The Blog

  • November 18, 2011
  • Is Luxury Brand Service Failing?

    I’ve been blown away recently by how bad the luxury customer service sites are.  They just don’t get it in spades.  now, this is not the rant of a spoiled rich kid.   I bought a fine Swiss watch a few years ago when some retailers were closing and liquidating inventory, so I got a good price.  Today when I need to buy a leather strap to keep the Swiss magic running on my wrist, I am appalled that this luxury product vendor has such a backward website.

    You can go there to buy more watches — but trust me the Swiss make these things to last the century at least, so buying net new is the last thing on your mind.  But unlike the finely turned metal, the organics — i.e. leather — breakdown over time and you need to replace them.  No such luck with my vendor, Raymond Weil.

    The website is decidedly not an ecommerce — or even a customer focused — site which is weird.  While ecommerce might be seen as déclassé for making a lux purchase (I dunno, just guessing) as a customer service vehicle it makes a lot of sense.  I might get a kick out of making the initial purchase at a store but I could give less than a farthing to go through the customer experience of entering a store to buy a wrist band.

    WTF guys?  Why can’t I even find the thing on your site?  The site is way too oriented toward saying how wonderful you are.  Don’t you get it?  It’s not about you it’s about what you can do for me.

    Seeing this nonsense makes me glad I got 40 points off retail for the bloody watch.  More importantly though it tells me how much work we have left to do in customer orientation.

    Published: 12 years ago


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