As a seasoned shopper, I've long appreciated good service. By "good", I don't mean the kind that involves being assailed the minute I push open the door of a store only to be sneered at when I indicate that I merely want to look around. I mean the kind dispensed by polite, agreeable, well-informed staff not looking merely to score a commission. In my experience as a customer, good service has, on more than one occasion, made the difference between my actually making a purchase or my just walking away. So, if good service is so important to the shopping experience (luxury or otherwise), why is it so rare? And why does it take a recession to get retailers to suddenly focus on the concept?
As a former resident of Paris and New York and a current resident of London, I've sadly come to associate cutting edge fashion and hip retail stores with the haughty, pretentious attitudes of their staff. You know the type: the model-pretty but vapid twenty-something with all the charm of a club bouncer who won't even make eye contact let alone give you a polite greeting. Yet, I know for a fact that good retail service does in fact exist. I'll never forget the first time I walked into the Lane Crawford flagship store in Hong Kong's IFC Mall. I remember feeling almost overwhelmed by cognitive dissonance as I wandered throughout the store being greeted and eventually served by one polite and agreeable salesperson after another. Why can't that kind of discreet service be replicated in New York, London and Paris? Given the current state of retail, I would recommend all retailers take a good, hard look at the April 09 issue of Monocle in which they conduct a global survey of the state of retail. Committing to memory and implementing their "Ten Point Plan" would be a very good place to start.
Sincerely,
The Luxe Chronicles
tyler is a good-service crusader.
Posted by: editor | Wednesday, March 25, 2009 at 19:23