For over 44 years, Dooney & Bourke has provided high-quality leather products. Their bags and accessories are timeless, functional and represent a commitment to quality craftsmanship. By investing their energy into a streamlined customer experience, they are able to succeed in a competitive market. They’ve focused on direct-to-consumer strategies, developing an even closer relationship with their customers.  

Choosing a customer experience platform was an important step in their process. According to Peter Beaugard, Head of Brand Strategy at Dooney & Bourke, “We are thinking ahead and actively figuring out what ecommerce is going to look like in the future,” he said. “This was an emerging trend that we knew we had to pursue.”

“We are thinking ahead and actively figuring out what ecommerce is going to look like in the future. This was an emerging trend that we knew we had to pursue.”

Peter Beaugard

Head of Brand Strategy

Providing the Right Communications

A big part of selling accessories online is fulfilling the customer’s need to understand the physical attributes of the product without necessarily being able to experience it in person. To enhance their customer experience and build their direct-to-consumer business, the team at Dooney & Bourke is employing various tactics to provide as much of that information as possible in the consumer journey. “We make a physical product that people want to touch and feel,” Beaugard said. “As a result, we’ve been hyper-focused on making sure that we accurately represent the products online, and that we’re able to tell the full story by addressing both the features and benefits.”

Along with properly communicating about products on their website, they want to build what they call “transactional trust”, making the shopping experience consistent and seamless. “To truly build trust with a consumer, we must ensure accuracy on the site, meet shipping expectations, and make sure that we’re communicating pre- and post-purchase,” he said. “From the tracking page to SMS alerts, there are a lot of things that [Narvar] has layered on to the platform that improves the customer experience.”

The Case for a Customer Experience Platform

It is difficult, costly and time-consuming to build a customer experience platform from scratch. It made sense for Dooney & Bourke to implement a product that is proven and trusted by hundreds of other major retailers, addressing their need to connect better with their customers. “We can leverage the same automated Narvar returns flow that much larger brands and retailers are on,” he said. “Customers are becoming more familiar with and trust the Narvar experience.”

“Customers are becoming more familiar with and trust the Narvar experience.”

On average, customers click on Dooney & Bourke’s branded tracking page 4.8 times. This engagement provides an active line of communication, building a relationship while customers are kept in the loop.

As anticipation is the highest before the customer buys, the track page provided an opportunity for D&B to engage more, with a 35% CTR over the past two quarters. They were able to achieve these results through optimizing their track page through updating creative marketing assets, navigation headers and logo placement to provide their customers with a better experience.

Optimized Customer Service

An easily accessible tracking page makes a significant difference for Dooney & Bourke’s customer support department. The significant reduction in “where is my order” (WISMO) calls was a big game changer for their company, which previously had to spend precious customer service time during business hours fielding those inquiries. “We position this as real-time self service,” he said. “It’s tremendously helpful because the majority of our call or email volume to customer service during peak times is asking where their order is.”  

Reducing call volume has helped them meet the needs of their consumers. During the holidays especially, many retailers struggle with setting delivery expectations, especially in the lead up to the big day. “Providing this automated self-service order status liberated us from this idea of business hours,” he said. “It freed up our human customer service resources to focus on providing better service in other ways.”

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