The idea behind Overstock.com is really cool. Not only can customers shop for top quality brands at a tremendous savings under one cyber umbrella but to manufacturers, retailers and distributors the company provides an alternative selling channel.
I’m a big fan of the company for several reasons. One is the merchandise freshness. You just never know what you might find (or may have missed) because the stock continually changes based on new closeouts. A few months after I bought a shocking pink ergonomically designed office chair I told a friend who was in search of a comfortable chair about it. After his shock wore off that anyone would want a shocking pink chair (I assured him there were plenty of other more subdued colors) he searched the site only to find that particular close out was gone. Not a bad thing considering that new merchandise is continually added. I imagine the manufacturer of that chair was happy the extras sold. I was glad to find a comfortable chair in that funky hue and even though my friend couldn’t get one in a different color, he was able to find a different ergonomically correct chair from Overstock.com in a muted blue (much more his style!).
Another reason for my Overstock.com allegiance is the quality of the customer service agents and how easy it is to reach them. I’ve never even encountered an IVR when trying to reach them. Unlike many online stores, Overstock.com seems to realize if you’re calling customer service that you don’t need an IVR to choose the reason for your call – the customer service department is obviously the reason.
Even on Cyber Monday when I had a question about a cowboy boot order I was about to make, I reached an agent in less than a minute. Although I wasn’t happy with the shipping details the agent provided, it wasn’t her fault that I didn’t place the order in time to get the boots before leaving on a trip.
Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks Overstock.com has top notch customer service. In late November, Overstock was ranked among the top 10 retailers in the country by The National Retail Federation for the sixth year in a row! In 2008, Overstock was named second in customer service by the NRF, which even surpassed customer service legend Zappos. Recently, Gartner and 1to1 also awarded the company high customer service rankings.
Happy employees go hand-in-hand with superior customer service. If they weren’t happy with their positions, they probably wouldn’t be so gracious and accommodating to customers. It’s no wonder that Overstock was ranked by Glassdoor in November as being #9 on the list of 50 Best Places to Work.
Overstock.com CEO, Patrick Byrne has been quoted as crediting Stormy Simon, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer, with creating a customer centric environment at Overstock. “We run our company by the voice of our customers. I believe that this is recognition of the fact that we’ve been listening to what our customers want and expect. This is humbling, and a great honor,” Simon was quoted as saying after being named tops in customer service in 2008 by the NRF.
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