When you reach out to customer service at most companies, you expect the person handling your inquiry to be in a specialized customer service center—if they’re a person at all, and not an AI chatbot. But the menswear company Bonobos has taken the opposite approach. Many customer service chats are answered by real live Bonobos sales associates, called “guides,” who staff the company’s retail stores.

This approach to customer service began as a pilot in 2019, spurred by an employee’s suggestion, and now all the company’s 62 retail stores are participating. “It has been a positive shift,” according to Bonobos’s finance and operations chief David Meir Sasson, with benefits for customers and guides. Customers, who largely have questions about sizing, styling, and fit, enjoy connecting with associates who have expertise in these areas. Meanwhile, the guides develop new skills and have more “opportunity to interact with their customer.”

The guides-cum-customer service agents paint a slightly less rosy picture though. When interviewed, many frontline employees express their strong dislike for dealing with a regular barrage of angry messages. They also find it more difficult to execute their in-store responsibilities while handling customer service chats. Some customers have registered complaints too, saying it has become too hard to reach a customer service representative when they need one.

But if there are wrinkles to iron out in this hybrid approach, the concept arguably has promise. If and as companies refine the model, they might assign employees to specific shifts when they will answer chats, different from the days on which their primary responsibility is to attend to in-person customers. Then employees can anticipate their days better, customers can be covered regardless of the channel they choose, and Bonobos can reap the benefits of happy stakeholders.

Discussion Questions:

1. What are the advantages and disadvantages of Bonobos’s hybrid customer service approach?
2. How do you think companies can overcome the challenges that accompany this model of customer service?
3. Do you think other companies should try out the Bonobos model of customer service?

Sources: Alex Harring, “Your Call to Bonobos Might Not Be Answered by the Next Available Agent,” The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2022; Tom Ryan, “Should Store Associates Handle Customer Service Chats?” RetailWire, September 13, 2022