He obtained a list of nonresident Maine hunting license holders, prepared a descriptive mail order circular, set up a shop in his brother's basement in Freeport and started a nationwide mail-order business. Bean had developed a waterproof boot, which is a combination of lightweight leather uppers and rubber bottoms, that he sold to hunters. The company began as a one-room operation selling a single product, the Maine Hunting Shoe, also known as duck boots and later as Bean Boots. L.L.Bean was founded in 1912 by its namesake, hunter and fisherman Leon Leonwood Bean, in Freeport, Maine. Helpful, well-trained, empathetic, unstressed employees are the far bigger part of the equation and need to remain that way if a company like Bean is going to continue to shine.L.L.Bean boot sculpture outside flagship store in Freeport, Maine Why does this worry me more? Because a solid return policy is only one of the factors that contribute to the service level at LL Bean, which has been repeatedly rated one of the best customer service providers (and frequently the best) in the nation, according to such varied sources as STELLA Service and Prosper Insights & Analytics. Bean with more potential to affect the quality of customer service: Bean’s attempt to reduce the headcount of its 5,000 employees by 10%, an effort it began to implement on January 1 via buyout offers.
Even the coverage of this story proves that point: People, even non-purchasing bystanders, care about customer service and worry about any reduction in standards at a company whose level of customer service has long been a positive benchmark for businesses and consumers.Īs a customer, actually, I’d be more worried about a less-publicized change at L.L. In fact, as the power of traditional marketing has waned and the power of digitally-enhanced word of mouth has grown, customer service has become the new marketing, with far more power to build a company than ever before.
Bean is an unusually customer service-oriented company, and that being a service-oriented company is a well-proven way to build and sustain a company. In spite of the sideshow aspect of the way this story’s been covered, the how-the-mighty-have-become-a-fall-guy narrative, the reality is that L.L. Great Customer Service Involves More Than a Great Returns Policy A relationship of “we have your back, we’re here for you, regardless of the issue or concern.” It’s the backbone of a potential relationship, a ‘til death do us part relationship within which, if all goes well, no competitor can pull customer and company asunder. But such a policy also means something more emotionally resonant, something beyond alleviating the fear of ending up stuck with a pair of ill-fitting boots. Speaking more generally, what does a great customer returns policy mean to a customer, and how does it help to build and sustain company results? Most obviously, it takes the immediate risk out of buying, which is why it was catalog companies that pioneered such policies. The Business Value of a Solid Returns Policy And, it’s only for these non-customers and shouldn't-be-customers that the policy change will matter. Here’s the thing: Since actual Bean customers, desirable Bean customers, are going to find a year for returns to be more than enough, it means that, in essence, we have, through the prices we pay, long been subsidizing non-customers (the eBay and yard sale scavengers) as well as quasi-customers (like this proudly-amoral Slate columnist) who don’t fit the friendly, trust-based model that, overall, works so well for the company. (My personal policy on whether something is ethically returnable is one I picked up from the great writer Calvin Trillin: Does the product “owe me money”? If I’ve gotten good use out of a product, or if a misguided purchase was the result of my own failings as a consumer, then it doesn’t.) Although we Bean loyalists might joke about returning outgrown skates (and with kids, it takes less than a year to outgrow such items, so even under the new policy, we still could), we would never, ever misapply Bean’s kindness in that manner. Bean loyalists, the new, gently-trimmed policy is an irrelevant change, because loyal Bean customers aren’t looking to violate the social contract opportunistically. Bean’s change of heart has been of the “Just look what the world is coming to now!” variety.
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