In the last few months there has been a brand that has amazed me on two separate occasions now. A brand that has delivered common sense approaches to service, and put in place operations that just make total sense to me as the customer. A retailer that has been so easy to deal with that without doubt, whenever I go shopping with my son now it’s the first place I go to for clothing. That place is….. New Look.
It’s so easy for us to shout about poor customer experience but I have to tell you about two really great and simple experiences lately.
The first was when we had to return a pair of jeans he’d bought in the January sales. He’d worn them once only recently for the first time and noticed a seam had come undone. A bit disappointed we took them back but because we’d bought them several months ago we didn’t have a receipt. I must be honest, I was fully preparing myself for a ‘tough luck’ response.
“Hi, we bought these in January but don’t have the receipt. As you can tell they’ve only been worn once. What are our options?”
“Shall we see if we have another pair in stock?”
Ok, so smart move, defused me and took the product back. However, being so long ago they didn’t have another pair. I wondered what they’d do now?
“I’m sorry, we can only give you store credit to the current product value.” Ok, that will do (it was far more than I was expecting).
“How did you pay for them?” Probably with my card I answered.
“Well, they’re marked down to £8 now, if you want I’ll just stick the money back on the card for you.” What? I couldn’t believe it. A refund 8 months after purchase. That was real common sense customer service right there.
“That’s very kind,” I answered, absolutely stunned.
Transaction done.
Last week we went to New Look, looking for a jacket. We found one he really liked but, when he tried it, the jacket was just a little short in the arm. “Do you have this in the next size up?” Off went the assistant looking for me. “I’m sorry, we don’t.” That wasn’t the end though.
“We can order it from another store to be delivered to your home address.” Not even having to come back in store, this was taking the principles of online shopping and applying them to in store experience.
“That’s great, how much extra does that cost?”
“Delivery is free, so you don’t pay a penny more.” GAME, SET, MATCH – NEW LOOK.
The high street has its challenges, however when more shops start to address customers in the way New Look do then a revival can’t be far away.
In summary
Treat your customers like they mean something to you, and how you would like to be treated … and you will have that customer for a very long time. For the sake of £8 New Look didn’t make any fuss, and gained a raving fan J
Don’t let customers walk away, if you can’t supply them there and then … if they walk away you are letting someone else have the chance to ‘wow’ them. Can you offer a home delivery service for free – like New Look did? How much would losing the sale cost you?
