How Peter Manning NYC removed 99% of order support requests with self-service order editing
Peter Manning NYC, a stylish oasis for ‘not-so-tall’ guys under 5’10, has been addressing the fits of a niche market that serves about 33% of men in the United States. With a 10-year history of quality and commitment, this retail brand embraced a transformative change in its customer service and shipping operations. In 2023, they deployed Customer Portal to their online store.
Nikola Jovanovic, the Operations Manager at Peter Manning NYC, who has served the company for eight years, implemented this self-service order editing tool - part of the Cleverific Order Editor Shopify app - onto the brand’s online store and observed firsthand the app's impact on his customer service and fulfillment teams.
The customer service challenge
Nikola’s small team juggled about three daily order change requests. They involved a tweak in size here, a change in shipping speed there, and the ever-so-often-changing quantity.
“That's about 8% of our total email requests,” Nikola recalls.
Compounding this, some customers weren’t the best communicators, often forgetting to include vital information like a new shipping address. What should have been a simple process turned into daily tête-à-têtes between the support team, fulfillment team, and the customers, disrupting the whole workflow and delaying orders. The chain of emails was reducing efficiency and bogging down the staff. However, Cleverific Order Editor's readily integrated Customer Portal came to the rescue in their time of need.
Spotlight on the solution: Customer Portal
Serving as a conduit between customers and the brand, Customer Portal enabled customers to change/edit their orders directly on the order status page without needing staff's manual meddling or intervention.
The tool was incorporated into their system; overnight, they said goodbye to lengthy email chains and welcomed swift customer-managed edits. They went from receiving over 100 monthly order change requests to almost none. This was a huge benefit to their customer support team, which also doubles as retail sales associates. The average handle time for a customer service interaction is 6.6 minutes across all industries. With Peter Manning seeing about 4 self-service edits made per day, that’s saving Nikola’s team about 10 hours per month.
👉 Did you know that 90% of customers rate an "immediate" response as essential or very important when they have a customer service question? 60% of customers define "immediate" as 10 minutes or less. (HubSpot Research).
“We’re not seeing those order change request emails anymore. Instead, I get notifications when a customer changes their order themselves,” said Nikola. “The team of five that’s doing online customer service also handles our physical locations, so they can dedicate more time to in-person customers and deliver a better in-store experience now that we have Customer Portal.”
Customers embrace the change
A significant aspect of this implementation was the customers' response; they loved the new self-editing feature. “More customers are self-service editing than those who used to reach out to us,” Nikola said. “We have about four self-serve changes a day. This saves time for customer service and reduces our shipping costs.”
“More customers are self-service editing than those who used to reach out to us,” Nikola said. “We have about four self-serve changes a day. This saves time for customer service and reduces our shipping costs.”
There was an unanticipated bonus too. The addition to the cancellation process with the option to share a reason for canceling. Turns out, it’s rarely a change of mind - it’s often another issue entirely. “Nobody says they changed their mind. It’s always another issue like they forgot a discount code. It's giving us some valuable insights,” said Nikola.
Why not Shopify?
One of the chief reasons why Peter Manning NYC favors Cleverific Order Editor over Shopify's in-house order editing system is compatibility.
Nikola points out that Shopify's in-house order editing feature was not a fitting solution for them due to compatibility issues with their shipping software. However, Order Editor fit like a glove. And since the customer service team had been using the app for years, they can now move their focus to expanding and enriching the in-store experience.
In Nikola's view, Order Editor is as much a part of the team as any member – a silent yet crucial cog in their operation wheel. “If the app wasn't an option anymore, I’d be hunting for a replacement immediately. Once you have it, you can’t go back," he said.
To say that Cleverific is part of the Peter Manning NYC team would not be an exaggeration. The brand’s customer service has seen an enormous positive shift since its integration. Customers are happier with the newfound control over their orders, while the team at Peter Manning is ecstatic about the time and resources saved.
In the grand scheme of things, any business that ships physical products would undeniably benefit from using Customer Portal. The world's largest online retailer, Amazon, has already set the precedence in customer service by enabling self-editing and self-canceling of orders. To successfully compete and meet growing consumer expectations, it’s essential for businesses to adapt and incorporate technologies like Customer Portal.
“Literally, everybody who ships physical products would benefit from Customer Portal. It doesn’t hurt to have the feature in today’s day and age where Amazon sets up the level of what’s expected in customer service. Since Amazon can edit and cancel orders, I feel everybody needs to have it.”
Ever since its implementation, Cleverific's Order Editor has transformed not just the efficiency of operations at Peter Manning NYC, but the very way the brand is perceived by its customers. By offering control, reducing potential areas of friction, and enhancing overall service experience, Customer Portal has risen beyond being a tool, uniting with Peter Manning NYC's endeavor to craft a well-dressed lifestyle for not-so-tall men.
