Prospect to raving advocate – web strategy in practice – Sunglass Hut

I had a fantastic customer experience the other day with Sunglass Hut (Bondi Junction, Sydney) – so much so that I wanted to blog about it!

I have been looking for sunnies for a fair while and finally found the pair I wanted: Ray-Ban Aviators. I’d done some shopping around and found a place that was offering them for $15 less than Sunglass Hut (SH). Not a lot cheaper but enough to make me think twice. I was on my way up to the cheaper shop when my mum said “You should go with SH. They are bigger and so will be easier to deal with if you have any issues”. That comment made enough sense for me to go and ask about it and here’s what happened…

Firstly I tried the sunnies on again and told the assistant that I’d like to buy them. She started to get things organised and I mentioned the cheaper price I’d seen upstairs. Her immediate response was “Sure. I’ll price match them for you”. No questions asked. I didn’t have to show a written down price, didn’t have to say which store it was. Easy.

Secondly, she told me about their Breakage Protection Guarantee: If anything happens to the sunglasses – even from just wear and tear – in the first year from purchase, SH will replace your broken shades for half price. Sounded like a good deal to me and what a way to address my concerns about breaking my brand new sunnies!

Then she told me about the warranty: any sunglasses with manufacturing defects will be replaced on the spot with your receipt. Fairly standard.

The assistant brought over a form to fill out for my contact details. I went immediately into defensive mode (I hate giving out my personal details) but what came next though was the deal sealer for me…

As she handed me the form she said: “If you fill out your details, we’ll retain a record of your purchase in our system so you don’t have to worry about losing the receipt and that way you can exercise your Breakage Protection Guarantee or the Warranty simply by bringing the damaged goods up to any Sunglass Hut store.”

ANY store!!! How useful is that!!!!!??!! So simple but so USEFUL!

And of course, on the form in brackets next to my email address there was “(there may be a little surprise for you on the special day!)”.

I’m thoroughly impressed.

1. It was easy to get the better price.
2. They addressed my problems: breaking my sunnies, losing my receipt.
3. And they added value: make me feel special on my birthday.

What does Sunglass Hut get out of it?

Me: A freshly converted raving advocate who blogs about the experience and tells all my friends. Next time I go to buy sunnies, SH will be the first place I look. As Seth Godin would say, they won my permission to market to me. They captured my details offline in the store, so now they have the chance to build the relationship with me online.

Cap tilt to Sunglass Hut. It’s a great case study of solving my problems to capture my business. And it’s a brilliant way to use in-store business processes and systems to enhance their web strategy.

I’m looking forward to watching how they handle the relationship from here on!

Web Strategy Sydney: If you’d like to find out more about web strategy or permission marketing, or how to integrate what you’re doing offline with where you’re headed online, then please visit our website or call us on: 1300 258 394.

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