The analysis of a significant number of data points collected by ISC-CX shows which elements play a special role in the customer experience of luxury brands. In the whitepaper, conclusions are derived from findings in five industries.
Customer experience measurement and analysis programs play a very special role with luxury brands: If the shopping experience is not outstanding, brands and revenues are quickly damaged. Christian Steinhauser, Global Client Service Director at ISC-CX, explains the mindset of luxury brand customers: “Customers have high expectations of luxury brands. Anyone who decides to spend a lot of money on a car, or item of clothing or jewelry wants to be treated exquisitely during the buying process. Often it is nuances in the customer experience that make the difference. In our latest whitepaper, we collected and analyzed 40,000 data points over the entire year in 2021 and identified six attributes that characterize luxury brands. "
Download the whitepaper here "Customer loyalty for luxury brands”.
Six key attributes that create loyalty for luxury brands
The industries that ISC-CX researchers analyzed are diverse, but they have one thing in common: customers who love luxury. The findings are in the areas of automotive, fashion, travel & leisure, home & garden, as well as watches & jewelry. It has been shown that in all five of these industries, the following six attributes are particularly important when it comes to delivering a luxury customer experience:
Atmosphere
How do customers rate their feeling when they enter a luxury store? Customers rate this element as consistently good. In fact, across all luxury industries the store atmosphere is the top-rated feature in customer experience feedback.
Greeting
Do customers feel welcome because the luxury sales associates have positive body language, greet them warmly and offer them a refreshment? Even though the greeting was not as heavily valued by luxury customers as the atmosphere, all five industries performed well in this area.
Consultation
Do the consultants build a relationship with the customer through an engaging conversation? What questions do the employees ask the customer? Here too, most luxury brands performed well, even if there was some room for improvement.
Sale
Exactly how does a sale materialize? Simply, when a luxury sales associate uses their selling skills to drive the consultation toward product purchase, the more likely it is that a sale materializes. In this attribute, the luxury automotive industry is the clear winner compared to the other industries. Luxury automotive sales associates focus the consultation on closing a sale in 95 percent of interactions with qualified prospects, whereas in the area of fashion this rate is only 51 percent.
Customer Relationship Management
Are customers consistently asked for their contact information in order to deepen the relationship through further outreach? This is an important tactic to build customer loyalty, but the companies analyzed showed mixed results: On average, luxury sales associates ask only 50% of customers for their contact information.
Follow-Up
Since many of the luxury sales associates in the companies analyzed did not obtain customer contact information, the follow-up process is often not possible. Not only that, even when customers proactively reach out to a brand, they often receive no response or an unacceptably late response. There is significant room for improvement here!
Find out the other areas in which luxury companies can improve their customers’ experience and how they can increase customer loyalty in our whitepaper.
Download the whitepaper: “How leading luxury brands create customer loyalty”!
