A Furniture Brand Built on Experience
Nathan James is a modern, digitally native furniture company that designs stylish, affordable pieces built for real life. The brand sells 100% online, both through its own site and retail giants like Wayfair, Amazon, Walmart, and Home Depot. With no physical stores or showrooms, the customer experience is the company’s storefront, which means every interaction is a direct reflection of its brand.
Taylor Johnson, Director of Customer Experience, leads a growing global support team of 24 dedicated to making that storefront shine. From pre-purchase questions to post-delivery support, her team ensures customers feel cared for at every step of their journey.
“We’re a 100% online furniture company,” Taylor explained. “No stores, no showrooms. The customer experience is our storefront.”
The Growing Pains of Success
As Nathan James scaled, their success brought new complications. Before Kustomer, resolving a single customer issue might mean switching between multiple tools just to respond to a customer or gather context. Email, chat, phone and social media were all siloed in different applications. Agents wasted time, data was inconsistent, and customers were left waiting.
Even issuing store credit was a burden. “It was just clunky,” Taylor admitted. “We needed something cleaner, smarter, and built around how we actually work.”
A Single Source of Truth
Kustomer became that source of truth.
With Kustomer, Nathan James unified every customer interaction into one timeline including orders from Shopify, reviews from Reviews.io, marketing data from Klaviyo, and even custom-built workflows.
Taylor especially loves how customizable Kustomer is. Her team built structured forms so that issuing store credit - once a messy, manual process - became a one-click workflow.
“Kustomer pulls all customer information on one timeline. We see a customer’s full history right there, without switching around. That’s been a game-changer for us.”
Going Above and Beyond for Customers
Furniture returns are notoriously tricky - expensive to ship back, difficult to resell, and often frustrating for customers. But Taylor’s team found a way to turn this challenge into an opportunity to wow customers with empathy and care.
If a customer receives a piece they’re not happy with – maybe the color doesn’t fit their space – Nathan James makes it easy. The team looks for the most effortless, empathetic resolution possible, often helping the customer find something they truly love without the hassle of a complex return. In some cases, that might mean offering store credit right away so they can choose a better fit, while finding a simple, low-waste way to handle the original item.
“We know buying furniture online can feel scary,” Taylor said. “If something isn’t right, we want to make it effortless for the customer to get what they need. That level of care is what keeps people coming back.”
And customers do come back. Between 10–20% of Nathan James shoppers return for another purchase, and a growing number say they heard about the brand from a friend or family member.
“Word of mouth has become one of our biggest growth drivers,” Taylor shared. “People have a great experience, they love their furniture, and they tell their friends. That’s the best validation we could ask for.”
Where Efficiency Meets Empathy
With Kustomer as their customer experience hub, Nathan James has unlocked a new level of efficiency and delight for both agents and customers. The improvements show up not only in internal metrics, but also in the way customers talk about the brand.
Time Savings and Efficiency
Agents no longer waste precious minutes switching between five to ten different systems. By bringing Shopify, Reviews.io, Klaviyo, and custom workflows into one place, Kustomer cut out repetitive manual work. Everyday tasks like issuing store credits or checking order status are now completed in a fraction of the time, freeing agents to focus on customers instead of systems.
Cleaner, More Actionable Data
With custom fields and required attributes, data capture is no longer an afterthought. Taylor’s team now has reliable reporting that highlights trends and fuels CX strategy. Instead of patchy or inconsistent information, the company can confidently act on insights to improve both service and operations.
Happier Customers (and Higher CSAT)
Faster responses, seamless resolutions, and empathetic decision-making have led to a noticeable bump in customer satisfaction scores. When a shopper isn’t happy with their order, the Nathan James team focuses on making things easy — sometimes that means issuing store credit quickly so customers can find something they love, while helping them handle the original item in a simple, low-waste way. This flexible, customer-first approach turns potential frustrations into lasting loyalty.
Word-of-Mouth Growth
Perhaps the most powerful result: a rising share of customers now come to Nathan James through friends and family. Between 10–20% of shoppers return for another purchase, and referrals have become one of the brand’s strongest growth channels. Positive experiences don’t just end with a resolution — they spark conversations that bring in new customers.
Human-First, Tech-Enabled
Despite her enthusiasm for technology, Taylor is adamant that Nathan James stays “human-first.”
“People are surprised when they call us and an actual human picks up,” she said with a smile. “We want to keep that. But I do see AI helping us behind the scenes — making agents faster, smarter, more proactive.”
The next steps? Expanding live chat onto product pages and checkout, so customers can get guidance while shopping. Exploring AI as an assistant — not a replacement — to help agents manage surges and scale with care.
Turning Support into a Differentiator
For Taylor Johnson, Kustomer isn’t just a tool — it’s the foundation of how Nathan James delivers an experience that feels personal, trustworthy, and refreshingly human in the world of online furniture.
“We’re data-driven, but we’re also people-driven,” she said. “Kustomer gives us both — clean insights and a way to make every interaction special.”