Arrived yesterday morning in San Francisco and spent the afternoon looking inside retail concepts in and around Union Square. A number of themes have started to unfold but the 'stand out' one today was the delivery of world class customer service.From the friendliness of a greeting to the questions asked, I was taken back by how consistently great, "great" service could be.
The Jo Malone concession store inside Neiman-Marcus was a stand-out as was Levi's HQ in Union Square. It was more than just good delivery of "product information". In these stores the sales staff were true brand ambassadors. They engage and create emotional contracts with shoppers.
Left is a pic of one of my colleagues who was browsing for jeans in Levi's HQ. Rather than being left to her own devices to figure out which pair would be right, one of the staff spotted us looking and came over to offer a specialised Levi's 'measure and fit.' Do they do this in Australia? I haven't seen it but assuming they offer it. The result? Service that helped diagnose which product options were best - narrowing down the choices and resulting in a very happy customer who walked in to 'have a look' and ended up purchasing.
Great service is about taking care of the customers needs and taking the time to find out who they are and what they want. It's about knowing your shopper.
The lesson? Focus on service first and the 'sale' follows.
A great start, stay tuned for more...
