03 Wednesday Dec 2014
Tags
Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Retail, Sales, Selling, Value Selling
Yesterday someone told me there’s no point in trying to exceed customer expectations, because once you do, the bar is raised and the exception becomes the norm. It creates a never ending spiral upward. All I can say, is “poppycock” (yes, people used to say “poppycock,” probably the same folks who used to say “balderdash”). Anyway, you get my point. Continue reading
21 Friday Nov 2014
Posted in Brand, Fashion, Luxury Sales Training
My last post talked about educational institutions that now offer Luxury MBA degrees. This led to the question—what happens once you have such as degree? Interestingly, I just ran across an article from the Boston Consulting Group titled, “Minding the Talent Gap: Fashion and Luxury’s Greatest Challenge for the Next Decade.” The article reveals that luxury companies are struggling to find the right talent. What a perfect time to evaluate whether those Luxury MBA programs provide the same skills and knowledge that luxury and fashion brands seek today. For example, needed skills at the executive level are: analytical and creative skills; retail, product, and brand expertise; and international experience. Continue reading
16 Sunday Nov 2014
Posted in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury Sales Training
Tags
Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, eCommerce, etail, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Sales, Selling
Following is a link to the seven tr
ends the Luxury Institute forecasts for 2015:
Click here to view the Luxury Institute’s Seven Trends Shaping Luxury in 2015.
After reading through the list, some of my key takeaways are:
Also, and very importantly, look for luxury brands to empower store sales associates who have multi-channel clients to reach out and build human relationships after the client purchases in any channel.
04 Tuesday Nov 2014
Posted in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury Sales Training
Tags
Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, eCommerce, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Sales, Selling
More and more luxury and fashion brands are using omni-channel retailing to maximize their brand exposure and increase purchasing opportunities for their customers. For omni-channel to work successfully, the brand message needs to be consistent across all consumer touch points, including in-store, online, mobile apps, social networking, etc. In order to deliver a seamless customer experience, sales associates will need a new level of training in technology, product and processes. Continue reading
17 Friday Oct 2014
Tags
Brand, Customer Experience, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Luxury; Handbags, Security, Selling
Last week I visited a well-known electronics retailer to purchase a new tablet. The battery on my own tablet was no longer holding a charge and I thought I’d try some of the new models. I visited this specific retailer knowing they had various test models on display. Of course, the devices were cabled to the display stands to prevent pilfering—this makes sense. However, as I picked up a test model an alarm went off. It wasn’t loud enough to be heard throughout the store, but it was loud enough to be annoying. I spotted a salesperson and asked for assistance. Her reply was that she wasn’t authorized to disable the alarm and I would have to wait for a tech person. After a few minutes a tech person arrived and shut off the alarm. He warned me, however, the alarm was quite sensitive and would probably go off again. He suggested I visit another area in the store dedicated to that manufacturer. I waited there approximately 10 minutes as the single salesperson assisted another customer. Frustrated, I returned to the original display and picked up a different model tablet. Guess what? More alarms! I left the store.
06 Monday Oct 2014
Posted in Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury Sales Training
Professional Association for Customer Engagement
Today marks the first day of National Customer Service Week (Oct. 6-10, 2014). To kick off the week, I thought I’d share one of my all-time favorite movie clips from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It’s the scene where Holly and Paul try to purchase something at Tiffany for $10. Though the salesperson asks a few too many closed-ended questions, and Tiffany really won’t engrave anything not purchased there, the spirit of excellent customer service still shines through:
Though it’s called National Customer Service Week, we know the real secret for exceeding customer expectations is to turn customer service into customer experience. Here are some guidelines for creating an exceptional customer experience:
On October 8, 1992, President George H. W. Bush signed Presidential Proclamation 6485 establishing the first week of October as National Customer Service Week™. For more information about National Customer Service week, visit the PACE website.
29 Monday Sep 2014
Tags
In my recent blog post “Ditch the Pitch,” I talked about eliminating the prescribed sales script in favor of critical thinking. Not every sales situation can be addressed with a script. Sales associates who can think quickly on their feet will be able to handle unexpected obstacles with grace and elegance, solve problems quickly, and provide a richer customer experience.
With that in mind, I just finished reading an HBR blog post by Joe Panepinto where he says:
Too many companies are still trying to create thick manuals that lay out every possible scenario and a corresponding brand-appropriate response — an “if they do this, you do that” kind of approach. Very reactive.
