CUSTOMISE SERVICE to enhance brand treatment

If you can make a customer feel, through your words and actions, that he/she and he/she alone, is being served with full and exclusive attention being showered upon him or her, that he/she is the centre of attraction, you would have individualised your service. I would recommend to provide a ‘class’ service not a ‘mass’ service.

On many occasions, at a retail store, a mall or at a departmental store, the service provided is mass-based, without any attention being paid to the customer as an individual.  To make matters worse, if technology is used without a human touch, the customer could wind up being efficiently served as just another identity number, a code number or a token number, leading to an impersonal Brand Treatment.

This could be very disturbing as the customer could get the feeling that he is just another faceless person amongst many others.  She would feel that she has no individual identity even though she has an identity card number.

In the case of a retail store in a mall, when a customer asked for help to be shown a full range of shirts, the counter salesman kept pointing to the rack of shirts, giving a signal to the customer that he too, just like many others, could help himself. The counter salesman kept doing this without moving, but by definitely lifting his index finger to all customers who came to him for help.  He was blissfully unaware that three other fingers were pointed back at his own unhealthy customer treatment attitude.

After the third customer had gone by in a span of five minutes, the counter salesman did not stop.  Over the next 20 minutes he was seen marshalling customers like they were a herd of sheep, all the while giving no personalised attention.  In fact, customers felt that this was an encounter of the worst kind and they dreaded the Brand Treatment.

On analysis after a month, it was found that the shirt counter fared the worst in terms of customer treatment.  This counter salesperson was not practicing personalised customer treatment with full sincerity and enthusiasm.

On the other hand a wonderful Brand Treatment would have been the result if the counter salesperson practiced personalised customer treatment with full sincerity and verve.

The moment you enter Nalli, the premier saree store in Chennai, all the crowds notwithstanding, you can be sure of a warm, VIP welcome.  Never for a moment do they let you think that they are fed up or tired.  In fact, a sales person is assigned to a customer to take him on a tour of the shop and display whatever sarees they wish to see. It is warm Indian hospitality at its charming best determining Brand Treatment that customers cherish.

In the earlier retail store example, the ambience was better.  But it was cold, aloof and indifferent.  Nalli on the other hand had a simple homely ambience full of warmth, caring and a personalised approach.

Fab India, is another good example of personalised customer treatment being practised at its best.  As soon as you enter, there is someone to guide you around and help you shop. This is true, whether at Mumbai or Dehradun.

A personal touch makes a world of difference. It has a magical effect – a Midas touch that can convert a simple walk-in enquiry into a profitable sale.

Use my advice. A personalised customer treatment delivers wonderful Brand Treatment and makes a customer feel on top of the world because it gives the customer tremendous intangible value and satisfaction.           

By Brand Guru, Jagdeep Kapoor