Welcome to our 9th Brand Prix, where instead of only investigating the companies’ CRM, we check out the customer experience in a more wholesome way – as we compare two skincare brands.
But first, a quick reminder of what Brand Prix is all about (and another kind reminder to check out past editions): Adidas vs. Nike, Target vs. Walmart, Banana Republic vs. J.Crew, Gap vs. Zara, Groupon vs. Living Social, Sunglass Hut vs. Warby Parker, and Brooklinen vs. Parachute.
Introduction
In this series, PostFunnel will follow two competing brands to assess their customer marketing performance. For each case study, we’ll enact a customer journey with the respective brands, documenting every customer interaction that was sent to our testers. Then we’ll give professional input and provide you with exclusive insights from our experience with the two brands.
Ready, set, go!
The Companies
This time around, we compared two well-known skincare brands from opposite sides of the ocean: The American Kiehl’s, and the British Liz Earle.
Kiehl’s
Kiehl’s started off as a single pharmacy in Manhattan all the way back in 1851. It was later purchased by the L’Oréal Group in the year 2000. The company currently has more than 250 retail stores worldwide.
Liz Earle
Liz Earle was founded in 1995 in the Isle of Wight off the southern coast of England. The company was sold to Avon in 2010, which was then sold to Walgreens Botts Alliance in 2015.
And now – let’s get pretty!
Methodology
We split the analysis into 3 pillars: personalization, promotions, and offers. Then we discuss the following user experience categories: creating an account, return policy, delivery, and other general information. So, begin to pamper yourselves with what we have discovered below.
Personalization
Kiehl’s
This brand is a big believer in emails. Upon signing up – we received about 2-5 emails a week, starting only from week 2 though. The emails combined promotional and educational content which included gamification emails, post-purchase feedback, and updates regarding back-in-stock items that we previously searched for. After each purchase, a “thank you for being loyal” message was sent directly to our inboxes.
If that’s not enough, when we abandoned our shopping cart, a follow-up email was sent to us within just a few hours. But want to know our biggest disappointment yet? Once signing in, the cart was empty.
By using questionnaires, surveys, and promoting products we have previously searched for, Kiehl’s makes you feel like they truly care about you. Neverthelss, starting the communication only after 2 weeks is a big no-no! There were also some technical challenges that caused our cart to disappear and one time, we got notified of an item that turned out to be out of stock (awkward). Score 6/10.
Liz Earle
From the first day of signing up, this brand remained consistent by delivering around 4 emails a week. They were on point with sending us emails on eye care products, which is exactly what we searched for. We were also retargeted on Instagram with eye cream products. One thing we were confused about though, is why they were sending us the same promo 3 days in a row. How about some variety to keep things spicy?
When we abandoned our shopping cart, we immediately received an email that linked us back to our full basket. From then on, we started seeing some promotions. And who doesn’t love promotions?
Liz Earle gave us a sense of personalization in the content and emails they sent, focusing on products and items we previously searched for. Unfortunately, they didn’t have any questionnaires asking for our feedback.
On the technical side, they passed the abandoned cart test – with a quick reminder and a full basket ready to be purchased. Well done! Score 7/10.
Promotions and Offers
Kiehl’s
This brand gets an A+ for being highly promotional. We were asked to sign up for their newsletter after just a few seconds of entering their site for the first time, which included a “10% off your first order” promo. Though we got some less attractive offers (considering we spent 50 GBP) we still had promo offers waiting for us at the top of the homepage. Not all emails included promotions, but either way, Kiehl’s is certainly promo-focused. Score 8.5 /10
Liz Earle
This brand started off by being highly promotional from day 1. We were prompted to sign up for their newsletter after a few seconds from our first site visit, which included a “15% off your first order” promo. Promotions are always available at the top of the home page, and samples are offered according to the order amount. The downside? You cannot choose which samples you get, which is a bit disappointing. Score 7.5/10
User Experience – Create an Account
Kiehl’s
We were prompted to sign up for the newsletter to receive 10% off our order. However, once creating an account, no welcome email was sent. When we checked the terms and conditions, we noticed that it will take up to 4 days to receive a welcome discount code! Eventually, we received the welcome email 2 days after completing our first purchase. Score 5/10
Liz Earle
We created an account twice – first for the newsletter and then in order to make a purchase. Both times we received a welcome email. Double awkward. When we weren’t signed in and continued to browse the site, we were prompted to sign up and received, yet again, another welcome offer. Score 4/10
User Experience –Return Policy
Kiehl’s
It wasn’t easy to find the return policy with Kiehl’s. Once we accessed it, we noticed the free 28-day return policy does not include shipping costs, despite the fact that there was a mess up with our first delivery.
Not to mention, that only after complaining about not receiving the products we ordered, it was mentioned that some of the products were out of stock. Since we weren’t interested in the product sent originally, they offered a free refund for the order BUT proceeded in charging us for the shipping cost. Not cool. Score 4.5/10
Liz Earle
We had no problem finding the policy. Only downside? You need to call their customer service, with no option to complete the standard 14-day return exchange online. Once we contacted customer service, we received a reply with clear instructions – pack and send it back from the nearest post office, and get a refund within 10 days. Score 7/10
User Experience – Delivery
Kiehl’s
It wasn’t the best first impression. Out of the 3 items that we ordered, we only received 1. Not to mention the 2 other gifts and samples that were promised upon our order didn’t get delivered. Though we appreciate free delivery across the UK, communication was super minimal. We had to turn to their support team to complain about our missing items. On top of that, we waited 7 full business days to finally receive the right delivery. Score 6/10
Liz Earle
Communication was beaming here, from the order status to when the order was dispatched and delivered. The package was received within 2 days, properly with branded accessories. Bonus points for receiving a catalog with detailed explanations and a “thank you for shopping with us” note. Did we mention that the note was signed off personally by the person who prepared the package? We loved it! Score 8.5/10
User Experience – General (No Score Here)
Kiehl’s
The brand’s homepage general look and feel is clean, easy, and focused. The quizzes, videos, tips and tricks – make the experience very easy, friendly, educating, and helpful. One downfall? The chatbox wasn’t working for us.
Liz Earle
We were a bit overwhelmed with the general experience of their homepage. We loved that the routine suggested videos and guides but would have preferred something to help us find the right products. As for their chatbox – it was quick and useful.
The Final Verdict
Although it was tempting, we did not want to rate the products but rather focus on the CRM and overall experience we had as consumers interacting with both brands.
Kiehl’s and Liz Earle both exceeded expectations as for personalization, the volume of communication, and promotions. We felt that we created a relationship with them over the 6 weeks that this experiment was conducted. But just like any relationship, it wasn’t all perfect.
We started off on the wrong foot with Kiehl’s due to the mess up of our first order. We know that mistakes happen, but we expected more from a well-established company that operates worldwide. Liz Earle is more of a boutique shop in the cosmetics world and they are not super sophisticated but almost everything they do, they do well. Kiehl’s questionnaires, gamified content, and the great experience we had in the second delivery definitely did make up for the first mess up. However, Liz Earle’s delivery and overall user experience were good while the only negative aspects were that we had to signup twice. In addition, we do think that they can improve their analytics by using customer data to further personalize the content both on-site and in their campaigns.
Although almost a tie, we give a few more fractions of a point to Liz Earle.
Contributor: Shani Kupershmidt