What is Great Customer Service?

If customer service is one of the biggest selling points of an independent retailer, we have to ask, what is good customer service?

For us the answer is simply this - going beyond the customer’s expectations. It’s an approach we’ve tried to fulfill at the gallery and is based on the theories of Alf Dunbar, author of “Just Looking Thanks!”. Dunbar’s ideas are based on how we like to be treated as customers, and are behind the success of businesses with exemplary customer service like M&S, John Lewis and Selfridges. They have formed the basis of our customer service philosophy.

First, consider the value of the customer. If they spend a couple of pounds on a birthday card, is this their worth? Far from it. We work towards securing that customer’s return, in the hope that they becomes a champion of the shop and a lifetime customer. Think of it this way; if they buys items varying from cards to stationary, frames to original art, they might  tot up an average spend of about £30 a month. Multiply by 12 for a year’s spend and it’s £360. Times 40 for a lifetime’s loyalty and that person has spent £14,400. Put like this, we can’t afford to be grumpy when we sell that card!

At the heart of the issue is the sales person. Only we have the power to impress our customers. After all, it’s often their experience in the shop, not the purchase, that people talk most about afterwards. There are dozens of things we can do to create a positive atmosphere in the gallery, from playing toe-tapping music to remembering personal details about the locals - a simple “is your wife feeling better?” goes a very long way. As Alf Dunbar puts it “Good customer service is the cheapest and most effective form of advertising”.

At a minimum, we aim to say hello, smile and make eye contact (in that order!) with every customer who crosses the threshold, but where appropriate we try to give a little of ourselves too. Recently a couple came in, squabbling good-naturedly before enquiring about a painting, we chatted away to them about all sorts of things. The couple went away, made some measurements, then telephoned to order the artwork. At the end of that call, they thanked us for our openness and warmth the previous day. People don’t forget how you made them feel.

Fortunately the art world seems to be a place that attracts genuinely nice customers, which makes the gallery a wonderful place to work!