Language lessons in customer service

Posted By: Jo BritonJanuary 16th, 2012

I am always interested in customer relations and services as believe that personal branding reflects on the retail or service firm that the employee works for.

Through social media I saw the story of a customer in Currys asking: “hello, we’d like to buy a TV please. We know which one. Can you help us?” Currys’ employee: “Err…have you looked online? You can order it online.” Brilliant – idiot of the month award well deserved.

So I was pleasantly surprised to read that staff in Selfridges are being taught Mandarin so they can engage better with Chinese shoppers. Sale staff are being taught how to greet customers and ask if they need assistance as well as picking up on Chinese shopping habits.

Selfridges called in experts from Manchester University’s Confucius Institute after noticing an increase in the number of Chinese visitors to the store, many of who are fashion-conscious overseas students, queuing up for luxury items.

Research has shown that the booming ‘Peking Pound’ has accounted for almost a third of post-Christmas purchases of high-end goods such as Burberry, Mulberry and Gucci. The amount of Chinese customers coming through the doors is up by 62% and the average spend in a single payment is £1,000 compared to £70 spent by the average customer.

Selfridges has also started taking China Union Pay Cards – the only domestic credit card available in China.

This a creative marketing idea, using the sale staff as representatives for the store and really converting an idea into money. Well done Selfridges!

Tags: brand, Branding, Identity, marketing
Posted in Business, Creative, General

Anonymous

The Curry’s employee could have been helping if it was cheaper online? But more likely you are right Jo, and I am giving him too much credit. Did your research say how many Selfridges stores this applied to? While a great example of a brand going the extra mile it would be almost impossible to do this consistently across all stores.

I have often wished many of the major high street brands trained their staff better. In this modern world we live in, the consumers expectations are higher than ever before. And rightly so. Once you receive really good service in shop A we are right to expect that everywhere. Lets be honest good customer service does not cost more to deliver? Unless you are training staff in Mandarin.
Jayenne Montana

I wonder what percent of Selfridges’ customers are Mandarin speaking when compared to other languages spoken in the UK. If this is an exercise in creating a more personal shopping experience for the Chinese, what are they doing for the larger South Asian population?

Incidentally, Cantonese is a wider spoken language in the UK with Mandarin not even in the top 10 of foreign languages spoken in the UK as a first language.

My point is, is it better to “go the extra mile” with existing customers whom already value you OR to “go the extra mile” to encourage new customers whom are yet to use your store and to value you?

Creative solutions we like

Language lessons in customer service

Comments

Related blogs

100% British

Sykpe hits bk @ Twitter n Facebook

Criminally good packaging

Animated Origami typeface

LE-we-GO again