Shoppers often seek advice from other users before they spend money on a new skin care treatment. In most cases, that means asking a friend or the woman next to you at the cosmetics counter about a product.
But Clarins is now employing the Social Q&A Platform from TurnTo Networks so that customers can elicit feedback on the right skin care regimen from fellow shoppers online. Clarins began using the technology on its web site earlier this year. Questions posed by web site visitors are emailed to past purchasers and responses are posted on the site.
“Our philosophy as brand is that we constantly listen to our customers,” said Han Wen, VP, Digital & E-commerce America for Clarins, in a recent webinar. “Social Q&A helps us reach out in a way that makes sense for our customers and is most convenient for them.”
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Addressing Specific Customer Questions
Product reviews tend to be very generic and typically don’t address more targeted questions about how a product performs, Wen explained. “People will say ‘I love this product’ and ‘It looks good on my skin,’ but the reader doesn’t know the person’s skin type or other details. Having the Social Q&A Platform helps to address a specific concern a shopper might have rather than just offering a general sentiment.”
With the Social Q&A technology, actual customers answer questions posed on the web site, Wen explained. “The types of conversations happening are very specific and almost diagnostic. As a consumer, knowing your question is going to real live customers gives you more of a sense of comfort as opposed to your question being answered by a brand.”
Clarins also is using the Checkout Chatter feature from TurnTo, which delivers a short survey asking customers why they chose a particular product. “This provides us with a great deal of marketing intelligence,” Wen explained. “This also enables us to gather information from people who would not normally write a full-length product review.” Data from the Social Q&A Platform and Checkout Chatter is being used by the product development and marketing and teams to drive product research and promotional strategies.
Going forward, Clarins has begun a “soft launch” of the live chat feature of platform and plans a full implementation in September, according to Wen. The company also plans to launch a Canadian site that will include Social Q&A platform, and roll out the platform to all of its sites in the future.