About

Equinox is a luxury fitness and lifestyle brand that operates 100+ locations across the US, UK, and Canada. The company sells 120+ retail brands in their fitness clubs and an eCommerce storefront.

Challenge

Offering efficient customer service and shipping protections without impacting margins was a steep challenge

As a retailer that sells goods from many vendors — some drop-shipped and some sent from their distribution center — Equinox began to see an influx of customer claims. However, their specialty retail team of two had other duties that took away from their ability to address the caseload.

So Senior Retail Director Becca Briggs set out to find a comprehensive post-purchase solution that could address their needs:

• Reduced burden on the lean retail team: Retail isn’t the biggest component of the Equinox brand, so their in-house concierge customer service team does not handle retail claims. What’s more, the retail specialty team is very lean — the burden of claims falls mainly on one team member — so they needed a full-service solution.
• Order upgrades to encourage loyalty: Becca also wanted a way to incentivize customers to continue purchasing, even after making a return. She hoped to build trust with dissatisfied customers by offering an incentive that would instill confidence in the brand.
• Package protections for theft and loss: Equinox also needed a way to offer order protection that addressed lost, stolen, and damaged packages. Many of Equinox’s retail customers live in urban areas, which have a higher rate of package theft. Further complicating their customer experience was the variety of shipment locations — a lost package might be in transit from a dropshipping vendor or their own distribution center.

Onward was the only provider to check all the boxes.

“We need to use our limited manpower efficiently. We want to outsource some of the tasks that take up the most time so we can focus on the other tasks.”

Solution

Onward’s self-serve solutions provide a best-in-class experience with no added lift

With Onward, any items a customer isn’t satisfied with fall under the 90-day Satisfaction Guarantee, ensuring customers can access free returns and full refunds at no additional cost for Equinox.

When a customer chooses to add Onward’s comprehensive package protection, their orders are covered. Whether their package is stolen from their front porch or lost in transit from one of Equinox’s multiple shipment locations, it’s covered by Onward’s shipping protections. Missing packages never impact Equinox’s bottom line.

What’s more, customers can easily submit claims through the self-serve portal, and Onward swiftly resolves them — with most claims being answered within 15 minutes. Becca says this not only saves Equinox money from lost shipments, but the order upgrades offered by Onward have improved the customer experience too.

To further incentivize repeat business, customers receive 5% CashBack on purchases, which keeps them coming back to Equinox time and again.

“It makes member experience better because everything’s easier and gets taken care of faster. It’s a seamless flow to a resolution for any kind of problem there is.”

Results

Equinox increases monthly revenue by $3k+ with Onward’s Cashback incentives

Because Onward handles everything from fast self-serve claims for lost packages to convenient refunds and product returns, Equinox’s retail specialty team no longer worries about customer claims. Becca says they’ve reallocated that time to improving member relations.

With Onward, Equinox not only reduced customer service caseloads but also increased revenue:

“With a staff the size of ours, having a service like Onward to address customer claims and find solutions to issues is wonderful. Giving our team the time back allows us to go from savers to revenue drivers.”