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Tag Archives: Value Selling

Turning Returns into Opportunities

08 Tuesday Jan 2019

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Customer Complaints, Customer Experience, Customer Retention, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Sales Training, luxury service, Luxury Talent, Sales Coaching, Tiffany

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Sales, Selling, Tiffany, Value Selling

RTT

Photo Credit: Tiffany & Co. For editorial use only

As usual, last Sunday’s New York Times featured the Tiffany & Company advertisement regularly found at the top of page 3. This time the  image was of the multi-heart Return to Tiffany (RTT)  bracelet. Seeing as it’s January, I wasn’t sure if someone in Tiffany’s advertising department might have a sense of humor. This particular bracelet, with all those little RTT hearts, and the timing of the ad made me think of all the post-holiday customers “returning” their unwanted presents to Tiffany. Though it’s hard to imagine someone wanting to return a Tiffany gift, it does happen. During my tenure there, we were especially concerned at this time of year about keeping up sales associates’ spirits while ensuring customers still received exceptional service. Continue reading →

Luxury Associates Need to Become Luxury Curators

30 Monday May 2016

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Retention, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Sales Training, luxury service, Luxury Talent

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Retail, luxury service, Sales, Selling, Value Selling

Curator

I recently returned from the largest international conference for professionals in the field of learning and development sponsored by the Association for Talent Development (ATD). Nearly 11,000 attendees from over 80 countries attended 300 concurrent sessions in Denver, Colorado. The exhibition hall boasted more than 400 leading training services providers. As I wandered the aisles of learning content vendors, one word repeatedly caught my attention—curated.

‘Curate’ is not a new word. Its root goes back to the Latin curare, which means to care. The first known use of the word ‘curator’ as someone who is in charge of a museum or art gallery collection dates back to 1561. The word has evolved over the centuries and today Dictionary.com defines ‘curate’ as “to pull together, sift through, and select for presentation, as music or website content.”

Content curation is so omnipresent in consumers’ lives today that we barely notice it. Your shows on Netflix are curated based on your viewing history, Spotify tailors music selections specifically to your taste, most news services feed you content according to your specified preferences, and shopping services such as StitchFix will curate a personal wardrobe for you. Curation as a marketing and sales technique gained ground in 2011 with Steven Rosenbaum’s book Creation Nation.

I love the idea of turning luxury sales associates into luxury curators for two reasons. The first reason is the root of the word – to care. Care needs to inform everything a luxury associate does: caring about the customer, caring about the customer’s needs, caring about the luxury experience, and caring about the presentation. The second reason is the idea that the curated experience is a personalized experience for the luxury consumer. Today’s luxury customers seek experiences that are customized to their personal preferences, that are exceptional, and that they can share and remember. Recently, Saks Fifth Avenue launched a service through which associates are available 24/7 to curate personalized virtual boutiques for individual customers. But curation isn’t just about technology. As Milton Pedraza, CEO of the Luxury Institute says, “Technology today presents an immense opportunity for targeting potential customers, but it is ultimately the intimate humanistic relationships that sales professionals form with customers that keep them coming back.”  It is the luxury sales associate who holds the key to building those connections.

What do luxury sales associates need to do in order to become luxury curators? To find some answers I searched “How to curate?” and found some great tips on Coschedule.com. Coschedule is a marketing calendaring service whose tips are specific to how to curate online content. I’ve borrowed the heading for each tip and turned each into a suggestion for sales associates who are looking to create a curated luxury experience for their clients:

  • Provide your take on things – Add your own personal touch. To paraphrase Coschedule, provide every piece with context. You should always surround the piece with your views, knowledge, and insight. Share a story about your brand’s heritage or an intimate detail about the craftsmanship.
  • Don’t make it all about you – Remember your customers have different preferences than you. Research and understand the lifestyles of your luxury customers. Read luxury travel and style magazines, subscribe to luxury blogs, and know your competition.
  • Answer your audience’s common questions – Be knowledgeable about your brand, your services, distinguishing product characteristics, shipping and return policies, corporate responsibility programs, etc. Common questions may also include concierge-type recommendations on where to eat, shop or find local attractions.
  • Be very, very selective – Rather than rattling off a list of features, share two or three benefits (a personalized statement of value) you believe best meet your customer’s needs. To turn a feature into a benefit, think of the customer asking “Why is this important to this me?”
  • Take advantage of in-house expertise – Observe your co-workers. How are they interacting with customers? What can you learn from them? Be open to asking for feedback. Ask your manager to observe you and provide suggestions on how you can improve. If you don’t know the answer to a question, make sure you find someone who does.
  • Don’t forget your CTA’s (Calls to Action) – Your relationship to the customer doesn’t end when he or she walks out the door. Think about how you can proactively reach out to customers to grow the relationship by building upon additional needs. A hand-written thank you note is always welcome. You may want to invite them to an upcoming event, alert them to a new item, or just check in to see how they’re enjoying their purchase.

If you view your role as a curator rather than a sales person, you will provide the level of care and personalization necessary to turn every customer interaction into an extraordinary luxury experience.

 

GRACE: The Perfect Recipe for Luxury Customer Service

09 Monday Nov 2015

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Sales Training, luxury service, Luxury Talent, Sales Coaching, Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Retail, Sales, Selling, Value Selling

GRACEDaniel Humm is the chef and owner for the Michelin three-star restaurant Eleven Madison Park and The NoMad in New York City. He’s also the recipient of six James Beard Awards, four stars from the New York Times and the S. Pellegrino Chef’s Choice 2015 award. Mr. Humm was recently interviewed by New York Magazine and asked how me keeps his team motivated. He replied:

We treat every service as if it’s the only one that matters, the same way a sports team prepares for a championship match. Everything we do is done with intention and the desire to make the guest’s experience the best it can be.

Continue reading →

Should We Try to Exceed Customer Expectations?

03 Wednesday Dec 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury Sales Training

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Tags

Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Retail, Sales, Selling, Value Selling

Happy CustomerYesterday 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 →

The Value of Luxury

27 Monday Oct 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Fashion, Luxury Sales Training

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Abercrombie & Fitch, Brand, Burberry, Coach, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Gucci, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Luxury Fashion, Luxury Retail, Luxury; Handbags, Michael Kors, Price, Value Selling

auction-paddle-2Luxury has been defined as something that is pleasant to have or experience, but is not a necessity. The concepts of exclusivity and rarity can also factor into the definition of luxury. Value, on the other hand, is determined by the relation of price to perceived benefit. But if luxury is not a necessity, then how do we determine its value? Continue reading →

Choice Words: How to Speak to the Luxury Customer

25 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Helping Customers Envision

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Brand, Customer Experience, Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Value Selling

??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????I’ve heard it said that women fall in love with their ears and men with their eyes. I’m a woman who studied music and has an ear for languages. Perhaps this is why I’m particularly attuned to the words I hear, especially when those words are delivered as part of a luxury customer experience.

Continue reading →

“What’s it to you?” – Igniting Customer Desire

12 Tuesday Aug 2014

Posted by Victoria Macdonald in Customer Experience, Customer Service, Helping Customers Envision

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Customer Service, Luxury, Luxury Brand, Value Selling

matchWhat’s it to me? Everything! If you can’t articulate why your product or service is important to me, you’ll likely not win me as a customer. Very often sales associates try to differentiate themselves by becoming subject matter experts. They then overwhelm potential clients with a litany of facts and product features with no regard for what’s actually important to the customer. In other words, what is the benefit to the customer?

Being able to distinguish between a feature (a statement of value) and a benefit (a personalized statement of value) is the key to igniting customer desire. When purchasing a luxury service or product, it’s less about need than it is about desire—and desire is emotion based. That means in order to tie into the emotion that will create desire, you need to position not only the value of your product or service, but its value to your customer. Continue reading →

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