For an in class project for my IT-enabled business course at UMSL, we were discussing how Land’s End differentiates itself from its competitors.  We noticed the “Get Live Help” button on their website and figured we might as well ask them.

Here is the transcript:

Susan M: Welcome to Lands’ End! My name is Susan M.. How may I help you today?
you: hi..
you: q:what differentiates you from your competitors? a question from an mba class.
you: thank you.
Susan M: Our friendly people and our service.
Susan M: Our standard shipping is UPS 2-Day delivery.
you: ok, what else?
you: thanks, good answers.
Susan M: Ask me a more specific question, please.
you: why would i choose land’s end over gap, for example.
you: let’s say for a pair of jeans.
Susan M: Our quality of fabric is by far better…made of good quality ringspun cotton and we go to great length to work on fit based upon customer comments.
Susan M: We offer jeans in a variety of styles so that we can accommodate varying figure types.
Susan M: Our turtlenecks wear like iron and last forever. I have many that have lasted 6+ years.
you: ok, thank you very much. you have convinced us of your quality for our mba class discussion.
Susan M: Great! Thanks for chatting this evening. Good night.
you: thanks! you too!
Susan M.: You’re welcome. Bye!

Anyways, I thought Susan did a pretty good job of answering our questions. And, her answers were pretty remarkable considering that our questions were less than typical.

Update #1: @Oldangerous points out that it could have been a bot.  I did consider this a possibility.  Before I wrote the article, I did a quick search to see if there was anything online that said whether it was a bot or not. Either way she (robot or not) answered the question well.  Anyone know for sure?

Update #2: I fired up the chat one last time with Land’s End, and the new operator (Elaine M) said she was not a bot. I am convinced.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 16th, 2008 at 6:03 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.