CUSTOMER SERVICE : Pampering Harried Holiday Shoppers: Some Stores Go the Extra Mile to Satisfy
David Phillips, surrounded by a sea of clothing racks at Nordstrom in Westside Pavilion, looked relieved when one of the store’s personal shoppers politely asked whether he needed help choosing a gift.
“Yes, and I’ll go with your taste,” said the insurance company employee as Pamela Smith pulled out garment after garment for his inspection. After half an hour of shepherding the Hacienda Heights man through the women’s clothing and accessories departments, Smith--known to her Christmas customers as “Sally Brown”--had selected and gift-wrapped an ensemble that should suit Phillips’ sister, an attorney, to a T.
For the bewildered or the bombarded, in-store personal shoppers provide one relatively efficient, hassle-free way to accomplish holiday shopping, frequently at no extra charge to the customer and often at the last minute. As competition for Christmas shoppers gets fiercer, many stores find that going the extra step--or mile--gives them an appealing edge.
Consider Parisian, a Birmingham, Ala., retailer that filled a customer’s Christmas order for an expensive topcoat by buying it at full price from a competitor. Or the new Bullock’s department store at Citicorp Plaza, which entices downtown Los Angeles workers with free deliveries. Or F.A.O. Schwarz, the notable New York toy store, which nailed down a sale for a safety-minded father by installing seat belts--at no extra charge, of course--in a $4,900 miniature Porsche.
Such above-and-beyond service is rare, but when it’s there, it’s grand. This is particularly true during the holiday season, when an otherwise eager-to-spend shopper can be driven away by rude, inattentive or unknowledgeable clerks.
What stores such as Nordstrom and Parisian have known for years--that dependable service wins and keeps customers--is finding its way into the retailing mainstream. Other stores are making greater investments to train salespeople in the fine art of coddling customers.
Often, the stores have to overcome reputations for shoddy service. One Santa Monica resident told of being outraged last December while shopping at a department store for a food processor. When she asked the difference between two models, she was told: “This one’s bigger, and this one’s smaller.”
With that kind of an attitude, a store can lose a customer forever, says John Tschohl (pronounced Shoal), a Bloomington, Minn.-based consultant who advises merchants on customer service. “If a store ever wanted to have a positive image of incredibly good service, there is no better time of year than right now,” he said. “This is the time you want to make your impressions.” When it comes to offering impressive service at the holidays, F.A.O. Schwarz is difficult to beat.
At the famous flagship store’s magical new quarters on Fifth Avenue, customers may relax in two living room settings, sipping coffee as the store’s personal shoppers demonstrate toys away from the hubbub of the sales floor.
Or they may peruse a “kids’ registry”--much like a bridal registry--where children list the playthings they’d like Santa to put under the tree. A One-Minute Shop affords the busy mom or dad pre-wrapped gifts that fit under the seat of an airplane or in the overhead compartment of a train.
Finally, for parents willing to brave the crowded store with young ones in tow, clerks provide a “Shhhhhh! List.” As they wander through the store, the parent discreetly records the names of any toys that catch the child’s eye and leaves the list with one of “Santa’s helpers,” who will select and wrap the gifts and have them delivered.
Such multifaceted service “absolutely has added incremental business,” said Peter L. Harris, president and co-owner of the 21-store chain. A store has “to differentiate itself in some very clear ways, and one of them is, in fact, by making available to people who want it this kind of extraordinary service.”
In Pacific Palisades, the Children’s Palace toy store also prides itself on service. “We wrap, we deliver, we put up with anything and everything,” said owner Melissa Viboch. “Assembling toys for customers is No. 1. If you buy a trike or a wagon, we assemble it--no extra charge.”
Swaine Adeney, an upper-crust British import on San Francisco’s Union Square that makes riding whips and gloves for Queen Elizabeth II, will make custom luggage to fit a client’s Rolls-Royce, Jaguar or Lotus, matching the car’s upholstery at no extra charge.
“We’ve got a chap who bought the latest Lotus, and we’re making luggage for the car,” said Robert Adeney, owner and seventh-generation descendant of the founder. “We measure the trunk and fit the luggage to it. And we buy the leather from the same tannery.”
For the small Lotus trunk, only two pieces will be required at a total cost of $1,500 or so. For a Jaguar, however, luggage would run about $3,500 to $4,000. In either case, the embossed initialing is done “at no extra charge.”
Makes Custom Umbrellas
The company also makes custom umbrellas, tailoring them to the height--and width--of the individual. Just ask Princess Di, Fergie, Prince Charles and the rest of the Royal Family, all of whom have Swaine Adeney brollies.
For us commoners, less lofty services might be the ticket. The new Bullock’s, in Seventh Market Place at 7th and Figueroa, stayed open an extra hour one night recently, serving champagne and explaining to each shopper the store’s services. “Some people who bought gifts last night were able to leave them with us, and we delivered them boxed to their offices today,” said Kathryn McConville, the store manager.
Although the store provides free delivery to nearby offices year-round, it is making a special push to make customers aware of the service this Christmas, its first. Other downtown stores, including the Broadway, are following suit with free deliveries.
Overnight delivery is the forte of Flying Flowers, a small company based on the English Channel island of Jersey, off the coast of France, with a U.S. office in Florida. Rather than use a florist, customers may phone the company’s toll-free number to request overnight delivery of fresh carnations and roses by Federal Express.
“We’ll do about 25% of our business at Christmas--on the 23rd and 24th,” said Vice President Tim Dunningham. Can a procrastinator salvage a last-minute Christmas order? “We prefer for planning purposes to have Christmas orders in November, but we’ll be taking orders up till 5 o’clock on the 23rd for delivery the next morning,” Dunningham said.
At Parisian, the Alabama-based chain that found the topcoat at a Dallas competitor and has a reputation for customer service similar to Nordstrom’s, early shoppers are rewarded with free mailings to anywhere in the country during November. Afterward, the gift-wrapping is still free, and customers may munch cookies and watch TV as they wait for their numbers to be called.
Plenty of Help
“We also just make sure we have plenty of help in the stores so that people can get through Christmas without the ‘bah, humbug’ aggravations of shopping,” said Donald E. Hess, president. “We give good, old-fashioned services that people have a right to expect.”
Alcott & Andrews, a New York-based chain selling upscale career women’s apparel, keeps careful records of its customers’ purchases.
That way, come Christmas, when husbands and boyfriends descend on the store, the sales associate can help select a garment that will meld with the recipient’s wardrobe.
“We do an enormous amount of business in December with men,” said Michael Jeffries, president and co-founder of the company, which opened a shop in Crystal Court at South Coast Plaza in time for the holidays.
At some point during the first three weeks of December, each store has a men-only night, with open bar and hors d’oeuvres. The timing of the event varies by city, Jeffries said, but “in New York it’s certainly after the Wall Street people are given their bonus checks.” In a more offbeat example of service, Crossroads Mall in Boulder, Colo., sponsored a singles night Dec. 11 built around “Red Ball Specials” at participating merchants, many of whom gave discounts to singles.
Such groups as Parents Without Partners, the Swinging Senior Singles from nearby Lafayette, Colo., and even a Jewish singles group chartered buses to the mall to participate in the event, dubbed Santa’s Late Night Singles Sale.
“We distributed 3,600 name badges with a red ball pin” to signify singles, said Jo Boyster, a spokeswoman for the mall. People congregated in the food court then fanned out to the stores, boosting sales at one jewelry merchant by 300% over the same day last year.
If elbowing a path through a crowded mall is decidedly unappealing, there are alternatives--in-store personal shoppers and outside gift services. Laurie Moser, the wardrobe consultant for Bullock’s Westwood, constantly combs the store to find gifts for her clients.
Does the Whole Job
“I’ll arrange for home delivery, do personal gift-wrapping, take care of Christmas lists over the phone--anything it takes to make their shopping easier,” she said. “One client said she needed to do her Christmas shopping, but she was also going on a cruise. So I went to her home, organized her closet, and started from scratch getting her a new wardrobe. Then I did her gifts.”
Who are her clients? “The executive who doesn’t have time to shop, to the teen-ager who’s not quite sure of what to get mom and dad or his aunt. I also get calls from people at rest homes in the area.”
Most people, Moser said, call first with some idea of what they want. She then pulls the merchandise for them to see, by appointment, and goes through the store with them if necessary to find more items.
Panicked phone calls from distraught shoppers are inevitable a few days before Christmas. “I’ve worked at department stores a long time, and it never fails,” she said. “I always get last-minute calls from people who weren’t aware that the holidays have crept up on them and don’t know where to start. So I get the rundown on who they’re shopping for, and if they don’t have any ideas, then we start from scratch.”
At Saks Fifth Avenue in Beverly Hills, customers can take advantage of the Fifth Avenue Club, the store’s personal shopping service, by walking into the store or phoning ahead.
“I’ve done Christmas lists up to 17 pages, both for corporations and for individuals,” said Natasha Bachurin, the club’s director. “Very often business people will want a beautiful desk ornament--like a little sculpture, box or paperweight. We try not to do things like 10 boxes of candy or 10 boxes of soap if it’s for a group of people at an office. We try to have the gift reflect the donor.”
Deluxe Gift Package
For the customer who wants to dazzle his beloved with more than a few pretty trinkets on Christmas Day, “we can make arrangements to have the 12 days of Christmas covered,” she added. “We’ll have 12 different gifts delivered by a courier, depending on the person’s budget.” To be sure, while such shopper services may appear to cost little or nothing up front, in some cases the customer undoubtedly pays a somewhat higher price for merchandise as a result of the retailer’s investment in personnel.
In the last year, many merchants--primarily department stores--appear to have “rediscovered” customer service. In some stores, salespeople have been put on commission on the assumption that they would be inclined to better serve customers and thus boost their own incomes.
To get themselves noticed, smaller merchants must win word-of-mouth support by going out of their way to serve. Lynne Deutch Ltd., a Melrose Place boutique that specializes in finding gifts for corporate clients, recently got an emergency call from the Nissan Dealers Assn.
At the last minute, another company had been unable to fill the group’s order for 75 silver picture frames. Could Deutch supply them by the next day? No problem. They were wrapped and delivered in time for a holiday luncheon for the dealers’ wives. Usually, said owner Deutch, clients specify a $50 limit on gifts, but she recalled one $2,500 extravaganza for a show-business company--a home entertainment set with crystal decanter, tray, champagne and wine glasses and bar accessories.
This year, Merv Griffin Enterprises also hired her to choose gifts for hosts Pat Sajak and Vanna White of “Wheel of Fortune.” Deutch declined to disclose what they are--or even whether they cost a fortune. Diane Weiss, founder of a gift-shopping service called Present Company, makes it easy for potential clients to figure out her line of work from her license plate: ISHOP4U.
Leave Driving to Her
After establishing herself in Dallas, Weiss came to Los Angeles about a year ago, figuring that “with all the traffic and driving, it most certainly would save time, effort and money to find unique gifts by my being out in the traffic for them.”
She first sits down with clients, figures out what they want and how much they can spend, then goes on the prowl. Once an item is found, she and her staff choose an appropriate wrapping. An 18-karat gold leopard pin with emerald eyes, for example, was packaged in a pith helmet “with jungle-type green moss.”
Weiss offers various levels of service, with the premium category being “specialty shopping.”
“When you want an $80,000 Steuben bowl (with etched war figurines, as a Dallas client requested) or a leopard pin with emerald eyes or a one-of-a-kind rocking chair or a telephone booth from England,” Weiss charges $35 an hour for the shopping, in addition to the item’s cost, of course. She can sometimes get it for you wholesale. She urges clients to decide on their gift needs by September, “but I have one man in Arkansas who will call me in three days and say, ‘Help!’ I’m used to this. I’m prepared.”
Times staff writer Jeannine Stein contributed to this story.
