Customer service remains the single most important differentiator within the retail market place and always will be. When partnered with the customer shopping experience, both elements combine to offer retailers differential within the modern global retail market place.  

Retailers will always compete on price, on promotional activity and on advertising spend however; when it comes to the minute by minute interaction between the sales associate on the sales floor and the consumer, it is customer service that will both retain existing customers and win new customers. Remember that competitors can copy everything about you, except your people. Store formats in shopping centres such as Oxford Street in London or 5th Avenue in New York, are being steadily upstaged by innovative retail formats as far apart as Nanjing Road in Shanghai or Rua Oscar Freire in Sao Paolo.  

The Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St Paul’s in the United States of America, play host to the corporate offices of both Target and Best Buy: The former, led by Gregg Steinhafel, appointed on the retirement of Bob Ulrich and the latter by Brad Anderson who, also nearing retirement will soon be succeeded by Brian Dunn. Deloitte ranks Target as the 6th largest retailer in the U.S, with Best Buy at No. 12 in the rankings and so the challenge faced by both new CEO’s is as certain today as it was for their predecessors: How to distil boardroom decision-making from the confines of the Twin Cities, to the four-hour part time sales associate working in their stores, and deliver consistent world-class customer service which offers differential from their competitors.  

The service promises begins with the brand logo and everything associated with it. Take the Target Bullseye which has become synonymous with the brand and with the character traits associated with the brand: In recent surveys 96 per cent of respondents recognised the Bullseye symbol alone, edging out even the Nike Swoosh and Apple logo. So powerful is the symbol, that Target Corporation now regularly run advertisements, which feature the logo, but not their brand name.  

The former CEO of Target Corporation, Bob Ulrich, a long time supporter of the Arts, is now the founder Chairman of the world’s first, and truly global, Musical Instrument Museum, in Arizona. As Bill DeWalt, the President and Director, told me recently, ‘If it can be hit, strum or plucked, it will be here, and everyone who walks through the door will be treated as a guest not as a visitor’ And so an environment not normally associated with service, a museum, will take the lead in delivering a service-led customer proposition. We watch and wait with interest.  

Starbucks offers what is perhaps the single most eponymous customer service offer worldwide: They can and do personalise every fresh product that they make. The menu board is merely a starting point for customers, and by adding or subtracting heat, froth or some other ingredients, every customer has the opportunity to personalise their product and get great service along the way. Even McDonald’s would be challenged to deliver that level of personalisation.  

Retailers in mature markets can learn from service providers and other retailers in so-called emerging markets such as Russia, India, China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. On a recent flight with Kingfisher Airlines, between New Delhi and Mumbai, a cabin attendant approached my colleague and me during meal service to ask if we would like to have our glasses cleaned. We pointed out that we were still drinking from them, and were politely told that the cabin attendant was actually referring to our reading glasses! An experienced traveller, this subtle service offering immediately differentiated Kingfisher from other airlines and affirmed the Chairman, Vijay Mallya’s message at the beginning of the welcome-aboard video that he ‘personally interviews’ every cabin attendant within the fleet. I believe him. I stay with India to illustrate again how world-class customer service makes a difference. I have stayed in the Oberoi hotel in Mumbai only once however; I know that they value my custom. I know this because within two days of the recent fateful events in Mumbai I received a call from one of the management team in the hotel; reassuring me that the company were rebuilding quickly and that they hoped to welcome me back again as soon as practicable. At a time when they really should have been thinking of themselves and their families, the executive team within the company were thinking of their customers.  

The Metersbonwe Group of China now owns and manages 2,000 ‘MetersBonwe’ casual-wear apparel stores across the country, similar to Primark of Ireland, and that’s from a standing start in 1995. Already the largest retailer of its kind in China, at the end of 2008 the company also launched a new format called ‘Me & City’, which is most similar to Zara of Spain. The customer-service differential offered by the brand is that its stores are almost devoid of Chinese imagery; adopting Wentworth Miller, star of the US series Prison Break, as the face of the brand and using Caucasian rather than Asian or Chinese mannequins and graphics. Playing to the essential Chinese consumer’s aspiration for ‘All things Western’, the combined effect, supported by outstanding in-store imagery and product merchandising, is a store which would sit as comfortably in Oxford Street, London as it does in Nanjing Road in Shanghai. 

Modern retailing in China, as in other emerging markets, has been driven first by the entry of high-end, luxury brands, followed later by mid-market retailers; and in those emerging markets you’ll see retail formats executed in a way that you will not see in a mature market. For instance, Versace in Shanghai retails beauty and body products off a mid-mall kiosk, just as GAP does also in downtown Buenos Aires. There is an increasing trend also for retailers to use emerging markets as the first stop in an international expansion strategy, rather than a mature, established market with clearly defined demographics. Three current examples are Bloomingdales, Hershey’s and Barbie. In 2010, Bloomingdales will open its first store outside North America in Dubai; Hershey’s opened a flagship store in Shanghai during 2008 and Mattel opened a new Barbie store, also in Shanghai, only last month. Why Shanghai? Richard Dickson of Mattel was quoted as saying, ‘We came to the decision that since this is a whole new concept, it should be happening in the most ‘future’ place in the world’. And he is right; Shanghai is, arguably, the single most future-looking retail city in the world. And when have you ever seen a Hershey’s flagship that wasn’t on a street corner? Chicago, New York and, of course, Shanghai: For Hershey’s, that dominant corner location has become an integral part of their retail offer.  

South American retailers offer just as compelling customer-service to consumers; addressing their needs not only as consumers but as people; catering to their life stage and lifestyle aspirations. Galeria Melissa, set in leafy Rua Oscar Freire, Sao Paolo, Brazil, is a footwear store like no other. Inside, the constantly evolving product offer is visually merchandised across a range of fixtures, of which only a small proportion are free standing floor fixtures; the remainder are either wall or ceiling mounted. The visual impact is stunning. The company turns traditional retailing on its head: It’s not the product that is the hero; it’s the shop-fit. Outside the store, rather, outside the merchandised space, the journey actually begins. There you will find a 200 sq metres veranda, set back from the pavement and open to the elements, for customers and pedestrians alike to sit and enjoy the open-plan space, the art or the sunshine. Further along Rua Oscar Friere is the wonderful Le Lis Blanc Deux, a high-end apparel retailer for women. Like Galeria Melissa, they’ve given over the front of the store space to cater to the customers’ lifestyle needs, and presented a drive-through drop off point for taxi’s and chauffer driven cars alike, surrounded by beautifully tailored gardens. Customers can be driven to the front door and exit their cars under cover of a canopy protecting them from the sun or the rain. Both retailers have given a higher visual priority to addressing lifestyle and life stage needs, than the actual sale of products.  

In Buenos Aires, Argentina, you’ll find Caro Cure and 47th Street. Trade barriers, which exist between South America and Asia, have, during the last three decades, forced South American retailers to develop retail formats that can be serviced by the local supply chain. Both Caro Cure and 47th Street deliver visually stunning store formats, which cater to their target market. And several time zones away in Russia, you’ll find Tsum, pronounces Zoom; which, since opening in 2008, has become the department store to shop in Moscow. Their Christmas windows offer customers invite the customers to enjoy pure unadulterated fantasy, and their efforts to drive flow continue through SALE period when they positioned a 3m high poppy red statue of a bodybuilding midget in front of the store, as though calling to every passing consumer. 

In the current economic climate, yesterday’s fashionistas have become today’s recessionistas. The retail winners of tomorrow will be those businesses that can master the mundane, and become good at the boringly repetitive. Not once, not a thousand times, but in every store within their portfolio across the world.