This holiday retail season is expected to be just as bad -- or worse -- than last year for retailers. One result that customers will see is how much customer service is improving, especially in luxury stores. It's crucial that customers be made to feel welcome and that sales clerks don't scare off customers. The New York Times reports on the extremes that some luxury stores are going to in order to find and keep customers.
If the doorman at Bergdorf Goodman seems a little more cheerful than usual this holiday season, or a salesman at Prada or Hermes offers to find a pair of shoes in your size without rolling an eye, do not act so surprised. Retailers are being extra nice, and not just to the regulars.
"They're offering a glass of Champagne as you enter David Yurman," said Kate Kreindler, a suburban student, referring to the high-priced jewelry store on Madison Avenue. She noticed she was receiving more-attentive service while shopping on that luxury strip on Monday.
A few steps away at Dennis Basso, a fur store, Mr. Basso himself was greeting customers. "It can't hurt," he said. "Stores that don't normally have great customer service are trying harder. They're reaching out and giving that special treatment to the ... " and here, he paused for emphasis, " ... Christmas shopper."
It may be a curious silver lining of the recession, but even a casual browser can expect to be treated like a V.I.P. in high-end stores on Madison and Fifth Avenues once famed for snooty attitudes and imposing facades. Almost every person who has stepped through the gilded revolving doors of Bergdorf recently, whether a tourist or, on Dec. 17, the actress Susan Lucci in a salmon-pink mink, has been given a hero’s welcome, with an honor guard of doting sales associates.
And, yes, those doormen really are cheerier. Jim Gold, the chief executive of the store, said he replaced the security company that hires them "when we found the ones we were using weren't as friendly as we wanted them to be."
The store now devotes its staff meetings every Saturday morning, before it opens, to the subject of customer service. Although Bergdorf was already known for attentive details like sending thank-you notes to customers, several shoppers reported receiving them recently for buying as little as an $18 bottle of nail polish or a lipstick.
It is not just luxury brands that are trying to improve service. The Gap, Macy's and other chains are also coaching sales personnel how to be friendlier and more helpful. Which leads us to wonder: when the recession eventually ends, will some stores go back to having rude sales clerks? Or will this be a permanent change?
