A01 chaf6542 06 se fm indd

Q. How do you manage and improve service quality?

Michael Welch, Blackcircles.com:

 It’s a vital ongoing process. The most obvious way 

in which we check on the site’s service quality is through customer feedback. This has 

been the backbone of many changes we’ve made over the years. Our customers are a 

great resource and I’m often surprised at the number of people I meet who don’t listen 

to what their customers are saying to them – it’s free advice, why wouldn’t you take it?

Figure 2.2

BlackCircles.com

Source: Black Circles Ltd.

M02_CHAF6542_06_SE_C02.indd   44

7/23/14   11:11 AM

---

45

Chapter 2  Marketplace analysis for e‑commerce

We recently placed Trustpilot on our website which is the online retail industry’s equiva‑

lent of Trip Advisor. This shows independent customer reviews and an overall rating. This 

is a further commitment from us and a great message to customers that we will be doing 

everything possible to give them a great service. We are passionate about great service.

On top of listening to what our customers are saying we also actively take part in 

 user‑  testing. We’ve been working with a company recently which records anonymous 

users (which you can define, i.e. British person in  mid‑  30s who doesn’t often use the 

Internet to shop) on our site.

Not only are we able to see what they are doing, but they also giving a narration of 

their thoughts. Its early days but we’ve already discovered areas of the site that can be 

improved due to this.

The newest form of testing we’re just beginning to get involved with is a  heat‑  map‑ 

 style technology. Seeing where users are clicking and where they are not is great. It 

makes you ask why certain areas of a page are receiving attention while the rest is 

being ignored.