customer, and we use those insights to offer her incredible, exclusive designs at great prices.”

Jim says, “The fact was, I believe, David’s had lost its way. Our customers had been telling us through various social media channels and we weren’t listening. It was impacting our brand. We knew we had to make a pivot. We knew we had to make it right. Our leaders immediately embraced the service-obsession culture and we saw results. Here are a few:

• 27,000 customers reviewed us over the last 13 weeks
• 4.8 stars out of 5 is our average rating (historical ratings were poor)
• Customers gave us a 70 NPS score over same period, this month reaching 74 as compared to a score of 50 when we began last year

This has been accomplished across all areas of customer engagement, in our retails stores, call centers, our digital engagement tools such as Zoey and our web site are all up”

How does Jim and his leadership team do it? They own it at all levels. They don’t look at the good scores, good reviews, and good ratings and say to themselves, “well done.” They run their business in the bad reviews; the 1s and 2s. They start each morning at 6 am reading them. They say it is quite sobering. But they say they do it…for her. David’s immediately contacts each customer personally and resolves the issue. They say they do this to learn more, to be better, to understand root cause…to do more for her.

The pandemic offered new challenges for brides and bridesmaids and the team sprang into action. “We wanted her to know we’re here for her and pivoting to support her however she needs. In the wake of our temporary store closures, due to stay at home orders as a result of COVID-19, we wanted to make our expert stylists available to support with any wedding-related inquiry our brides may have, and the biggest shift was moving our focus to supporting them virtually,” explains Jim. “This Virtual Stylist and Virtual Appointment experience was designed to support brides amid store closures but we’re excited to continue to offer both virtual and store appointment options as a permanent solution going forward.”

The team at David’s has been blown away by the response seen from their Virtual Appointment Experience. Hours after its launch, appointments for day one were completely booked out, and in the first week, nearly 1,000 appointments were booked. They quickly followed up with Augmented Reality and 3D capabilities online so their customers could render the dresses right in their own living rooms and bedrooms right from davidsbridal.com. Jim said it has been interesting to see how the customers are engaging with their new tools. “Some brides will purchase during her virtual appointment, other brides will use our Virtual Appointments to filter and favorite their choices before coming into stores to try on and make her final decision,” says Jim.

In addition to the launch of their virtual and augmented reality experiences, David’s has been busy implementing more initiatives to better serve her.Customers can now interact directly with Zoey, their automated concierge, right from a Google store listing page. They can now experience an elevated wedding and bridesmaids dress quiz which helps them go from inspiration to fit in a single step. She can now bring anything to a David’s alterations expert and have it altered (and they do mean anything). She can now also take advantage of installation payments via their newly formed partnership with Affirm. A new exciting opportunity for the customer is that she can now earn a FREE honeymoon with the help of family and friends via Diamond, their newly rolled out loyalty program. Through a new partnership a customer can now match color for color all bridesmaids and groomsmen looks with their exclusive partnership with The Black Tux and she can now experience industry-leading inspiration with Rustic Wedding Chic and book a David’s appointment directly from the site.

David’s Bridal exists for magical moments, they live and breathe it every day—and while they are so incredibly proud of the accomplishments they have made since the start of 2020, their goals are simple. “Any bride who we can help along the way, any time we are able to help her find her dream dress and create that magical moment for her, is what we live for,” adds Jim. “It is never lost on me the magic of what we do and how our products make people feel. It is our customers beauty and emotion that bring our dresses to life and we are honored to be along for her journey. They are the reason we constantly strive to do better and exceed their expectations.”