Tailored shopping experiences that best suit the customer

With decades of accumulated product and style expertise, Harry Rosen is an international men’s boutique that delivers a curated selection of the world’s top menswear from luxury designers for the modern man. Over the past 67 years, Harry Rosen has provided exemplary service, advice, and personalization, catering products and services to their clients’ unique needs.

They currently operate 17 stores across Canada, which includes three outlets, and have a robust eCommerce presence.

A core part of Harry Rosen’s business is to provide customers with tailored, one-of-a-kind experiences. To streamline that process, the team evaluated several appointment scheduling solutions to automate their manual booking process.

When the pandemic hit, the team knew they needed to implement a solution quickly, not only to provide virtual offerings when stores were closed, but to give customers more control. Having an automated appointment scheduling solution in place to provide customers a way to confidently manage their appointments became more than the right strategic move for them long-term, it was imperative to deliver continuous service, a smooth customer experience, and empower their clients.

Harry Rosen was looking for a booking solution to replace a manual booking process, as well as empower both customers and clothing advisors to manage the appointment process. Giving the customer the convenience of booking when they want at a time that suits them.

When evaluating appointment scheduling software from a technical perspective, the Harry Rosen team needed a solution that could scale with them and could seamlessly integrate with other technology, with one of the most important integrations being Office 365. The Harry Rosen team was already using Microsoft Office 365, so having an intuitive integration that didn’t require additional training, and automatically added and removed appointments from advisors’ calendars was a requirement.

They also needed a solution that could deliver the same level of service to customers virtually when their stores were closed. After an RFP process with JRNI and other vendors, the team selected JRNI as the most viable solution from a technical standpoint, including the ease of integration on their website, and as a partner to scale with.

With JRNI, the team was able to transform their manual approach to appointment scheduling to create an appointments strategy that empowered their customers and their teams. With more than 250 clothing advisors available for in-store and virtual appointments, Harry Rosen has seen a drastic increase in appointments during the pandemic. Since May 2020, the average number of appointments per week has more than doubled. The clothing advisors are conducting, on average, 3 to 5 appointments per week, totaling 100+ appointments per day.

Previously, their appointments were typically initiated by the advisor. Since implementing JRNI, customers have been able to manage their own appointments, and they have seen more clients initiating the appointments. Additionally, they are seeing low no-show and cancellation rates of less than 10%.

In 2020, Harry Rosen’s online sales tripled over 2019, accounting for one-third of their total sales. With the ability to use JRNI remote appointments to stay connected with customers and share curated and customized product selections, the team saw JRNI playing a part in the growth of their digital sales. With virtual appointments, Harry Rosen’s clothing advisors demonstrate the merchandise via video, and then use a tool to assemble products virtually. This curation of products can be sent to the client in pre-selected sizes, directly linking to purchase online.

As restrictions were lifted, there were still capacity limits at their store locations. During this time, many clothing advisors simply adjusted their availability to provide continuous service to their customers using JRNI. This gave them more options to meet with customers outside of normal business hours and provide flexibility during a difficult time - giving them more control over their business and customers more peace of mind. JRNI has also given their advisors a way to easily prepare for upcoming appointments, knowing when and why a customer is coming into the store. With a high level of interaction between the advisor and customer, they see high conversion rates of approximately 70%.

“JRNI sets us up so when a customer comes in, we know what they’re there for, we're already prepared - and it makes the customer experience that much better.” Whitfield said.

Along with empowering customers and clothing advisors, JRNI has provided crucial insights across the Harry Rosen stores to give leadership the data they need to make informed decisions.

“For our customers, JRNI provides a smooth, easy, and frictionless booking experience. And for me, as a leader running a retail business, visibility into what is taking place within your business is really important. Now I can see exactly who's coming in, who they're meeting with, and what they're meeting about. The ability to track how many appointments are coming from which areas, what the customer's interest level is in the various appointment types, and being able to understand want a customer wants to book for so we can prepare for a great customer experience - this really stands out to me as valuable information we’re getting from JRNI,” Whitfield said.

As Harry Rosen looks ahead to what appointment scheduling will look like for them in the future, they expect it to continue to grow at a rapid rate, providing the benefits they’ve always seen as an appointment-based business. Using JRNI, they will be able to scale with this increase in appointments.