

BaubleBar.com is offering complimentary virtual styling appointments with SWAT team members to help customers find the perfect piece of jewelry. The video chats are conducted via Skype and scheduled through an application from Setster Inc.

BabuleBar.com’s SWAT team members conduct the chats live from the company’s showroom on Fifth Ave. in New York.

Nina Alexander-Hurst, BaubleBar.com’s director of customer experience, said video chat helps greatly with some of the challenges of selling jewelry online. Seeing the jewelry worn by SWAT team members helps give the product scale. It’s a better way to show the length of a necklace or the bulk of a bracelet. Women want to know what to expect when they have that BaubleBar.com box delivered. And, they like have a shopping …

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It’s not a stretch to call Lululemon’s recent recall of see-through yoga pants a fiasco. If there were ever a time to double-down on customer service, this was it.

And, STELLAService data shows the company actually improved certain areas of its service performance during the high-volume period after the recall. In particular, the company was well prepared for questions about store policy, fitting for an influx of questions about returns.

STELLAService places calls and emails to Lululemon’s customer service team on a daily basis, asking a mix of questions about products and store policy. To research the Lululemon recall, pre-fiasco is defined as Nov. 18 to March 17, while March 18 through April 7 defines the period the company handled recall inquiries.

First, it’s important to note that performance via phone was on par with pre-fiasco levels, a sign the company staffed up their call center appropriately.

But, there were a few hiccups in email performance during the …

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Online retailers that field customer service questions strictly through phone or email may be missing out on a quick, cost-effective way to engage customers: live chat. According to LivePerson, a company that provides online real-time customer engagement solutions including chat, using live chat for customer service reduces issue handling costs by 25% and converts 20% more visits into sales.

“With email, you could end up in four or five back and forth emails, which is time-consuming and increases your costs to resolution,” says Josh Tenby, who runs LivePerson’s North America Small Business Team. “With phones, you can only talk to one person at a time, so the cost per resolution is higher [than chat]. In chat, it’s very easy to jump from one chat to another without having a negative impact on the customer experience.” In fact, Tenby says that in many companies, chat agents handle three to four clients at a time.

STELLAService data from the past six months shows that phone …

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