Connecting With Our Customer
THE KOTN CUSTOMER
Our customer is conscious of quality, fashion, and social impact.
When designing products, stores and content, we keep the following personas in mind. Personas are not meant to be all-encompassing- Kotn has a diverse range of customers from all walks of life.
THE STORE EXPERIENCE
When customers come into a Kotn store, we want to engage them in a multi-sensory way—through feeling our soft clothing, aesthetically beautiful interiors, enticing scents, and mood-setting sounds. This is the beauty of a retail touchpoint. We are able to curate a welcoming experience for our customers outside of just the exchange of goods. We take pride in storytelling the brand through this home, and we are grateful for each customer’s decision to come spend a small fraction of their day with us in our space. As each Kotn location will differ in layout based on the city location, it is the team’s goal to ensure each facade replicates and supports a unified brand message as a gateway to our online communities.
Kotn is an omni-channel retail brand. This means that we utilize a cross-channel strategy across all of our platforms, digitally and physically, in unison to provide our shoppers an integrated experience across all of our touchpoints! Especially with our origins as an online-forward retailer, first time customers may be familiar with our website and social media first, and our brick-and-mortars second. It is our responsibility as a retail team to keep up to date with our digital presence. We encourage you to follow Kotn on our social channels such as on Instagram, sign up for our external newsletters, and regularly check the website. Our web and creative teams work diligently to deliver best in class content for our customers, and we want our floor employees to feel knowledgeable about how this is communicated to the public.
At Kotn, we consider our service standard to be our Steps of Service.
Steps of Service Education Link
PHONE ETIQUETTE
When answering the phone, the following greeting should be utilized, “Hello! Kotn [City], [Your Name] speaking.”
All Kotn stores should have our number posted online which may be accessed via the “Locations” tab on our website or through our Google maps listing.
Regardless of the request, the same experience should be provided to our customers over the phone as in store. We are grateful for our clients’ time and it is important we are exhibiting a sense of urgency in regard to their inquiry as they seek a more immediate answer versus contacting us through social media or e-mail.
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE OPPORTUNITIES
What should Team Members do if a customer is not satisfied? Listen carefully to what the customer is saying and try to understand what the underlying issue is. If you can easily and quickly solve a problem, do your very best to do so. For any customer complaints or issues, the Market Lead should handle the inquiry. Should the customer wish to escalate the experience concern, the e-mail contact of the City’s Area Manager may be provided. For any additional inquiries that cannot be resolved at the store, the query may be forwarded to hello@kotn.com where Customer Experience may redirect the message. No other phone number or e-mail contacts for HQ should be provided.
Abuse of any kind will not be tolerated. If a customer is not treating a Team Member with respect, they will be asked to leave by the Market Lead.
SENSORY EXPERIENCE
Sounds
Choosing the right music is imperative in helping a customer feel welcome and want to shop in store. By playing an array of up to date and curated playlists, it sets the atmosphere for our space.
We keep in mind the volume of traffic, demographic of the crowd, and the energy in the environment. Floor associates are responsible for setting the mood, and reading the room for the type of sounds that are complementary to the in-store experience.
Sights
Each store is designed with the intention in mind to replicate the togetherness and unity of a living room; a common space where our “guests” can feel at home with us.
Taking pride in visual presentation is essential in maintaining the shopping experience for our customers—it is in our hands to showcase products in a way that is visually pleasing, yet easy to navigate. In addition, we want to promote user generated content in our space! Our muses are tech-savvy, and love sharing their shopping experience through social media. By maintaining a picture-perfect shop facade, we are always ready for the potential exposure of an online audience.
Product & Presentation Education Link
Smells
Smell is the sense most closely linked to memory. Along with the ambient sights and sounds we emulate in each space, we want to engage on a multi-sensory level to create a fully immersive experience; creating contextual depth for our beautiful product. This is why we burn candles in store and present the rich complexity of scents through our third party apothecary products. Through scent we are able to introduce these fragrances first in our space, but also offer the opportunity for our customers to create their own memories with them, too.