Anticipatory service: How it shapes footwear brand KURU

KURU Footwear is a Utah-based shoe brand that is committed to relieving customers from foot pain while remaining stylish and comfortable. In this episode of Radically Personal, I talk to President & Integrator, Sean McGinnis, about balancing personalization with efficiency, how following the golden rule of treating people the way you want to be treated is a key to their success, and so much more.

There’s a natural belief that providing more personalized service takes more time. From understanding who the customer is, building a relationship, and providing white glove service, a lot of ecommerce businesses are hesitant to provide more personal experiences because they are trying to balance efficiency. KURU has had the opposite experience—in fact, they are 30% more efficient now that they are providing personalized experiences to their customers. By being able to guide customers back to a previous KURU Guru they spoke to, not having to context switch, not only is KURU more efficient, but customers are able to have an experience that’s anchored around relationships.

You’re either oriented for personalization or you’re oriented for efficiency and sometimes you can find both, and when you can, it’s magical.

Sean McGinnis
President and Integrator, KURU Footwear

Empathy is a huge part of KURU’s ability to provide world-class customer experiences. They pride themselves on not only being able to drive meaningful experiences every day, but also continuously listening to their customers and acting on those insights to ensure that they are meeting their customers’ needs.

...we learn from our customers what they need in order to make good decisions and use the data that is ever-present inside the business to try to treat customers the way we would want to be treated. It's the old golden rule. We're constantly trying to evolve the way that we interact with customers.

Sean McGinnis
President and Integrator, KURU Footwear

With a little help from technology and by putting the customer at the center of everything they do, KURU can provide the world-class anticipatory services that they are known and loved for.

If we could just all reach a little bit higher and find either the technology, the systems the process, or the methodology that will help us better serve our customers in a way that is more anticipatory while also being more efficient. That's what every brand in the country should want. We stumbled into it with you all and it's been an absolute blessing. We love it.

Sean McGinnis
President and Integrator, KURU Footwear

Get a full transcription of this episode and listen to more episodes on Gladly’s Radically Personal Podcast page, Apple podcasts, or Spotify.

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