Make it emotional
Winning the hearts and minds (and wallets) of each and every consumer is no easy feat. Mary Poulakis, managing proprietor of award winning boutique Harrolds, offers her top tips for conquering all three.
There are many secrets to the premium retailer's customer service excellence but first and foremost it's all about vision.
We have always thought well beyond simplistic short-term transactions with our customers, choosing instead to build relationships and a rapport with them that inspire longevity and reciprocity. The customer experience in many retail outlets today is sadly lacking, which is due to the fact that too many retailers don't pay enough (or indeed, any) attention to the whole deal, or universal customer experience within their stores. From our perspective, 'customer experience' is a concept that goes miles beyond a monetary transaction and relies on critical details such as the quality of envelopes, packaging, marketing, advertising/promotion, ambience, and store design.
The core of CEM (Customer Experience Management) focuses on relationship marketing and establishing genuinely beneficial long-term empathy between brands and customers. Our store at 101 Collins Street is the 'real deal', so to speak, and a great example of CEM at its best. It's the quality of the customer experience at any touch point that can affect the overall relationship a customer has with a company - from telephone answering and service delivery, to advertising/marketing/promotion and store design. We strive to ensure that all touch points or experiences with the Harrolds brand engender notions of exclusivity and exemplary service. For example, one established client often visits our Collins Street boutique with his external business associates for an espresso - his colleague is extended the same level of customer service and customer experience that the established client has come to know and enjoy. That helps separate Harrolds from its peers and competitors.
:Think big (and very, very small)
At Harrolds' retail emporiums, scrupulous attention to detail is evident throughout. The fitting rooms, for example, are fitted with chairs, shoe horns, mirrors, clothes brushes, and complimentary fragrance/cologne; while formal purchase receipt wallets encase all transaction dockets and every purchase is carefully and attentively packaged regardless of value or cost.
:Harness the power of vision
Attention to detail is also apparent in Harrolds' advertising and marketing programs. Each campaign is specifically designed to transport our clients into a particular lifestyle or location. We indulge in heavily aspirational advertising - a lot of our clientele want to look like media mogul millionaires on the 60ft cruising yachts and aspire to be that mogul, so our customer experience collateral is reflective of this at all times. Harrolds is also 'lifestyle' focused, which is a theme consistently reflected in our product ranges - every range comprises a blend of emerging brands and traditional classical lines that deliberately cater to a broad market demographic.
:Knowledge is power
Another key to the success of Harrolds' Customer Experience program relies upon managing and using vital customer data. Customer details and buying preferences are kept in meticulous detail on the Harrolds 'state of the art' customer database, and using the latest German software, the premium retailer is committed to innovations in refining customer experience. Harrolds harvest data unobtrusively from clients, so that client preferences, buying habits, birthdays and shoe sizes are all recorded, efficiently with no fuss. By doing this we can ensure that the entire customer experience is governed and guided even before a customer walks in the store - in fact, the customer preferences are not only noted, catered for, but most importantly anticipated. We ultimately treat retail as high art.
:Choose your people wisely
As a family business, Harrolds owners place great importance on their relationships with both clients and staff, and it's ultimately these relationships which form the ethos at the centre of every activity, transaction and decision.