Kigo Footwear Takes Customer Service to Web 2.0

Every job I’ve had has been sales or customer oriented in some capacity, so I always geek out a bit at innovative ways to improve customer service. Today I came across a company that used Twitter very effectively to reach out and interact with me as a customer, and I wanted to share that story.

I found out about Kigo Footwear on the Runner’s World forums and thought their “Kigo Shel” shoes sounded really cool. So I poked around their website and learned the company is as interesting as their shoes. They use recycled materials, and their whole business model is built around sustainability and environmental friendliness. Check out their company philosophy:

kigo Working Philosophy (Avoid)

The kigo team believes that mobile phones, laptops, VoIP and a quiet home office are perfectly acceptable work tools. Telecommuting keeps our carbon footprint at bay and creates savings we pass on to you.

kigo Recycling Philosophy (Reuse)

kigo footwear uppers, lining and packaging are all crafted from recycled elements. The most amazing one is CYCLEPET – plastic jugs are cleaned, broken down and woven into strong, soft fabric. Pretty cool.

kigo Packaging Philosophy (Reduce)

Most shiny new shoes come packaged in a bunch of totally unnecessary stuff. With Kigos, there is only minimal tissue and a downsized recycled box – only what is necessary to protect your new shoes.

All that’s super cool, and when I saw they were on Twitter I thought I’d follow them and see what else I could find out about the company. Within a few minutes of hitting “follow”, they sent me a direct message:

It’s not what they said; it’s that they did the 21st century digital equivalent of being greeted at the front of a store. They made themselves approachable in a very low-key manner, and it gave me the opportunity to go back and forth asking some sizing questions, etc. While I might have hesitated, probably emailed them or hunted around tonight, and ordered over the weekend, a simple DM pushed me into buying today. It was such a simple gesture, but it was a great example of customer service in action through social networking!

What is especially cool is how they leveraged twitter to do this. Think about the last time you were browsing a company’s website; either you need to hunt for the “contact us” button, or if it’s a cell phone site (or, oddly, Patagonia), you get pestered constantly with pop-ups asking if you’d like to “chat” with a “customer service representative”. Neither option is usually very convenient (especially those annoying chat requests!) Rather than just blasting their audience through Twitter, more companies should take the time to use something akin to the Kigo Footwear approach!

Now I can’t wait to get my new shoes, just in time for warmer weather here in NJ!